The Passion of The Christ

This is a pointless and unsatisfying offering

Mel Gibson's latest offering is brutal, bloody, intense and relentless. It is also overwhelmingly pointless.

Because The Passion of the Christ is devoted entirely to Jesus' last 12 hours, only in flashback scenes does the audience see other parts of his life, glimpses of his childhood, snatches of his gentle, uplifting teaching, time spent with his friends.

As a result what one gets is 120 minutes filled to the brim with graphic violence and pain, as Christ is first tortured and then crucified. Often it feels as though the violence is there for the sake of violence, which may well be Gibson's point. It is also the film's problem.

Given the controversy surrounding the build-up to The Passion and given Gibson's religious background, it is all but impossible to watch the film outside of that context. Gibson has made clear that he has a message to deliver. The message delivered by this vehicle is that man is savage, weak and barbaric while Christ is pure and loving and the only hope for man's redemption.

That, of course, is part of the message of Christianity, but Gibson's lust for violence means there is room for little else. Whatever there is in the film of forgiveness and hope is drowned out by the gore. The scene of Christ's left hand being nailed to the cross, for instance, is almost pornographic in its excess while the soundtrack seems more suited to a horror movie, which this may well be. Other parts of the film carry more than a passing resemblance to the torture scenes featuring Gibson himself in Braveheart . (One can think of several other of Gibson's films in which he is subjected to torture.)

The film is unsatisfying. There is little or no tension: we all know what is going to happen. And for all of Gibson's intentions it is surprisingly unspiritual. He may have wished his audience to come away feeling uplifted or moved. In reality they are likely to feel little more than nausea.