The Passion of the Christ

The Analysis of the Ideology in the

Film “The Passion of the Christ”

By:

Endy Mulio

1115060002

ENGLISH LANGUAGE & CULTURE DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE & HUMANITIES

BUNDA MULIA UNIVERSITY

JAKARTA

2009

The Passion of the Christ

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I. Characters

*The following characters are the one who involve and are

considered important in the flow of the story.

*The director, Mel Gibson, pictures each character’s trait in this film

similar with theirs in the Bible.

*Background of the characters is taken from the Bible. It holds true to

their background in the film.

A. Protagonist

1. Jesus Christ

Character

Jesus is portrayed as wise and has leadership appearance to

His disciples. He is also calm under pressure. Never pushes back for

He know He is right. Also, Jesus has absolute faith to God.

Background

He is the central figure of Christian. He sacrificed Himself in

crucifix in order to atone for the sins of man.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem by holy Virgin Mary. Due to the

shortage of accommodation, Mary chose the manger to give birth to

Jesus.

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His mission in life was to spread God’s Word and give service

to other. Ultimately, He sacrificed Himself to atone for our sins.

Role

The film revolves around Jesus’ life when He was near at His

crucifixion.

In the film, Jesus was accused for blasphemy by head priests.

Then, he was brought to Pontius Pilate. The Roman then sentenced

Him into crucifixion. While the crucifixion was not enough, Jesus must

pass the whip trial first. After that, He was forced to bear His cross to

the Golgotha. There, His hands were nailed, and He was crucified to

His death. The last scene was the shot of Jesus resurrects from His

tomb with both hands are hollow.

2. Peter

Character

Peter actually the loyal disciple of Jesus. However, at that time

when he was asked, his fear dominated him that resulted to his denial

of Jesus. Also, he is short-tempered as he cut off one ear of the man

who wants to arrest Jesus.

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Background

Peter was one of Jesus’ disciples. At time Jesus pre-

announced that he will be seized in the near time, He reminded His

disciples to be wary because their faith will put into the test. Peter

readily said that he will never turn his faith against Him. However,

Jesus said that before the cock crows, he will deny Him three times. It

was true as he denied Him three times before the cock crowed.

Role

In resemblance of the Bible, the film shot the scene of the night

of Jesus’ arrest. Within that night, Peter was asked by the crowd

whether he knew Jesus or not. He denied it, and the crowd still asked

the same question to him. After denied three times, the cock crowed

and he remembered of what Jesus had said before. Then he went

outside and wept himself.

Other scene of Peter was when he cut off the ear of the man

who wanted to arrest Jesus in Gethsemane Garden.

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3. Virgin Mary

Character

Virgin Mary is the woman who was full of love to others,

especially her child. She is also a very supportive mother.

Background

Mary was pre-told by Archangel Gabriel that she was chosen to

bear the Son of God. Mary must name her child Jesus as He will

save humans from their sins.

Role

In this film, she was the one of the supporters of Jesus when

He walked His path bearing the cross to Golgotha. Mary helped

Jesus to stand back after Jesus was stumbled due to the heavy

burden of the cross. In the likely event, Mary flashbacked Jesus’

childhood as she was also the one who helped Him get up after He

fell to ground.

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4. Mary Magdalene

Character

Mary Magdalene is a good-natured woman and is also full of

love. Her character more or less resembles the character of Virgin

Mary.

Background

There are several speculations revolve around this character.

One of them is that there is no certain distinct line to say whether she

was Mary Magdalene who followed Jesus, Mary of Bethany, or the

sinful woman.

Role

In the film, Maria Magdalene was pictured as the woman who

stood beside the cross’s foot and supported Jesus along His path

bearing the cross.

Actually, after Jesus’ death, she witnessed Jesus’ resurrection

by chance when she brought myrrh to Jesus’ tomb and found that the

stone slab protecting the tomb had been removed. However, the film

had ended when Jesus rose from death with His hands were hollow.

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5. Simon of Cyrene

Character

He is a very good man and helpful to other’s suffering. He can

just run instead of helping Jesus, but he chose to help Him somehow.

