[REVIEW] The Passion

I didn't go to see The Passion entirely of my own volition; I was at least that correct. Rather, I went to see The Passion as part of my medieval devotional literature class. I met up with five other fellow students at downtown Kingston's Indigo a half-hour before we walked down to meet up with the professor and two other students at Famous Players just down the street.

Why did I go? After all, viewing The Passion wasn't mandatory--most of the students showed up, but I could have explained my intolerance for gore and gotten off. I suppose that I went because The Passion is an important film. Margaret Wente, writing in The Globe and Mail, made some interesting points to this end, particualrly inasmuch as it will affect religious Christians as opposed to jaded agnostics and non-believers such as myself. I've written myself about the potential of The Passion to start off a round of global culture wars. (I'd also like to mention in passing how it's cool how The Passion might start off a revival of Aramaic, just because.)

( First of all, is it anti-Semitic? )

( What about the theology? )

( Finally, how good a film was it? )

The Passion is inherently a dangerous film, given the centrality of the events it depicts to the Christian tradition and the potential for damage had the fears of so many about Gibson's intentions been realized. As things stand, fortunately, what film audiences have is a moderately gory and workmanlike depiction of the last hours of the central figure in the Christian religious tradition. If you're a practising Christian, I'd encourage you to see it. Even if you aren't, though, it won't hurt you to watch, whether now in the theatres or later on DVD. I can say that I'm happy that I saw it, and not only because it dispelled my fears.

[NON BLOG] Minutiae

The weekend was fairly miserable. The drugs are kicking in, I guess, but a side-effect seems to be that they act as an appetite suppressant. So, when I and three other dormmates went out to dinner at East Side Mario's last night, I had to bring my chicken tetrazzini back with me. The same for supper tonight, although Sodexho cafeteria food isn't exactly the most attractive thing to eat.

london_calling would remember the "Literature in/and the World" course that we and ten other people took in the second semester of the 2002-2003 academic year, intended to prepare us poor English majors for the terrors of the job market. The penultimate assignment for that course was the assembly of a work portfolio. I brought the book and its associated software with me; in fact, three friends in the B.Ed program have used it as a guide to assembling their own portfolios. I just took a look at my portfolio. My God, I need to upgrade it badly. I should be able to, I think.

One more thing, via the Slovenian blog The Glory of Carniola. That blog links to a gruesome version of Tetris hosted on the website of the Slovenian paper Mladina. The first time I played I was able to dispose of 209 fascists. (Hey, there's worse Tetris variants out there.)