The Passion of the Christ has already outgunned blockbusters such as Titanic and Harry Potter in South Africa. But while some religious leaders welcome the movie, others call it cheap and sensationalist.
More than 40 000 South Africans will have seen Mel Gibson’s controversial depiction of Christ before the movie’s official release in this country on Friday March 26. This makes its pre-release bookings the most successful ever in South Africa, Driki van Zyl, Nu Metro’s marketing director, told the Mail & Guardian this week.
Nu Metro, which is distributing the film locally, has Titanic aspirations for the film. The distributor is releasing 40 prints across the country, the same number it released for the highest grossing film of all time.
Some Christian leaders believe that the movie is the moral regeneration that South Africa has been waiting for, and have been crowding to buy tickets for their congregations.
”The reaction from churches in South Africa has been tremendous,” Van Zyl said. ”They have booked out whole cinemas and have done lots of block reservations.”
Pastor Ray McCauley, founder of the 20 000-strong Rhema Church in Randburg, said overseas churches are reporting an increase in their numbers owing to the movie and he expects to see the same in South Africa.
But not all church leaders are enthusiastic about the film. Bishop Ivan Abrahams, president of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, said he was ”gobsmacked” by the hype certain churches in South Africa have created about the movie. ”This is a cheap portrayal of our Saviour and borders on heresy.”
The bishop said the violence in the movie left him empty. ”I cannot draw any distinction between this film and any other X-rated movie. It is the same violence and bloodshed.”
The Archbishop of Johannesburg, Buti Tlhagale, said the violence goes on and on and becomes unrealistic. ”Any normal person would have collapsed under those beatings. The film reminds me of Saving Private Ryan. It uses excessive violence to shock people into believing.”
McCauley said the violence is justified. ”You have to see what Jesus went through for us.” He said its historical accuracy helps Christians understand what happened on that fateful day.
The pastor said he was blown away by the silence after the film had ended — ”the only disturbance being the sound of weeping patrons”. He had to counsel teenagers who had been moved by the movie in such a big way that they could not sleep at night.
Pastor James Monaghan from the City Life Church sat through two screenings and agrees that patrons might be desensitised to the violence once the crucifixion arrives, because of the extended flogging scene.
”But unfortunately we have become desensitised to violence long before this film arrived due to the other mindless violence on our screens.”
The violence is functional, said Stefan Joubert, founder of the Dutch Reformed Church’s E-church. ”It is heavy at times, but for once we Protestants have to deal with a harsher outlook on the crucifixion and not the romanticised version that has been dished up in the past.”
The movie has angered Jewish leaders for its supposed anti-Semitic message. The portrayal of Caiaphas, the high priest who pushes for Jesus’s crucifixion, might ignite feelings of hatred towards Jews, some say.
Abrahams said he thought the film encouraged anti-Semitic sentiments. ”And it is ill-timed. We live in a post-modern era where we have to build bridges of tolerance. What message does a film like this send out?”
Rabbi Charles Wallach of Temple Emanuel says The Passion of the Christ may not actively promote anti-Semitism, but it does not help with human relations. ”Here we are all trying to get along and this film comes and stirs up all the old issues again.”
In one scene Judas is haunted by children turning into demons, while a devil waits at every turn to gloat over Jesus’s suffering. Monaghan said images such as the demons that haunt Judas could be interpreted as ”Hollywoodising” the gospel.
But, he said, if you have worked with people who have opened themselves up to demons, you get an idea of what Judas let himself in for. ”Gibson gave his interpretation of Judas’s fall and tried to give us a glimpse of his mentality. He took liberties, but I believe those liberties are justified.”
Tlhagale said the movie could have been a great evangelical tool. ”But in the end you leave … without understanding what Christianity is all about.”