By Andrew Winter
1. Made in 2004, “The Passion of the Christ” is a full-length film depicting Jesus’ torment and death on the Cross on Good Friday. It was directed by a Catholic, Mel Gibson, and starred a Catholic, Jim Caviezel, as Jesus.
2. Jim Caviezel was 33 years old when Gibson asked him to take on the role of the God-Man. Caviezel at this time was a faithful Catholic. Gibson’s own Catholicism is to this day a controversial topic, but he made “The Passion” is response to the deep emptiness he felt at the excesses of Hollywood life.
3. “The Passion” received a great deal of pushback, both before its release and after. All of Gibson’s Hollywood friends told him not to shoot it, but he never doubted his mission. Following the film’s debut, Gibson was maligned as an anti-Semite. Gibson knew, however, that he was staying true to the Gospels, and said that the violence in the film shows the viewer the “enormity of that sacrifice” of Christ.
4. Maia Morgenstern played Christ’s Mother Mary in the film. A Romanian Jewish actress, Morgenstern discounted the rumors of anti-Semitism and gore-mongering surrounding “The Passion,” saying that the film was, “Pure art.” Incidentally, “Morgenstern” means “Morning Star,” one of the famous titles of Mary, who precedes Christ, the “Sun of justice.” (Malachi 3:20, NAB)
5. Jesuit Father William Fulco translated Gibson’s script into Aramaic, Hebrew, and Latin, and then made English subtitles. In the film, the Jews speak Aramaic, the Jewish leaders and priests speak Hebrew, and the Romans speak Latin. Father Fulco intentionally inserted grammatical errors into many of the lines to demonstrate the language barrier between the Jews and their Roman occupiers in first century Judaea. When Pilate interviews Jesus in the praetorium, however, he begins speaking in Aramaic, but Jesus answers in Latin, meeting the governor on his own terms.
6. Luca Lionello played the role of Judas, the betrayer of Jesus. Though he was a professed atheist when he took the role, Lionello had converted to Catholicism by the end of the production.
7. During filming, Caviezel was struck by lightning twice, dislocated his shoulder carrying the 150-pound cross, and got hypothermia from hanging on a cross on a windy hilltop in 25-degree weather. He had to wear makeup that made his eye appear swollen, and the lack of depth perception in that eye gave him horrible migraines. The actors playing the Roman guards accidentally scourged him twice, leaving a 14-inch scar on his back. Because his makeup for the scourging scene took 10 hours to apply, Caviezel sometimes had to sleep in full makeup rather than reapply it every day.
8. Gibson’s first source of inspiration for the film was of course the Gospels, but he also relied heavily on “The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ,” based on the visions of Anne Catherine Emerich. This source gives many details not contained in the Gospels, such as the names of the two crucified thieves, Dismas and Gesmas.
9. Gibson is set to release a sequel to “The Passion,” “The Resurrection of the Christ,” in 2027. It will most likely come out in two parts, one in March and one in May of 2027.
