The Passion Of The Christ: Definitive Edition 2-Disc DVD Set Review

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Title: The Passion Of The Christ: Definitive Edition

Region: One

Genre: Biblical Drama

Stars: James Caviezel, Mia Morgenstern, Monica Bellucci, Mattia Sbragia, Hristo Naomov Shopov, Claudia Gerini, and Luca Lionello

Writers: Mel Gibson and Benedict Fitzgerald

Adapted From A Composite Of The Biblical Gospels According To Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John

Director: Mel Gibson

Feature length: 126 minutes

Extras: Recut Version Of The Film, Enhanced Viewing Mode Featuring Biblical Footnotes, Filmmaker Commentary With Director Mel Gibson, Cinematographer Caleb Deschanel And Editor John Wright, Production Commentary Featuring Stephen McEveety, Ted Rae, And Keith Vanderlaan, Theologian Commentary With Director Mel Gibson, Father William J. Fulco, Gerry Matatics, And Father John Bartunek, Music Commentary On Select Scenes With John Debney, By His Wounds We Are Healed: Making Of The Passion Of The Christ, Featurettes, Galleries, Deleted Scenes, Trailers, and TV Spots, Commentary For The Visually Impaired

Languages: Aramaic/Latin/Hebrew Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Subtitles: English Closed Captions and English and Spanish Language Subtitles

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Year of Theatrical Release: 2004/DVD Release: 2007

Theatrical Distributor: Icon Productions Through New Market Films

Home Video Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

Running Time: 126 Minutes

MPAA Rating: R

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

It has been three years since Mel Gibson’s The Passion Of The Christ premiered theatrically and on DVD and since that time the film was re-released theatrically in a less gory version for those who objected or who may have shied away from the film because of intense imagery that had garnered the film a lot of advanced controversy among other things. Unfortunately Mel Gibson’s public persona last year hasn’t helped alleviate the cries that the film is anti-Semitic. I can see exactly why those claims are justified because in particular the Pharisees theatrics do paint an ugly picture no only of the Judeans of antiquity, but as a whole, the view of humanity in this film is extremely dark. However if The Passion Of The Christ paints an image of the worst in all of humanity down to our most base human fears of being harmed, abandoned, and killed, I think Gibson’s approach in the entire film is to make the viewer constantly be made the empathize with the suffering of Jesus of Nazareth so that people regardless of whether they are Christian or not can get a sense of catharsis from the film’s brief, but never the less uplifting ending of the Reselection of Jesus and the fulfillment of a new covenant between humanity and God.

No one will ever make a religious movie without a certain amount of controversy. If you make a film that shows only the beautiful miracles, someone is going to feel that the complete story has not been shown and if you go into this explicit manner that Gibson has chosen, obviously there are always going to be people who are not happy. I have seen people on television criticize Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List for portraying a member of the Nazi party that cares about the welfare of the Jewish workers that he shielded within his factory, which in the film literally becomes a haven that saved over a thousand lives during the Holocaust. Now granted we are talking about innocent people condemned to a work camp and perhaps the sentimentality of Steven Spielberg might have created an image of Schindler that was too angelic, however if the film was corrector my memory of the film is correct, I believe Schindler found innocent of being a war criminal in Israel and is buried there after his death. So pretty much my point is, anytime a film touches upon the sensitive areas of religion and politics there is always going to be controversy. There was controversy when Martin Scorsese released The Last Temptation Of Christ in the 1980s by angry Christian groups, but I will tell you all now that I did not have any problem with The Last Temptation Of Christ and while I reserve judgment on Mel Gibson, I still feel that The Passion Of The Christ is ultimately about faith and unconditional love to the point where not only does a man allow himself to be executed in one of the most horrific forms of capital punishment to ever exist, but that up until the last minutes of the film after Jesus dies, he was praying for everyone practically but himself.

I was raised in the Roman Catholic faith, but like many people brought up in any religion, as I have grown older, my beliefs have become more agnostic than anything else. Yet it is hard sometimes to shake at the roots of the faith one is raised in because it becomes so imprinted upon the psyche. I do not agree with everything the Roman Catholic Church preaches and I do not believe that any one faith is better than another so long as it is benevolent in nature. I believe if Jesus existed then he was a Jew and therefore Christianity owes its roots to Judaism. The Romans are portrayed as being brutal masochistic animals at times and yet I don’t think people from the Mediterranean are more culpable or less culpable than anyone else. The idea of taking on the sins of a world and experiencing what possibly no one had ever experienced before is an act of passion though I know some say it is madness and many couldn’t walk the steps of Jesus, myself included, because it is not easy. That is why the image of Satan is ever present to taunt Jesus because anytime a “chosen one” appears on the scene, whether it is in religion, mythology, stories, and so forth, you can bet that there will be tragedy involved in the fulfillment of the prophecy that usually accompanies the appearance of a “chosen one” in any sort of archetypal storytelling in general. I guess an interesting question might be if a “chosen one” appears, but no one has foreseen it and no one knows it than is the “chosen one” truly chosen? Sort of like if a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, does it make a sound? There are compelling arguments on both sides of that famous question.

