'Passion of Christ,' 'The Robe' on Blu-ray

Five years have passed since the theatrical release of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," one of the most successful films in boxoffice history and certainly one of the most vilified.

Gibson's gory depiction of the crucifixion and Jesus' suffering (the "passion" in ancient-speak), fired up just about everybody with a personal stake in religion.

Jewish outrage centered on the movie's black-clad cabal of high priests who demanded Jesus' torture and death. Biblical literalists complained about the artistic license taken with the four Gospels.

Then there was the ultra-violence. One film critic denounced "Passion" as a snuff film: "The Jesus Chainsaw Massacre." Indeed, the torture-porn masterpiece "Hostel" hasn't much on "The Passion of the Christ." 

The satanist lobby probably had a beef with its depiction of an androgynist dark lord.

The collective firestorm started before Gibson's film was released, fueled by people who had not seen it. Many of those knee-jerk critics probably still have not witnessed the movie. Here's hoping they do.

Perhaps in 2009 "The Passion of the Christ" can be seen more clearly -- as a highly personal film from a believer, and as a work of art.

Fox provides a great opportunity for revisionist viewing with the Blu-ray release of "The Passion of the Christ" in its "Definitive Edition." This set brings together all existing home video elements of "Passion" -- the original theatrical release, the edited version (for squeamish viewers) and the parade of extras from the DVD Definitive Edition of two years ago.

That 2007 DVD apparently cut into audio and video quality in order to make room for the generous extras. Now, offered as a double-disc set, the film unspools at its best, with gorgeous (and gory) widescreen visuals and robust DTS HD-Master Audio sound.

I was among those who never saw "Passion," having grown weary of the cacophony while handling the story as a Hollywood news editor. I approach it now as a reviewer equally enthusiastic about art films and ambitious horror movies. And as a former altar boy who long ago wandered off from Catholicism.

"Passion" rejects the largely bloodless, sanitized and commercialized approach to Christ's death accepted over the past half century or so. Gibson's movie instead offers a vision of how horribly Jesus suffered in his final 12 hours, awakening viewers to what he endured for his beliefs and his followers.

Whether you see Jesus of Nazareth as a magician, god or enlightened teacher, it's almost impossible not to be moved by Gibson's depiction of Christ's agonies and those of his mother, Mary.

Gibson's film humanizes Jesus, perhaps the root of its many problems.

I have no idea if director Gibson is an anti-Semite, but you couldn't go into court with the evidence found here. 

Movies need their villains, and so Gibson found his in the Jewish high priest Caiaphas. (True, Gibson chose not to reflect the priest's motivational ambiguity cited in one of the Gospels -- one of thousands of plot decisions.) The film is filled with Jewish characters, including Jesus and his followers. I saw nothing in "Passion" that furthered the libels of deicide thrust upon the Jewish people, at least beyond what is found in the Gospels. You might know better.

The Romans come off the worst, as indecisive administrators who allowed an obviously innocent man to go to torture and death. Most of their soldiers are shown as cartoonish sadistic pigs.

One strong reason for the artistic success of "The Passion of the Christ" remains Gibson's insistence on using two dead languages, Aramaic and Latin. (Jesus spoke Aramaic.) This allowed for an international cast without all English-speaking actors. The film's Jesus, Jim Caviezel, is American.

Gibson explained the language thusly: Having Jesus and his contemporaries speak in English makes about as much sense as having the Vikings land, speaking Japanese. 

Father William Fulco, who created the Aramaic used in the film, notes that no one really knows what the language sounded like at the time of Christ. He calls his work "plausible Aramaic."

This use of an incomprehensible language "brings us backward in time and we are flies on the wall at the Jesus event," Fulco says in the extras. Few audience members will pick up on the inflammatory line left out of the subtitles but included in the dialog. Or Jesus reponding to Pontius Pilate in Latin after the Roman dismissedly addresses him in the local Aramaic.

The extra on the film's dead languages comes as part of "The Legacy" (of Christ) section on the standard definition disc 2.

