Pen-Elayne on the Web

Passionate Discourse

At Corrente, the farmer takes a look at Mel Gibson's Ash-hole Wednesday, using more amusing descriptions of That Film than you can shake a torture device at (terming it a "furious blood squirting spaghetti western passion play" and a "holy roller snuff flick" among other things), and asks,

So, if the case can be made that pretty much no-one this side of a medieval leech gnawed bloodletting has ever been under the impression that being hoisted upon a crucifix was a day at the beach, then what in God's name was the point of making a movie that surrealistically depicts, and aggravates, in apparently exacting autopyslike cinematic detail, the intricate physical agonies of being slowly and unmercifully flayed and strung up in such a manner?

As if in response, PinkDreamPoppies' Fundamentalist obsession with the Crucifixion (part two of his exploration "Why are some people obsessed with the Crucifixion?") delves into the whys and wherefores of this crucifixation and makes a fine companion piece.

Update: And Jesse puts it very well in a comment to his essay Nail Nail Nail for Justice: "If you need to see Jesus bleed, a lot, in order to understand the magnitude of his sacrifice (which wasn't in the pain, but instead in the resurrection), then this films raises a lot more questions for me about how you view Christianity than it's going to answer for a lot of believers."