The Passion of the Christ/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Artistic License Religion: Gibson made several mistakes when it comes to Jewish laws and traditions. Most notable when it showed the Seder he is eating leaven bread instead of matza. Also he makes them eat while sitting upright despite a Seder is supposed to be eaten while reclining, one of the 4 questions makes this perfectly clear.
    • There is considerable dispute among Catholic theologians as to whether the Last Supper actually started out as a Seder meal or not. It may well be that Gibson had not intended to depict a Seder at all.
      • No Jew ever gave the order to crucify Jesus—there are only four death penalties permitted according to Jewish law—beheading, strangling, burning and stoning—and crucifixion is not one of them.
      • Fridge Brilliance: But hanging the corpse on a tree until sunset is part of the death penalty. Since the Jews had no authority to execute anyone while under Roman occupation, having the Romans crucify someone they regard as a blasphemer was the next best thing to being able to carry out the penalty themselves.
  • Non Sequitur Scene: Satan and her evil old man baby, never again referenced. Just Jesus looking out, seeing Satan, and Satan has something in her arms...ahh get it away its horrible and I have no words to describe the horror. For obvious reasons, Satan's baby has already been referenced under Nightmare Fuel.
    • According to religious sources, its supposed to be a Satanic mockery of Mary and Baby Jesus.
    • Several people watching the movie identified the baby as the Anti-Christ.
  • Complete Monster: The blood-crazed Roman soldiers who are charged with "chastising" Jesus. Probably the worst Complete Monster in the film is the sour-faced little Centurion who gets mocked by his soldiers, and takes out his rage on Jesus - by making his men continue the whipping, but with scourges that have sharp metal hooks. After Jesus is flayed by this, the Centurion makes them turn him over and do the same to his belly and chest. It doesn't stop until Pilate himself interferes.
    • The Sanhedrin priesthood, but especially the high priest Caiaphas. He blackmails Pontius Pilate into crucifying Jesus, or he would have a revolt on his hands that would kill both Jesus and Pilate. Yeah, Unfortunate Implications about Jews abound.
      • You can't complain that they're not going by The Book on this one. Combined with Matthew 27:25, this was bound to occur.
    • Ultimately, Satan himself is this.
  • Crosses the Line Twice:
    • While watching this movie, it's too disturbing and depressing to notice this trope. It's darkly comical in hindsight though, just the sheer amount of violence Mel Gibson puts Jesus through.
    • He is beaten up by Jewish guards, slapped around by the Sanhedrin priests, beaten up by the people in the Temple, scourged so bad by Roman soldiers that his ribs are bared, has a crown of thorns put on his head (and pushed into his eyes), whipped through the streets while carrying a cross, beaten up and pelted with stones by Jewish mobs, and - after they dislocate his arm to fit the cross - he is finally nailed to the cross. It Crosses the Line Twice when the Roman officer orders his men to put the dying Jesus out of his misery by breaking his legs with a sledgehammer.[1]
      • Hey! That was intentional in crucifixions: break legs, and they can't push up to breathe, so they die of asphyxiation relatively quickly instead of days later.
      • Yep. Breaking the legs was considered a "kindness" to not leave them suffering for days until they died of exposure or starvation.
    • Things are taken even further as the Centurion overseeing the execution tosses a spear to one of the guards for him to pierce Jesus's side just to make sure that he is really dead, and water (from the pericardium) and blood sprays all over the guard's face as the spear pierces Jesus's ribcage. No one can say this film doesn't meet Gorn requirements.
      • It's not there for gorn. The blood and water from Christ's side is particularly symbolic in Catholic mysticism, with the blood representing the blood price for the redemption of man and the water the purifying force that negates man's sins. A lot of imagery in this film will only make sense with a solid understanding of Gibson's brand of Catholic mysticism. This one is a common Catholic image.
    • Pay attention to the amount of blood Jesus loses, too. The human body has about 8 liters of blood in it, total. He loses at least twice this amount before he's even hauled off for crucifixion.
      • Fridge Brilliance: He's God. Catholicism is also borderline obsessed with Christ's blood. That there is a lot of it makes it more significant.
    • Take a count of how often Jesus collapses and gets back up again. If you make a drinking game out of it, you might find yourself talking to Him directly about it.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Mary. While this is especially true for Catholics, Maia Morgenstern's performance has been credited with increasing Evangelical devotion to Mary.
  • Iron Woobie: The Ur Example.
  • Misblamed: The Anti-Semitic claims in particular and certain historical variances. Whatever Gibson's personal views this film is largely no better/no worse then the work its based on. It enjoyed broad support from Church leaders across denominations precisely because it was felt to be a faithful adaptation, and most support includes the note that they did not feel it promoted anti-Semitism, nor did they think it should have.
  • Nightmare Fuel: The entire film is this, but Satan and the demon children are especially disturbing.
  • No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: Part of why the film was a hit in the first place.
    • Gibson was accused of doing this on purpose.
  • Older Than They Think: Some Biblical scholars think that the Gospels of Luke and John in particular try to (partially) absolve the Romans of responsibility for the Crucifixion so that Christians would not be considered enemies of the Roman Empire.
  • Ruined FOREVER: This combined with a drunk driving anti-Semitic rant caused more than a few fans to give up on Mel Gibson.
  • Unfortunate Implications: There were a lot of complaints over how the film depicted Jewish people, making them all look like evil caricatures. And there were other people who complained about how the film glorified the death of Jesus and made that the important part of The Bible, instead of focusing on Jesus' message and/or resurrection.
    • Kind of unavoidable when The Bible has the crowds of Jerusalem city calling for Jesus to die. The overwhelming majority of Biblical scholars (well the Chistian ones) would tell you its not the Jewish peoples finest hour, which is something of the point. Followed by that it is completely missing the point to take this as justification for just about anything.
    • This may be pointing out the obvious, but wasn't Jesus himself Jewish? Also, there's a brief scene where one of the roman soldiers drags a Jewish man to help carry the cross. He seems particularly mean with him and there's something about his tone when he calls him "Jew" that indicates he's not very fond of them. Considering the things these soldiers do throughout the movie, it's safe to say, if the movie is supposed to be antisemitic, it isn't doing a very good job.
    • King Herod is, for some reason, depicted as a Camp Gay Depraved Homosexual.
    • This may be just nitpicking but did it really look glorifying? It looked like it was trying to do the opposite and deconstruct the traditional portrayal of Jesus' death. Also, the title IS The Passion of the Christ: it was precisely about that most tragic and horrifying (if still heroic) climax of the life of Jesus of Nazareth.
  • What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?: See the description on the main page.
  1. ↑ Though, of course, the Bible says that when the soldiers saw that Jesus was already dead, they didn't break his legs.
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