Most problematic for me in this regard were three scenes in particular: one showing Satan drifting in a floaty way among the high priests; another showing Satan floating in the same way among a crowd of screaming Jews; and a gratuitous scene showing Caiaphas gloating at Jesus and ridiculing him while he's on the cross.
I'm not so sure that I'd agree with your assessment of the first two scenes. If Satan was involved, then that, to me, would absolve the Jews in a sense. They were being deceived by the devil - maybe even possessed. They were not doing it out of their own free will.
The scene about Caiaphas makes sense to me according to the Gospels which say that people "wagged their tongues" at Jesus, mocked him etc.
Firstly I found personally offensive the depiction of Satan as androgynous; Gibson could have chosen any number of ways to depict Satan, but he chose this one.
In Catholic tradition, I believe, angels are frequently seen as being androgynous. The same would apply to fallen angels.
Herod might have been a libertine, but this depiction of him as a morally-corrupt gay man is also gratuitous.
Not not sure where people got this depiction of Herod from. I recall Jesus Christ Superstar had Herod as a ridicuously flaming gay man. On the other hand, many versions of Pilate - including JCS's - have Pilate as effeminate (of course, JCS's Pilate WAS gay irl...). I'm not sure why they'd depict Roman officials in such a way.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2004-03-07 09:40 am (UTC)I'm not so sure that I'd agree with your assessment of the first two scenes. If Satan was involved, then that, to me, would absolve the Jews in a sense. They were being deceived by the devil - maybe even possessed. They were not doing it out of their own free will.
The scene about Caiaphas makes sense to me according to the Gospels which say that people "wagged their tongues" at Jesus, mocked him etc.
Firstly I found personally offensive the depiction of Satan as androgynous; Gibson could have chosen any number of ways to depict Satan, but he chose this one.
In Catholic tradition, I believe, angels are frequently seen as being androgynous. The same would apply to fallen angels.
Herod might have been a libertine, but this depiction of him as a morally-corrupt gay man is also gratuitous.
Not not sure where people got this depiction of Herod from. I recall Jesus Christ Superstar had Herod as a ridicuously flaming gay man. On the other hand, many versions of Pilate - including JCS's - have Pilate as effeminate (of course, JCS's Pilate WAS gay irl...). I'm not sure why they'd depict Roman officials in such a way.