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CNN Live Today

'Passion' Premieres

Aired February 25, 2004 - 10:33   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Many are singing "The Passion's" praises. Is David Sterritt among them? He is the film critic of "The Christian Science Monitor."
David, good morning. Thanks for being with us.

DAVID STERRITT, "CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR": Good to be here.

KAGAN: What did you think of the movie?

STERRITT: Well, it's a good movie. It's very well made. Mel Gibson is a pretty good movie director. Jim Caviezel gives a terrific performance. The cinematography is beautiful.

But you know, it's almost more like a horror movie and a religious movie. It really is about two hours of almost nonstop blood and gore. And there's been so much talk about that leading up to the movie for weeks, and even months now, that everybody's kind of prepared for that. But it's not just that there's so much violence, but that there's also so much suffering, and that it goes on for so long. We've seen this in the movies before, but rarely so relentlessly?

KAGAN: We keep hearing about what's in it, but I hear one criticism about what's not in it. There's not a lot about spirituality of Jesus, about his working miracles, about what made him what many people believe that he is.

STERRITT: Yes, in fairness to Gibson, the movie really is pretty much about the last hours of Jesus' life. But you're absolutely right about that. We have occasional flashbacks to Jesus' early life, and we hear him say something wise and compassionate. But they're very, very brief, they're very, very quick. I mean, you really get very, very little idea of what Jesus' message actually was. And then, it seems to me that the whole point of the crucifixion is so that Jesus could then rise from the dead, the resurrection, which is what Easter is all about, and triumph over death. That gets one minute at the end of this movie. So you have got about 120 minutes of suffering, and horror and torture, and then you've got about a minute of love and forgiveness.

KAGAN: And what about the charges of anti-Semitism, David?

STERRITT: Well, I don't think the movie contains anything I would call anti-Semitic propaganda. And of course Gibson has disavowed any kind of intentions like that. But it certainly leaves the door open for anybody who comes in already contaminated with the germs of anti-Semitism. This movie is certainly going to feed those germs. And I suspect the movie will have possibly a worse impact in certain places outside the United States, where anti-Semitism is a really a serious, urgent acute problem right now.

KAGAN: And finally, as a movie, you said it's a pretty good movie. And we heard in J.J.'s piece right before we brought you on, that religious movies don't tend to do huge box office. What do you think the legacy and the box office of this movie will be ultimately?

STERRITT: Well, it's legacy, it's a different kind of religious movie, that's for sure. Never has there been a film that dealt with the suffering end of things so relentlessly, at such length, and in such gory detail. In terms of the box office, of course, as it's been pointed out just before I came on, people have been buying up tickets in advance, blocks of tickets. So of course, it's going to make a lot of money right away. But I really don't think this movie is going to have what the Hollywood people call legs. I think it's going to sell a lot of tickets in the short run, and then it's going to end up on the video store shelves, where people who like this sort of thing, who find this a religious experience can buy it and continue to watch it. Pretty much everybody else is going to say, he once was enough, and probably not even once.

KAGAN: Yes, our guest who we had at the top of the hour, he is going for the third time. So depending on the moviegoer, I guess. David, thanks. David Sterritt, from "Christian Science Monitor," thanks for being with us.

STERRITT: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired February 25, 2004 - 10:33   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Many are singing "The Passion's" praises. Is David Sterritt among them? He is the film critic of "The Christian Science Monitor."
David, good morning. Thanks for being with us.

DAVID STERRITT, "CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR": Good to be here.

KAGAN: What did you think of the movie?

STERRITT: Well, it's a good movie. It's very well made. Mel Gibson is a pretty good movie director. Jim Caviezel gives a terrific performance. The cinematography is beautiful.

But you know, it's almost more like a horror movie and a religious movie. It really is about two hours of almost nonstop blood and gore. And there's been so much talk about that leading up to the movie for weeks, and even months now, that everybody's kind of prepared for that. But it's not just that there's so much violence, but that there's also so much suffering, and that it goes on for so long. We've seen this in the movies before, but rarely so relentlessly?

KAGAN: We keep hearing about what's in it, but I hear one criticism about what's not in it. There's not a lot about spirituality of Jesus, about his working miracles, about what made him what many people believe that he is.

STERRITT: Yes, in fairness to Gibson, the movie really is pretty much about the last hours of Jesus' life. But you're absolutely right about that. We have occasional flashbacks to Jesus' early life, and we hear him say something wise and compassionate. But they're very, very brief, they're very, very quick. I mean, you really get very, very little idea of what Jesus' message actually was. And then, it seems to me that the whole point of the crucifixion is so that Jesus could then rise from the dead, the resurrection, which is what Easter is all about, and triumph over death. That gets one minute at the end of this movie. So you have got about 120 minutes of suffering, and horror and torture, and then you've got about a minute of love and forgiveness.

KAGAN: And what about the charges of anti-Semitism, David?

STERRITT: Well, I don't think the movie contains anything I would call anti-Semitic propaganda. And of course Gibson has disavowed any kind of intentions like that. But it certainly leaves the door open for anybody who comes in already contaminated with the germs of anti-Semitism. This movie is certainly going to feed those germs. And I suspect the movie will have possibly a worse impact in certain places outside the United States, where anti-Semitism is a really a serious, urgent acute problem right now.

KAGAN: And finally, as a movie, you said it's a pretty good movie. And we heard in J.J.'s piece right before we brought you on, that religious movies don't tend to do huge box office. What do you think the legacy and the box office of this movie will be ultimately?

STERRITT: Well, it's legacy, it's a different kind of religious movie, that's for sure. Never has there been a film that dealt with the suffering end of things so relentlessly, at such length, and in such gory detail. In terms of the box office, of course, as it's been pointed out just before I came on, people have been buying up tickets in advance, blocks of tickets. So of course, it's going to make a lot of money right away. But I really don't think this movie is going to have what the Hollywood people call legs. I think it's going to sell a lot of tickets in the short run, and then it's going to end up on the video store shelves, where people who like this sort of thing, who find this a religious experience can buy it and continue to watch it. Pretty much everybody else is going to say, he once was enough, and probably not even once.

KAGAN: Yes, our guest who we had at the top of the hour, he is going for the third time. So depending on the moviegoer, I guess. David, thanks. David Sterritt, from "Christian Science Monitor," thanks for being with us.

STERRITT: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com