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Cómo ver La Pasión de Cristo

Ricardo Crespo es Secretario Académico de la Universidad Austral (Buenos Aires, Argentina), Profesor del IAE e Investigador del CONICET. Además de colega y buen amigo, es filósofo. Y me envía un razonamiento en torno a su visión filosófica, estética, de la película "La Pasión de Cristo". A pesar de la creciente saturación que se aprecia en la red, en torno a comentarios sobre esta película, recomiendo vivamente la lectura de los sigientes párrafos. Ofrecen una perspectiva muy interesante, acerca de: Cómo ver The Passion "Vi La Pasión de Cristo, la película dirigida por Mel Gibson. Leí algunos de sus numerosos comentarios cinematográficos y di un vistazo a otros. No soy crítico de cine. Mi métier es la filosofía. Pero debido a esto último sé algo de estética. Siendo el cine el “séptimo arte” y visto todo lo anterior, me animo a esbozar una opinión sobre La Pasión y sus comentaristas. Pienso que muchos de éstos se equivocan, porque no la tratan como una obra de arte; pero vista la pasión que ponen en las críticas –sobre todo los negativos- demuestran que efectivamente es una obra de arte.

Jim Caviezel: why 'a devout Catholic actor'?

Jim Caviezel has made a very interesting point: why the press is presenting him as a 'Catholic devout actor'? Is just due to the surprise or respect because they find themselves for the first time in front of a sort of "Catholic pride"? Is maybe because they do not want to accept somebody who really lives according his faith? Is maybe because they find that the Catholic faith that Caviezel is talking about is too hard or strong as a personal commitment? Let say, not enough a "soft" or "weak", or a little bit more superficial, distant, cynical or critical approach, you know? Is or can be understood the 'devout' denomination as a politically correct way to say 'zealot' or 'fundamentalist' without mention those words? Because, in such a case, maybe the same treatment is due, for instance, to the ADL approach to their own points. Or to the fitness or the diet as a way of seriously take care of the body. Interesting point made by Jim Caviezel on the "press tainting", anyhow. Read the CNA flash: DENVER, USA, March 15 (CNA) - The actor who played Jesus in Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” says he is not worried about what the press and others say about him and his Catholic faith. In a exclusive interview with the Catholic News Agency after receiving the Imago Dei Award from the Archdiocese of Denver last week, Jim Caviezel said he is aware of the attempt of some people in the media to taint Catholic actors and turn them into religious zealots. But his only concern is to live his faith, knowing that he will have to answer to God. “Much of the time, in the press, they look for angles to taint you,” Caviezel told CNA. “For example, they continually say: ‘devout Catholic Jim Caviezel, devout Catholic Jim Caviezel, devout Catholic Jim Caviezel.’ “But let me ask you. Do they say: 'devout scientologist Tom Cruise’ … [or] ‘devout Jew Adam Sandler’? “They understand what they're doing – trying to taint you, make you a religious zealot,” he continued. “There's lots of persecution like this all the time. “I can't worry about what people think,” he told CNA. “I'll have to answer to God. I am more afraid of not doing the right thing, because I'll have to answer to Him some day.” Caviezel received the Imago Dei Award on behalf of the filmmakers and crew of “The Passion of the Christ”.

The Passion: Five Questions

Bill Park (Prof. em. Sarah Lawrence College, New York), a good friend of mine and colleague, sent to me his point on this film. A worthwhile reading, even if all of us are a little bit saturated, not because the film, not because the new social and film professional phenomenon, but because all the press "hubbub" that Bill mention. The Passion of the Christ: Five Questions 1. Why all the hubbub? In all my years of film going, I do not recall any movie that has caused such a hubbub. Gone with the Wind (1939) comes to mind, but all the hype about that movie centered on two questions: who would play Scarlet O’Hara; and can a huge best selling novel be successfully translated onto the screen? Needless to say, Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ raises more serious questions. It's curious that earlier Hollywood versions of the Gospels, King of Kings (1927 and 1961) and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), caused no such outcries. Admittedly, Gibson's treatment is more graphic and horrifying than anything done previously, but since in the chorus of detractors one hears many secular voices, one suspects the real offence is Christianity itself. In an age in which among the educated elite, tolerance and inclusion stand as the only virtues, in which Christians are regarded as bigots and Christianity oppressive, and in which what religion exists tends toward New Age spirituality, Gibson’s in your face assertion of a Christian perspective can only scandalize. Gibson is not far from St. Paul when he claimed, "We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and the Greeks foolishness." 2. Is the film anti-Semitic?