PaulPrins.net

Review of the Movie

It?s been a month since we started the planning for the Passion Outreach with Campus Crusade at Stout and now we are gathering on opening day, thirty minutes before we start distributing the tickets and the line is already forming. After reviewing the plan for the night I glance back into the hall, overwhelmed by the line which extends out the door fifteen minutes before we even start to hand out tickets.

5:00 PM?
We start handing out tickets, the line keeps getting longer and the tickets go fast. We hand out 540 tickets in nineteen minutes. With over three hundred people still in line. Attempting to get another showing that night after the 7:00 and 9:35 we hand out ticket vouchers and ask that they come back at 6:30 when we?ll know if the midnight showing is going to happen.

6:30 PM?
Find out there won?t be a midnight showing, however there will be another showing tomorrow at 9:35. They let everyone know and then I?m already at the theater getting things set up and rolling, we arrived after a short jaunt back to my room for my microphone. People start to file into the theater, everyone in a good mood, ready to enjoy a free movie.

7:03 PM?
The music cues up, the projector clicks on and people settle in? the movie starts.

9:15 PM?
The quelled mixture of emotional states is obvious as the people leaving the theater encounter those ready to see the film. Subdued versus excited, withdrawn versus enthralled.

9:35 PM?
Second show starts?

9:45 PM?
People from the Evangelism Team and other Ushers for the event head over to Caribou to grab a cup of coffee and to pass the time until the conclusion of the second show. Spending the time talking about the movie and life.

11:50 PM?
The second show ends, we?ve already sorted out the comment cards from the first show and we clean up the theater and sort out the cards for the second show.

1:00 AM?
We?ve finished up the sorting, have everything packed up and arrive at Perkins. Finally put our order in a half hour later.

2:00 AM?
The fast that the E-Team was on is broken as our food arrives. It was one of the most excellent omelets I?ve ever tasted, along with a muffin and cinnamon roll. Though erin takes the trophy eating a quesada as well as the sampler platter. She?s a girl on the outside but wow can she eat? Probably because God designed her with only one lung? Good times, Good times

3:00 AM?
Finally get back to school and hang out talking to eric for a while at South Hall before making the rest of the trip back to my floor. Was nice to see some people still up that I could talk to for a few minutes.

4:15 AM?
I go to bed? Good times, Good times…

What?s left?
There was another showing the next night at 9:35 which went just as well as the first two, again packed meaning that there is 290 people at each showing, so the out reach got to nearly 900 students on a campus of only about eight thousand. The bible study leaders are going to do follow up this weekend and we have two discussion group times set up in each dorm for next week, one on Tuesday and Wednesday. It was a true blessing to see this unfold the way it has.

This was a visually stunning masterpiece. The depiction was very accurate to the biblical description of the events. There was very little artistic verse taken although at times it would have been much easier on Gibson and the rest of the cast.

The shear amount of gore and blood, in my opinion, was still understated but very powerful and impacting. Watching the flesh torn from his side by the workings of the cat of nine tails helps one to understand the brutality that He went through. The film evoked such feelings and emotions. Leaving you feeling so helpless to stop it from happening because it is on the screen echoes the reality that we are truly helpless to stop it from happening. He went through all of that because of my sins and shortfalls. That ever step of the way he carried the cross was out of love, how he was able to keep almost completely silent throughout his flogging and crucifixion, unlike any man would have been able to.

To see Him hanging on the cross, blood running over his body and down the wood finally puts it into perspective. The true atrocities that we all deserve for what we think about, the way we look at people, actions we take and even things we don?t think of as sin. That because of God?s grace we don?t have to endure that, that we are able to join Him for all of eternity in the holiest of all places. All we have to do is open the door and let Him into our life, that the choice to follow and accept, or reject all that has been give, is left to us.

If you are feeling remotely interested in this film go and check it out. Even from a non-Christian standpoint it is still a very well done film. Utilizing very solid and well placed cinematographic techniques. The flashbacks are excellently done, the entire film flows very well and keeps a very consistent balance of emotion that coincides with the building and climax of the story.

Just my few cents and God bless.
~paul

ps. I cried four or five times, so don?t feel bad if you do as well.