Re-Viewing The Passion: Mel Gibson's Film and Its Critics [Paperback]

S. Brent Plate (Editor)

Book Description

Release date: October 7, 2004 | ISBN-10: 1403968004 | ISBN-13: 978-1403968005 | Edition: First Edition

Record-setting ticket sales. Heated controversy. Sold-out viewings for church groups. And feuding critics. Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ has grossed over $500,000,000 in the US alone, and it is still going strong. In Re-Viewing the Passion, experts from diverse backgrounds explore the film, its success and its controversy. Exploring The Passion through lenses such as film, history, feminism, art and literature, and incorporating viewpoints from Catholicism, Judaism and Protestantism, this is a must-have guide for discussion groups, film buffs, and anyone interested in the issues surrounding the film. The Passion has provoked millions to ask questions of their faith, the faith of others, and the movie itself, and this book is the tool that can help them find the answers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This collection of essays begins well, with three lucid and sobering chapters on the state of Christian-Jewish relations in the wake of The Passion of the Christ. But as the book wears on it demonstrates most of the pitfalls of academic punditry, from foggy jargon to half-baked scholarship. An essay on Gibson's artistic precursors grandly if vaguely promises, "The answer to the question 'Why Caravaggio?' will have multivalent and multiple references from aesthetics, culture, gender, and theology," just before ending three paragraphs later. What could have been a fascinating statistical survey of viewers' responses to the filmis rendered insignificant by the fact that it was administered online to what the authors admit was a nonrandom "convenience sample. "A prominent Catholic critic of the film gives a tendentious survey of her conservative opponents in the media while barely acknowledging, let alone weighing, the impact of moderate and critical responses. And a few writers make unsupported claims that verge on the ridiculous. Evangelical reviewers may possibly warn Christian parents that violent films "can drive their children to crime"—but the author who makes that claim only quotes reviews suggesting that movie violence may lead to a general increase in crime, a far less surprising or specific finding. The light this book sheds on The Passion is scattered at best.
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About the Author

S. Brent Plate is an assistant professor in the department of religion at Texas Christian University. He is the author/editor of several books including Religion, Art, and Visual Culture (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002) and is the managing editor of Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; First Edition edition (October 7, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1403968004
• ISBN-13: 978-1403968005
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.6 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,470,584 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am interested in how people engage their religious worlds through sights and sounds, tastes and smells. My research suggests that religion is primarily based in the body, the body that thinks AND feels. Abstract theological doctrines and the reading of texts are always secondary religious processes to how the body senses.