Exhaustingly Gibsoneon as it is (in that Hollywood way), the film helped humanize, or at least make properly newsworthy for me the torture and execution of 'Jesus' (Jeshua? Jehova? Yeshiva??) in a way all those passionate paintings Hadn't.
(Such paintings, especially the Italian ones, are so much more about the artist, the skill, the belabored moment of everyone's frozen drama, than the subject. Film is of course a far more fluid medium with vastly more motion, imagery, scale & realism, as far as graphics goes these days).
That film reenactment of the militaristic, insane, bloodthirsty, Mediterranean Italian blackshirt gangster empire (I don't care how many nice mosaics their slaves made!) and the direct cruelty which seems to so easily illicit from some (especially Mediterraneans) unspeakable tortures and excruciating slow deaths, and who have no scruples carrying out the most horrific orders Right now I'm not blaming those Nordic barbarians one bit for blowing the Romans and their lead-toxic brain-disordered Nero-esquire horrors into the 'dark ages' for the next thousand years!! (And perhaps architecture benefited in the end, for a time they stopped building everything outa roman concrete and rubble, and went back to carving and fitting stones, making incredible cathedrals and timber arches– which makes one wonder since nowadays they're back at building everything outa friggin' concrete again, any relevance to the doomed romans perchance?) For Gibson, perhaps this was an allegory of good/V/evil, in a biblical sense, but not sure.
I was left feeling that this re-enacted modern depiction of this condemned peaceful man, this spiritual visionary leader, who certainly believed (it does seem sages often come from the desert, have visions/hallucinations and such, Jeshua wasn't the only, nor likely the first), was more a human-scaled analysis of cruelty and militaristic dictatorial colonialism, then an interpretation of spirituality.
For me the message is about the torture and death of the people's spiritual leader in a time of domination and misery by invading tyrannical force (human consequences of which horrible beyond concept).
It is at least an allegory for all tyrannical torture prior and subsequent (my god, they made lampshades out of human skin, they shot Victor Jara as he sang, with 'bloody stumps' ).
War and sadism (this pleasure at the pain of another, what's that really about????), are the cutting edge of evil.
I wonder if, had He not been tortured and executed by the romans in this most traumatically unforgettable way, and had not the tragedy and grief of his followers, disciples, his Mother (plus Paul) been thus not so shocked to their cores, would his story have reached so many for so long? (and would it have indoctrinated so many with the self-righteousness to commit similar acts against similar innocents even in modern times, as have others who subscribe literally to ancient texts constructed around various other self-proclaimed prophets?).
Difficult to tell Always in motion the past is .
IMO: I think the roman torturers knew exactly what they were doing They don't get 'forgiveness' from 'father' or anyone else (nor did 'father' forgive).
Each and every torturer, orderer of torturers, and societal strong-man, whether state-sponsored or criminally controlled, who orders (or unleashes in the hearts of the sadistic willing), torture, murder and death– These are evil.
The answer, at least here on earth, is not revelation, ascension, sins or purgatory, the answer, here on earth is PROSECUTION, RESISTANCE & REVOLT against those who would subjugate, by force, a peaceful, peoples movement, that seeks only love and a way to live in love under the toughest of circumstances, while harming nobody.
All (typical?) Mediterranean earthquakes and seaside squalls the movie later proposed as perhaps attributable to this unspeakable torture and death of this person (alongside two others, can we now come to consensus about the death penalty at least???) And absent the appropriate lightening strike to smite the evil on the spot (which it never seems to do), it is up to us, the peace-loving, life-preserving good people to see to it that, at the very least, the criminals in government and society, who would commit aggressive violence against others, are to be held accountable, extricated from society, and the we go forward with our foremost solution to our foremost problem: TEACH PEACE.
~
(Such paintings, especially the Italian ones, are so much more about the artist, the skill, the belabored moment of everyone's frozen drama, than the subject. Film is of course a far more fluid medium with vastly more motion, imagery, scale & realism, as far as graphics goes these days).
That film reenactment of the militaristic, insane, bloodthirsty, Mediterranean Italian blackshirt gangster empire (I don't care how many nice mosaics their slaves made!) and the direct cruelty which seems to so easily illicit from some (especially Mediterraneans) unspeakable tortures and excruciating slow deaths, and who have no scruples carrying out the most horrific orders Right now I'm not blaming those Nordic barbarians one bit for blowing the Romans and their lead-toxic brain-disordered Nero-esquire horrors into the 'dark ages' for the next thousand years!! (And perhaps architecture benefited in the end, for a time they stopped building everything outa roman concrete and rubble, and went back to carving and fitting stones, making incredible cathedrals and timber arches– which makes one wonder since nowadays they're back at building everything outa friggin' concrete again, any relevance to the doomed romans perchance?) For Gibson, perhaps this was an allegory of good/V/evil, in a biblical sense, but not sure.
I was left feeling that this re-enacted modern depiction of this condemned peaceful man, this spiritual visionary leader, who certainly believed (it does seem sages often come from the desert, have visions/hallucinations and such, Jeshua wasn't the only, nor likely the first), was more a human-scaled analysis of cruelty and militaristic dictatorial colonialism, then an interpretation of spirituality.
For me the message is about the torture and death of the people's spiritual leader in a time of domination and misery by invading tyrannical force (human consequences of which horrible beyond concept).
It is at least an allegory for all tyrannical torture prior and subsequent (my god, they made lampshades out of human skin, they shot Victor Jara as he sang, with 'bloody stumps' ).
War and sadism (this pleasure at the pain of another, what's that really about????), are the cutting edge of evil.
I wonder if, had He not been tortured and executed by the romans in this most traumatically unforgettable way, and had not the tragedy and grief of his followers, disciples, his Mother (plus Paul) been thus not so shocked to their cores, would his story have reached so many for so long? (and would it have indoctrinated so many with the self-righteousness to commit similar acts against similar innocents even in modern times, as have others who subscribe literally to ancient texts constructed around various other self-proclaimed prophets?).
Difficult to tell Always in motion the past is .
IMO: I think the roman torturers knew exactly what they were doing They don't get 'forgiveness' from 'father' or anyone else (nor did 'father' forgive).
Each and every torturer, orderer of torturers, and societal strong-man, whether state-sponsored or criminally controlled, who orders (or unleashes in the hearts of the sadistic willing), torture, murder and death– These are evil.
The answer, at least here on earth, is not revelation, ascension, sins or purgatory, the answer, here on earth is PROSECUTION, RESISTANCE & REVOLT against those who would subjugate, by force, a peaceful, peoples movement, that seeks only love and a way to live in love under the toughest of circumstances, while harming nobody.
All (typical?) Mediterranean earthquakes and seaside squalls the movie later proposed as perhaps attributable to this unspeakable torture and death of this person (alongside two others, can we now come to consensus about the death penalty at least???) And absent the appropriate lightening strike to smite the evil on the spot (which it never seems to do), it is up to us, the peace-loving, life-preserving good people to see to it that, at the very least, the criminals in government and society, who would commit aggressive violence against others, are to be held accountable, extricated from society, and the we go forward with our foremost solution to our foremost problem: TEACH PEACE.
~
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