Another standout segment looks at crucifixion as practiced and perfected by the Romans. This was "the most shameful death," the docu experts say. That's because of the horrific public death while naked -- but, more importantly at the time, because the victims were not buried properly, some just left to the animals.

The ropes and nails used in crucifixions were later sold as magic amulets. Romans could not be put to death in this fashion, saving the worst for their conquered lands. The image of Christ on the cross did not gain currency until the 4th century, hundreds of years after the execution technique was outlawed and memories had faded.

"The Legacy" also brings us a look at the passion as depicted in art. Gibson and cinematographer Caleb Deschanel favored the "cinematic" works of Caravaggio and those of El Greco. "Religion and art are parallel ventures," one expert notes.

Gibson's self-financed production is addressed elsewhere on disc 2, in a collection of "Filmmaking" shorts. The footage of Caviezel's ordeal during the crucifixion scenes shows the crew trying to keep the near-naked actor warm while most people on location wore heavy jackets.  Caviezel talks of doing endless lunges (leg exercises) so he could hold himself up on the cross.

Unfortunately, all of these extras date back to 2005. A look back at the controversies and legacy of the film at the five-year point would have been most welcome. One small section in the making-of concerns the attacks on the film, not nearly enough. 

There are several commentaries, the best being a talk with Gibson, Father Fulco and a pair of theologians. They fill in a lot of blanks and point to detail in the film that most people would miss. This is no Sunday school lesson; the men have a good time delivering the commentary. Don't miss their descriptions of the crucifixion scene. Gibson, relaxed, clearly has achieved some distance from the project. The other two commentaries focus on the production.

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To appreciate Mel Gibson's achievement, check out "The Robe" from 1953, also released as a Fox Blu-ray. The Catholic director Martin Scorsese introduces the film as if it were a masterpiece -- a stretch of Biblical proportions.

No doubt the swords-and-sandals epic has a place in history as the first feature film shot released in true CinemaScope.

The new Blu-ray of "The Robe" vastly improves upon a battered version of the film released in 2001. After years of restoration efforts, the colors and clarity of the 2.55:1 images are remarkable; only a few scenes suffer from remaining damage. There is some distortion on the horizontal sides, due to the original lenses. 

The high-definition format isn't forgiving with the sets and matte paintings, their artificiality distracting at times. But for modern viewers the dated film has bigger problems than that.

Richard Burton stars (in his first major role) as the Roman tribune in charge of the soldiers who crucified Christ. He wins the rough-hewn red robe of Jesus while gambling at Calvary. The tribune finds himself suddenly "bewitched" by the garment and later joins Christ's followers. 

Burton plays the part as if he were suffering a major hangover. Burton's role had been intended at various times for Spencer Tracy, Tyrone Power and other big names, the extras say. Muscle guy Victor Mature is in over his head as a slave whom the Roman buys and tries to befriend. Jean Simmons plays a kitten. Only the movie's Caligula, Jay Robinson, brings life to the movie, largely via the (over)acting techniques that served him in theater.

"The Robe" is one of those home video releases in which the back story is more interesting than the feature film. The making-of extras do a good job of tracking the project from its beginnings as a religious novel, through its stop-and-start production at RKO, and the eventual release via Darryl Zanuck at Fox. Zanuck aset out on his own after seeing how much money long-suffering producer Frank Ross made on the project.

The movie had blacklist issues, with writer Albert Maltz's credit not appearing until recent years. "The Robe" plays as an indictment of cowering before unjust authority, such as Roman conquerors or commie witchhunters. The Nazis provided another thematic target.

Alfred Newman's score, also restored, can be isolated on a separate track. The commentary with composer David Newman and a couple of film historians dwells on Newman's acclaimed music. 

Another strong extra examines Hollywood's Bible films. In more conservative times, Biblical stories provided an good excuse for inserting sex and violence in movies, the historians say.

A picture-in-picture feature allows comparisons of the 'Scope and traditional 35mm versions of "The Robe," shot at the same time. "The CinemaScope Story" makes one of its frequent appearances. There's also an older audio interview with writer Philip Dunne.