Role

Simon was the one who is forced by the soldier to help Jesus

carrying the cross. He then helps Jesus throughout His path to

Golgotha.

B. Antagonist

1. Satan

Character

Satan is known as the ‘father of evil”. His intentions are to rebel

against God and makes human forget about his God. Every single act

of him always leads to calamity and evil. Working behind the scene,

he fills Caiaphas’ heart with envy and jealously, so that Caiaphas

raises his hand against Jesus.

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Background

Satan, or we should regard him as Lucifer, was once one of the

archangels in Heaven. However, one day, he turned his back against

God. God then drove out Lucifer from Heaven. Before he left Heaven,

he also brought along many angels in Heaven to his side and

became his minions.

Role

In the film, he disguised himself as a woman wearing black

robe and bring a baby. He watched sinisterly among crowd when

Jesus was whipped by the soldier.

At the end of the film, he screamed for his defeat as Jesus

resurrected from His death; thus, atoned for humans’ sins.

2. Caiaphas

Character

He is an evil man in nature. Plainly, his heart is filled with envy

by Jesus approach. Then, being fueled by anger, he decides to

accuse Jesus for false evidence.

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Background

Caiaphas was the head or chief priest of Jew. He, along with

other priests, were responsible to the arrest of Jesus. They obviously

tried to make any guilt in Jesus and in the end falsely accused Him

for blasphemy.

Role

In the film, as is in the Bible, he and the other priests

desperately wanted to find any guilts in Jesus in order to frame Jesus

and brought Him to the court. Having found no evidence in Jesus,

Caiaphas still insists to bring him to Pontius Pilate to sentence Jesus.

3. Pontius Pilate

Character

Pilate is an indecisive character. At one time he wanted to set

free Jesus, but when the crowd starts to be chaotic, he gave away

the case. However, at the last moment, he still believed that Jesus

was not guilty and offered the crowd the choice of freeing Jesus or

the criminal named Barabas. Although the crowd still pointed out to

set free Barabas.

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Background

Pontius Pilate was a Roman governor. Jesus was brought to

him because the Jewish authorities were not authorized to execute

people.

Role

Pontius Pilate appeared in the film when Jesus was brought to

him to prove Jesus’ guilt. Being confused to this matter, he sent

Jesus to Herod. However, Herod could not find any guilt either in

Jesus and sendt back Jesus to him.

In the court, Pilate tried to ask Jesus for His apology, because

Pilate had the authority to free person, but Jesus refused to take His

step back. Therefore, Pilate decided that Jesus was guilty of a capital

crime and suggested that it would be sufficient to whip him.

However, the publics declined the verdict and insisted to kill

Jesus. Even though Pilate tried to convince them not to take blood

from innocent Man, the crowd dids not want to listen to it and still go

to their intention to kill Jesus.

Pilate panicked by the uproar of the crowd and did not want to

take any risk to start the rebellion, so he punished Jesus instead by

sentencing Him to crucifixion.

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4. Herod Antipas

Character

From the way he spoke, we can judge that the character always

looked down to others as he laughed at Jesus for His silence

throughout Herod’s interrogation.

Background

Herod Antipas was the ruler of Galilee and Perea. He led to the

executions of John the Baptist and Jesus, both from the accounts of

these events in the Bible New Testament.

Role

Herod was the man who is referred by Pilate about how to

persecute Jesus. However, upon the interrogation, Jesus remained

silent and Herod then sent back Jesus to Pilate for not found any guilt

in Him.

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C. Protagonist Turns to Antagonist

1. Judas

Character

Judas is a pain in the neck for Jesus and other apostles.

Instead of protecting Jesus, he blindly seized his own Teacher to the

enemy. He had no gratification for Jesus and evil mind that permitted

everything for his own sake. Nowadays, Christians picture him as a

symbol of betrayal.

Background

Judas was one of Jesus’ Disciples, but in the end, he was

blinded by the gold which was bribed to him by head priest. He

agreed to betray Jesus and made plan to seize Jesus at Gethsemane

Garden.

