Monday, March 01, 2004
Reacting to Film, and other things of Passion
We went to see The Passion of the Christ today. There was plenty of hype and anticipation around the movie, and I had ignored most of it. I did not buy too much into the hype that the movie was charged with anti-Semitism. It doesn't make a difference to me whether or not the pope loved the thing. Academically I was interested that the film was scripted in Latin and Aramaic, but it was a good sign that the movie respected its subject material--more something to approve of than get excited about. And from what little I let myself read about the movie beforehand, I knew I had to silence the critics' buzz about the overwhelmingly graphic nature of the film and approach film's violence on my own terms, as well.
It is actually a hard discipline for me not to look at the critics' reportcards to see how a movie I want to see has done. It forces me to think about the movie and form my opinion beforehand, rather than go in loaded with opinions about a movie I haven't experienced. I learned the trick from one of my good friends, who is very intimate with film.
I also learned about Rotten Tomatoes from him as well, and now that I've seen the movie, I can feel free to dig into its first criticisms. I'm learning more and more about what I think about movies. About The Passion of the Christ, I think really the only thing I wanted from the movie was that it was not an artistic joke, that it could stand on its own as a film of careful and deft craft. And I think that worked out just fine.
This seems, mostly, what we should want out of any film. From what little I've read from the critics about The Passion of the Christ, craft is about the last thing on anyone's mind. This is one of those rare films that provokes a more personal response. More than most films, then, it should make reading the critics fun--I think reviews of it will have a way of revealing more about the critic than about the movie itself. And that's one thing, I've found, that it's certainly important to remember when you're looking at critics for anything--it always pays off to know a person's biases.
Comments:
Post a Comment