Jesus was born to die and this is made more than clear when Pilate demands to Jesus “Don’t you realize that I have the power to release you or crucify you? And Jesus replies “You would have no power over me at all unless it were given to you from above. So the one who brought me to you has the greater sin.” When Jesus is carrying the cross he is praying for everyone else but himself with only a few moments where he himself appears to be in despair as if he had some doubts, which of course is human and Jesus does represent a physical manifestation of the divine in human form. That is why the character that is supposed to represent Satan in the story states something akin to “No man has ever done what you are trying to do here” in effect trying to taunt and inflict doubt upon him because in a sense the sacrifice of Jesus is like one man taking on all the sins or bad karma for humanity and thus saving the spirit by reuniting it with the oneness that is God. So in order for the viewer to experience the spiritual catharsis The Passion Of The Christ elicits one has to view the ugly side of humanity as portrayed in this film for only by going through this can we appreciate the miracle of the resurrection and carry in our hearts the feeling of true unconditional love from one man to all of society regardless if you take it literally or not.

While I first viewed original release of the film on DVD I began to cry at the scene where Jesus’ mother Mary come to Jesus as he falls with the great weight of the cross upon his back and Gibson intercuts this with a flashback of Mary running to console Jesus as a boy the way any mother would do if they saw their son or daughter slips and falls to the ground. It just touched my heart and at the risk of sounding cliché it felt good to release those tears and emotions. Gibson as a filmmaker has his point of view and regardless of whether or not you agree with him or think he is just playing with the viewer’s emotions like keys on a piano, I have to state that every film tries to reach the audience on some deep level regardless of whether or not it is intentional or simply a coincidence. Gibson is an adept filmmaker that truly believes in what he is presenting and I admire that greatly

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment’s Definitive Edition of The Passion Of The Christ is presented in an anamorphic widescreen (2.40:1) aspect ratio that beautifully brings the epic quality of the film home on widescreen televisions. The image quality itself was very impressive with a richly detailed pattern of blues and earth color shades throughout most of the motion picture. An Aramaic/Latin/Hebrew English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack has been encoded onto the DVD, but the DTS soundtrack as been dropped in order to make room for the variety of commentary features on the first disc that includes a filmmaker’s commentary with Director Mel Gibson, Cinematographer Caleb Deschanel and Editor John Wright, a Production Commentary featuring Stephen McEveety, Ted Rae, and Keith Vanderlaan, a Theologian Commentary with Director Mel Gibson, Father William J. Fulco, Gerry Matatics, and Father John Bartunek, and a Music Commentary on select scenes with John Debney, There’s also a text commentary that can be enabled or disabled while watching the film with any of the audio commentary tracks running by pressing the Subtitle button on your remote control. There is so much to take in on the first disc that it is impossible to adequately describe every element in the film, but Gibson wisely keeps his own comments to a minimum. If find it ironic that he can talk about this film and has made a terrific living as an actor even before becoming an Oscar® Award winning Director and yet he doesn’t seem to be able to articulate himself as well when he’s not being filmed or taped. The theological commentary was interesting, but make no mistake, Gibson and the others speaking on this track are true believers that take the words of The New Testament as if they were exact historical documents for lack of a better expression. I found that aspect a little discomforting because my point of view is more agnostic and I do not believe any one religion has the monopoly on God and God’s love. I think they all reflect a basic truth, but that is not to say that Gibson and company are fanatics. They are not, but their views are more conservative than my own, which is okay. If we start censoring people for this sort of thing then we lose a bit of our own freedom.

English Closed Captions for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired are encoded onto the DVD as options along with English and Spanish Language Subtitles and there is also a Commentary for the Visually Impaired encoded onto the DVD as an option. One can disable the subtitles completely and still understand what is going on in the film, which in itself is quite an achievement.

The second DVD contains an exhaustive amount of extra value features under the headlines Filmmaking, The Legacy, and Galleries. Under Filmmaking there is a feature length documentary on the making of the film entitled By His Wounds We Are Healed: Making Of The Passion Of The Christ (1:40:16) that is divided into twenty chapters that can be viewed as separate featurettes or one can see the documentary through to the end as it appears to have been attended via the “Play All” feature. This documentary is supported by shorter featurettes and a videotaped panel discussion related to the film (13:50) as well. Under the heading The Legacy there are featurettes that cover the various artistic interpretations through paintings and so forth through out the centuries (11:57), Paths Of The Journey (9:24), the ancient languages spoken at that time (12:45) and a rather detailed featurette on the history of Crucifixion, which was used as a form of capital punishment for a thousand years until the fourth century when after the Roman Empire converted to Christianity and the punishment was outlawed (17:27). There are also two letterboxed deleted scenes that I think may include the one Gibson cut out due to controversy regarding one of the exclamations a member of the crowd makes in front of Pilate. The scenes run at (2:08) and (2:26) collectively.

Within the Galleries section are still photographs of costume design, storyboards, historical text quotes from the sources used for the script of the film, art images, actor information, black and white unit photography and both the G rated (1:52) and R rated (1:45) trailers presented in anamorphic widescreen and two TV spots that run at approximately 33 seconds each. Except where noted all of the extra value materials tends to be presented in a (1.33:1) aspect ratio. The menu set up for scene selections follows the stations of the cross and all of the main menus feature animated transitions to standard interactive still frame menus or whatnot that are easy to navigate. There is a gatefold within the DVD keep case with additional information related to the film as well as chapter stop details. There are no advertisements about other Fox films on the discs, which I am glad if only because it preserves the integrity of the set as a whole.

Like it or not, The Passion Of The Christ: Definitive Edition is one of the most comprehensive feature packed DVD sets related to a film than I have seen in a long time. In other words the title “Definitive Edition” delivers exactly on what I think one would expect and maybe even more than that on DVD. If you liked the film or are interested in it, I’d recommend this version even as an upgrade from the 2004 DVD release. The Passion Of The Christ: Definitive Edition is available now on DVD-Video at retailers on and offline courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

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