Role

At the Gethsemane Garden, while Jesus prayed and spoke to

His disciples, Judas came. Along with him was a group of people with

swords and clubs. Then, he walked toward Jesus and kissed Jesus

as a signal to identify Him to be arrested.

After the arrest of Jesus, Judas heavily felt guilty that he

returned back the bribe to head priest, then hanged himself to death.

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II. Plot Summary

Intro

The film’s plot is started at Gethsemane Garden. Based on Bible,

Jesus prayed there after the Last Supper. Meanwhile, Judas has

made the plan to seize Him there. While Jesus speaks to His

disciples, Judas comes with people bringing swords and clubs. Then

He is arrested by them and is brought to Jerusalem.

Escalation

In Jerusalem, the head priests of Pharisees falsely accused Him for

blasphemy. Jesus remained silent throughout the interrogation and

made no attempts to defend Himself. At last, they could not hold their

anger and wanted to take their action upon Him. However, they did

not have any authorities to punish people, so they bring Jesus to

Roman Empire in order to transfer the case.

There, Pilate listened to the Pharisees about their accusation to

Jesus. Being confused and realized that his decision will make him to

be involved in political conflict, Pilate decided to send Jesus to higher

authority, King Herod. However, King Herod himself could not find

Jesus’ guilt and sent back Jesus to Pontius Pilate to take the matter

on himself.

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Then, Jesus was interrogated thoroughly by Pontius Pilate. On the

other hand, Jesus remained silent when He was asked and offered

the freedom by Pontius Pilate.

“I have the authority to punish and set free people,” said Pilate.

However, Jesus replied that Pilate do not have it, God Himself that

gives Him that authority.

Pilate had tried to persuade the crowd not to kill Jesus, and offered a

whip punishment to Jesus. The crowd disagreed and started to make

chaos. Having found no way to save Jesus, and in the same time, he

wanted to lessen the chaos caused by the crowd; he chose to first

gave Jesus whip punishment.

Pilate still made an attempt to save Jesus by giving the crowd choice

of whom they will set free. The choice was between Jesus and the

criminal named Barabas. The Pharesees provoked the crowd to

choose Barabas instead of Jesus.

Climax

Thus, after He was sentenced, Jesus brutally tortured by whip until

the blood spilt all over the arena. As if normal whip was not enough,

the soldier used the spiked whip to torture Jesus more. When it was

over, the soldiers wore Him purple robe and crowned Him with the

crown-of-thorns.

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After all the punishment, Jesus was once again brought to Pilate.

Pilate tried to persuade the crowd that Jesus had been punished

enough, yet the crowd still wanted to kill Jesus. Thus, Pilate washed

his hands as a symbol that he would not be involved in Jesus’

punishment. All decisions on Jesus were responsible to the crowd.

With weakened body, Jesus must bear the cross through Jerusalem,

all the way up to Golgotha. One of the people in crowd, Simon of

Cyrene was ordered to help Jesus to bear His cross.

Anti-climax

At Golgotha, there was more physical torture for Jesus as both His

hands are nailed to the cross. On the cross, there were 2 criminals on

left and right side of Him. One criminal insulted Jesus while the other

repented himself. To the one who repented himself, Jesus assured

that he would go to heaven with Him. The other criminal met tragic

fate as his eye was pecked by a crow.

On the cross, Jesus felt thirsty. One of the people came with sponge.

He then sopped the sponge into sour wine, then inserted into the

stick to let Jesus drank.

Jesus then died on His cross. One of the soldiers pierced His

stomach with spear to make sure about His death.

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Soon after His death, earthquake struck and the sky ripped off.

Everyone was scared and began to believe that Jesus is truly Son of

God.

Denouement

Jesus was soon buried. However, on the third date, Jesus defeated

death and rose from His tomb. In the end, Lucifer screamed in agony

for he had been defeated by Jesus’ resurrection.

Whipped and weakened, Jesus was presented with the cross and

was ordered to carry it through the streets of Jerusalem, all the way

up to Golgotha. There, more corporal cruelty took place as Jesus was

nailed to the cross--suffering, he hanged there, left to die. Initially, in

his dazed suffering, Jesus was alarmed that he had been abandoned

by God his father. He then beseeched God. At the moment of his

death, nature itself over-turns.

