by Samantha Ross

It's been called the "Greatest Story Ever Told" and we all know the details. 2000 years ago, a child called Jesus was born in a manger in Bethlehem; his mother Mary is a Virgin, and the child is the Son of God. Known as a rabbi, he travels the ancient world with his apostles, healing the sick, teaching love and transcendance, and doing miraculous deeds. Yet at 33 years of age, after hours of torture and horrible suffering, he is crucified on a hilltop outside Jerusalem at the hands of his enemies. Thus has the story of Jesus been told, discussed, debated, extolled and denied through the centuries. And now in 2004, the debate begins again with the release of "Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ", the story of the last 12 hours of Jesus life.

The Passion Behind "The Passion!"

"I wanted it to be shocking," director Mel Gibson says. "And I also wanted it to be extreme. I wanted it to push the viewer over the edge … so that they see the enormity — the enormity of that sacrifice — to see that someone could endure that and still come back with love and forgiveness, even through extreme pain and suffering and ridicule." Extreme is definitely the operative word here, since actor James Caviezel as Jesus of Nazarath actually succeeds in becoming Jesus-to the extent that his suffering and Jesus' suffering appear to be one and the same. "There's an immense amount of suffering on this," the actor says. Caviezel, a practicing Catholic who met and was blessed by Pope John Paul II, continues, "Fortunately, God is helping me. My prayer is that I don't want people to see me in the film; I only want them to see Christ."

"It's gonna be hard to take," Gibson continues, and we who have seen it agree. "When the Romans scourged you, it wasn't a nice thing. Think about the Crucifixion — there's no way to sugarcoat that." The entire spoken language of the film is in Aramaic, Latin and old Hebrew, and for months Gibson was ardent about this point, insisting there would be no subtitles. "It will lend even more authenticity and realism to it," he said. "It would somehow spoil the effect that I want to achieve; it would alienate you and you'd be very aware that you were watching a film if you saw lettering coming up on the bottom of it … and I want to present it in a way that is completely real."

There ARE subtitles-so obviously Gibson backed down on this point. Why? We don't really know. Yet this film still seems more real than you might imagine anyway. If not, why then would this viewer have to cover her eyes when Jesus hands are nailed to the cross? Or turn away while he is brutally flogged?

As an actor best known for playing action heroes ("Mad Max", "Braveheart") and romantic leads (check out Dishmag's cover story about "What Women Want" in the back issue section on the home page), it's his role as a priest in "Signs" which may ‘subliminally' prepare audiences to accept his spiritual side. "I wasn't exactly the most zealous keeper-of-the-flame, you know?" he has said. I was a pretty wild boy quite frankly. Even now when I'm trying more than I was before, I still fail every day at some level but that's being human." Gibson was raised in the Catholic Church and considers himself a traditionalist who loves the Latin Mass.