‘The Passion of the Christ’ was released in Brazil and most other countries in March 2004, but it is one of those films whose debate remains alive to this day. There were many factors that led Mel Gibson’s project to be treated as one of the most controversial in the history of cinema – from the graphic way in which the martyrdom of Jesus Christ according to the Gospel is brought to the screen to accusations of anti-Semitism due to the approach that the filmmaker plays Jewish priests and leaders in the script.
That didn’t stop ‘The Passion of the Christ’ from being a huge box office success around the world. It cost 30 million and the revenue was 20 times greater – 612 million. The true miracle of multiplying dollars.
We take advantage of the 20th anniversary of the release of the feature film that focuses on the last 12 hours of Jesus’ life before the crucifixion – with a respite only for flashbacks of some of the points that founded Christianity, such as the Sermon on the Mount – to remember some of his lots of behind the scenes stories.
Jim Caviezel’s scars
The actor chosen by Mel Gibson to play Jesus Christ was Jim Caviezel, the only North American in the main cast, in fact. The director himself even said that he would understand if the then promising young man didn’t accept the role because he would certainly be “marked” by it.
What the artist didn’t know is that it would literally be that due to the various injuries suffered on set. First, he was actually whipped, by accident, it’s worth noting, during the cross-the-cross scene twice – he ended up with a 35-centimeter scar on his back.
Later, he suffered a dislocated shoulder because the 58 kg wooden cross, used in the scene, fell on the joint (the image was kept in the final cut of ‘The Passion of the Christ’). Caviezel also says he was struck by two bolts of lightning during filming – one in the Sermon on the Mount scene and the other in the crucifixion scene. He would have escaped unharmed, even with his “hair on fire”, in his own words.
However, the heaviest (and most dangerous) challenge was in the scene with the actor suspended on the cross – it was winter in Italy, where the set was located, with temperatures of up to minus 4 degrees. Caviezel needed to be treated for hypothermia and had pneumonia as a result.
Initial project had no soundtrack
When he started pre-production, Mel Gibson had a fixed idea: not to use a soundtrack in the scenes. The objective was to make the public pay attention to the ambient sound and the bold choice of using 2,000-year-old languages from the Middle East region in the dialogues, Aramaic and a Roman dialect.
However, the director was convinced that the soundtrack would give the scenes a greater dramatic weight and gave in. A wise decision as the song provided one of the film’s three Oscar nominations – in addition to Best Soundtrack, it also made the Academy’s shortlist for Best Makeup and Best Cinematography.
Some of the cast and crew converted after filming
Immersion in ‘The Passion of the Christ’ had an impact on the personal lives and religious faith of members of the cast and crew. The most notorious case is that of actor Luca Lionello, who played Judas Iscariot, the apostle who betrays Jesus. He was an atheist until production and became Catholic.
The same would have happened to one of the extras who plays one of the Roman guards who flog Christ – he would have been Muslim before his participation in the film.
Scene of Jesus and Mary, inspiration from The Pietà
One of the most impactful scenes in ‘The Passion of the Christ’ happens when Jesus is placed in the arms of Mary, his mother.
And Mel Gibson’s visual reference couldn’t be more accurate: the director admitted that he thought specifically of Michelangelo’s Renaissance masterpiece, the marble sculpture The Pietà, which is in St. Peter’s Basilica, in the Vatican.
Actress who played Maria was pregnant during filming
According to Gibson, Romanian actress Maia Morgetern – who plays Mary, mother of Jesus in ‘The Passion of the Christ’ – was pregnant during filming. And she would only have told this to Jim Caviezel, who curiously enough was only six years younger than her (a clear case of miscasting, the kind that usually happens a lot in Hollywood).
During a break, the artist would have come close to the protagonist and said in broken English, full of an Eastern European accent: “I have a baby in my belly”.
Mel Gibson swears miracles happened on set
The filmmaker gave several interviews talking about supposed miracles that had happened to people involved in ‘The Passion of the Christ’. Gibson says that some of them would have been “classic”, with people cured of illnesses or who began to hear and see again.
And he also reported a specific case of a 5-year-old girl, daughter of a member of the film crew, who suffered from 50 epileptic seizures a day. She would not have had any seizures for more than a month after the film and the evolution of her condition would have been much smoother from then on.
Jim Caviezel’s physical transformation to play Jesus
One of the most common criticisms about ‘The Passion of the Christ’ is the characterization of Jesus – with so much attachment to historical fidelity, Gibson cast a white actor to play the protagonist. But the director still forced the star to undergo an intense physical transformation, with a prosthetic nose; His eyes were also changed from blue to brown using contact lenses and special effects (they shine with greater or lesser intensity depending on the scene).
The makeup work for the scenes in which Jesus suffers martyrdom, then, was true torture. It took 10 hours to complete. Many times, Caviezel slept at night with her makeup on so she wouldn’t have to go through the entire process the next day.
Mass every day
Mel Gibson arranged for a friend of his, Father Stephen Somerville, to celebrate a mass every day for the film crew before production began. Religiously, at 7:30 in the morning and in Latin. Jim Caviezel attended many of them.
Shortly after the film, the religious man became involved in controversy and was suspended for celebrating masses in Toronto, where his diocese was located, for a dissident group from the Catholic Church.
Slow motion language
Cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, one of Hollywood’s most prestigious professionals in the field, with films such as ‘The Elect: Where the Future Begins’, ‘Never Stop Remembering’, ‘Far Over the Garden’, among many others on his CV, and six-time Oscar nominee (including for ‘The Passion of the Christ), revealed that he used an important resource to give dramatic weight to the film’s scenes.
For most of the feature film, he used the camera at a speed faster than the conventional 24 frames per second. This causes a feeling of “slow motion” for the viewer.
New fake blood invented just for the film
The scenes with the greatest impact – and which were also the subject of great controversy – are those that show Jesus’ countless wounds on the way to the cross. Many critics compared ‘The Passion of the Christ’ to a gore horror film in the style of ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’.
Well, the fake blood itself, of which liters were poured during filming, had to be developed especially for the production and ended up setting a new standard for the substance in Hollywood from then on. It was composed of red dyes suspended in glycerin, fatty gum and a stabilizing base.
This meant that the scarlet color did not become opaque amidst the rest of Caviezel’s heavy makeup. Then, more problems for the actor, due to the removal done with alcohol. He himself said that, even so, his skin had a sweet smell for many, many days.
Studio refusals and name change
Being a prophet of what happened, especially in Hollywood, is easy. Today, it seems that the executives were hit by a collective bout of stupidity when they closed the door on Mel Gibson to produce ‘Passion of the Christ’. However, at that time, it was clear to everyone that this was a delicate – and risky – project.
Fox, Columbia, MGM, Paramount, Universal Disney and Warner, all seven major studios in the film industry, refused to finance the production. Later, after Gibson managed to make his project viable independently and getting a feel for the box office, there were partnerships with some of these same players for distribution around the world.
Another setback faced by the director was due to the title of the film. Initially, it was just supposed to be called ‘The Passion’. However, in October 2003, it was reported in the press that Miramax was planning a feature film with exactly this title (which never got off the ground). This made Mel Gibson rename his film ‘The Passion of the Christ’.
And the rest is history. Two decades of it already.
Check out the trailer for ‘The Passion of the Christ’ (2004).
Tags: Passion Christ years behindthescenes secrets Mel Gibsons controversial film Films
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