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February 24, 2004
Ebert on "The Passion"
We linked to his full review over on the Link Factory, but here's a great excerpt that perfectly sums up a lot of Catholics' prior experience with the Passion of Christ. He's talking about the Stations of the Cross ritual that many Catholics attend weekly during Lent:
For we altar boys, this was not necessarily a deep spiritual experience. Christ suffered, Christ died, Christ rose again, we were redeemed, and let's hope we can get home in time to watch the Illinois basketball game on TV.Substitute the hometown team of your choice, and I think he's pretty much nailed it.
The rest of Ebert's review is less light-hearted (he says it's the most violent movie he's ever seen), but for a really extraordinary review, check out Kenneth Turan's piece in the LA Times today. It's a bit idealistic, but offers a terrific analysis of the film and the controversy it's generated. Both reviewers seem interested in what a hypothetical, absolutely unbiased viewer would think of the film, but realize that such a viewer does not, apparently, exist.
