My favorite Jesus film

      Few movies have had a greater impact on me than The Passion of The Christ.  If one just looks at the film’s production value, its cinematography, storyline and acting stand out like no other film.  From a spiritual perspective, seeing Jesus’ strength, love and Oneness with God as portrayed by Jim Caviezel touches me at the level of my soul.  When Jesus was on the cross, He responded by saying ‘Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.’  This type of internal strength and unconditional forgiveness is inspiring and something I aspire towards…

       There was a lot of controversy surrounding this movie.  The excessive violence does distract from Jesus’ message of unconditional love at times and these scenes are not appropriate for kids.  However, the makers of the film did make and release an edited version of The Passion that cuts out much of the graphic violence.   According to David Hawkins, the edited version calibrates at 395.   

       It’s also interesting to look at The Passion from a business and industry perspective.  Hollywood studios would not go near the film.  The maker, Mel Gibson said, “This is a film about something nobody wants to touch, shot in 2 dead languages.  In Los Angeles, they think I’m insane, and maybe I am.”  Gibson could not get backing from any Hollywood studio. So, he spent $30 million dollars to produce the film and $15 million in marketing.  It brought in $370,782,930 domestically and $611,782,930 worldwide making it 12th in all-time domestic earnings and the highest grossing R-rated film of all time. 

        For an industry that prides itself on making movies because they believe the movie will make them a lot of money at the box office, Hollywood dropped the ball on The Passion.  This really is indicative of a bigger problem throughout Hollywood in that there are spiritual films that are capable of making a lot of money and attracting a large audience, but studio executives and agents do not want these films made simply because those executives, producers and agents (in contrast to the public at large) do not like watching or making movies that support spirituality — not just because they think the film is incapable of making money.