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III. Ideology

A. The Film

"This is a movie about love, hope, faith, and forgiveness. He [Jesus]

died for all mankind, suffered for all of us. It's time to get back to that

basic message. The world has gone nuts. We could all use a little

more love, faith, hope, and forgiveness." – Mel Gibson

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Passion_of_the_Christ)

ithout any doubt, this film focuses on the meaning of

Jesus’ sacrifice to atone for humans’ sins. It gives the

theme of love, faith, hope, and forgiveness. However,

there are also some implicit ideologies that are inserted throughout

the storyline.

WOne of the ideologies of this film is sadism. It may not his first

intention when he makes this film beforehand. However, Gibson

wants the viewers to feel the pain undertook by Jesus in His

crucifixion. In order to emphasize that, Gibson explicitly depicts

Jesus’ agony in His crucifixion, and sheds Jesus’ blood in most part

of the film. The most striking one is when Jesus is whipped by the

soldier. Even His flesh was torn over by the spike of the rod.

The other ideology is martyrdom. The ideology that shows one must

be tortured in order to keep his faith. The film emphasizes Jesus’

affliction in the crucifixion because of His faith to His Father. The

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disciples of Jesus, except Judas, also shows sign their sign of

martyrdom towards Jesus.

Moreover, this film more or less provokes public by an anti-Semitic

(anti-Jew) debate. Whether this film despises the Jew or not is the hot

debate by the release of this film. While Mel Gibson tries to alter any

scenes that considered an anti-Semitic, some critical viewers always

points out that this film is an anti-Semitic film. One point is the

extreme blood shed in the scene when Jesus is whipped. Plus, there

are some Jews who involve in the Jesus’ crucifixion.

However, the anti-Semitic issue is eliminated by some facts, there

are:

1. Pilate’s wife, is Jewish characters who does the most to try to ease

the sufferings of Jesus,

2. Simon of Cyrene, the man who helps Jesus, is also a Jew,

3. it is Roman soldiers who tortured Jesus,

4. the involvement of the Jewish Pharisees in the plot to have Jesus

killed is

a biblical fact. It is not made up by Gibson, and

5. the film itself teaches about love and forgiveness, so it is

impossible if

it also fuels the anti-Semitic issue.

Finally, this film is pro-Christian and pro-Catholic. The film shows

us the suffering of Jesus when He sacrificed Himself to atone for our

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sins. Jesus’ sacrifice in the crucifix had atoned for humans’ sins; and

it becomes the basis for the Christian doctrine.

B. The Characters

1. Jesus

Jesus’ ideology is to show love to others and spread the Word

of Truth. His faith to His Father is absolute for He is willing to be

tortured on the crucifix.

2. Twelve apostles (except Judas)

Based on Biblical facts, their main ideology is to love others and

spread the Word of God. Also, they (12 apostles) continuously

followed Jesus wherever He spread His teachings. Their faith to

Jesus is unquestionable, although Judas betrayed Him in the end.

In the film, their ideology is their faith to Jesus and the

togetherness that was shared between them. However, Judas had

distinct ideology apart from them, Judas only cared for himself; and it

was proven by his betrayal on Jesus.

2. Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene

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Both of them resemble to love. When Jesus suffers, both of

them always readily helped Him to relieve and supported Jesus. They

also had faith in Jesus, especially Virgin Mary who is His mother.

3. Pontius Pilate and Herod Antipas

Based on their authority, they have the same ideology to put

public’s interest over individual interest. Therefore, Pontius Plate

decided to sentence Jesus because the crowd insisted to kill Jesus.

Furthermore, they tended to ignore whether the person is guilty

or not. The matter is whether it has effect or not to himself. As a

result, they (especially Pontius Pilate) blindly followed on what public

thinks.

4. Caiaphas

Caiaphas’ ideology is hatred; and he wanted to eliminate all

opponents in his path. Being envied to Jesus, he then falsely

accusesd Him to blasphemy.

5. Satan / Lucifer

Similar on Biblical facts, he is evil. His only ideology is to rebel

God and mislead humans from God’s Word.

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