Behind The Passion and The Black Nazarene

The following is a paraphrase of excerpt from an exclusive interview of Mel Gibson, director-producer of The Passion of the Christ, by Raymond Arroyo over EWTN:

My sole aim was to strive for truth and reality. The movie is about love, faith, forgiveness and repentance. As for the charge of anti-Semetism, all mankind is responsible for Christ’s passion and death on the cross. I am the first to plead culpability.

I fully resented the attempt of some Biblical scholars, one of them a Catholic theologian, to censor an episode in the movie wanting me to re-write some twenty-six pages of the script. They absolutely had no right to ask me to do that.

As for the critics who tried to stop my filming of the movie, how dare they do that! I am not a Russian Communist or a Chinese Communist. I am an American and the Constitution guarantees my right as a human being to film the movie.

The movie is based on the four gospels of the Bible. As for the details, I was greatly influenced by a book. (I missed the name of the book and its author – RLO.) The location was Alerta, Italy. We had gone to so many places before we decided on it. I felt sick during 12 of the 18 weeks I was directing the movie.

I was overwhelmed by the beauty and acting talent of Maia Morgenstern who plays Mary, the mother of Christ. She asked if she could speak a few more lines in the movie, and her request was granted. The actress, half-Jewish and half Rumanian, does not regard the movie anti-Semetic at all.

I was likewise totally impressed with Anita Bartolucci who portrays Veronica. She is a stunning beauty and when we tried to make her look ugly and dirty for the part, our efforts were to no avail. Incidentally, she was expecting a baby during the filming.

Speaking of coincidences, Arroyo pointed out that the Virgin Mary is alluded to in the Bible as the "morning star". The name Morgenstern means morning star. Jim Caviezel, who assumes the role of Christ, bears the same initials as Jesus Christ, and was 33 when The Passion was being filmed. He told Arroyo that he went through great physical pain during the filming. He had already a bad left shoulder and when a soldier momentarily removed the cross from it, the shoulder got "separated". Filming was such a punishment that his right eye remained closed for the way of the cross.

Were there any miracles or conversions on the set? During the scourging of Christ at the pillar, one soldier fell away and started weeping, unable to continue.

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The Australian Embassy invites the public to Black Nazarene. The film, directed by Robert Nery, and produced by Gabrielle Finnane, is to be shown at the Ateneo, QC on April 19 at 6 p.m.

The invitation bears this information: Black Nazarene opens with the procession in Manila of the Black Nazarene – a 200-year old Mexican statue of the Black Christ carrying the cross – a procession attended by more than a hundred thousand people. It ends with the nailing to the cross, one after another, of several devotees of the Passion Play, which takes place annually on Good Friday in San Pedro, San Fernando, north of Manila.

It is a film that takes us inside the moral life and outside to its political and historical context, the filmmaker and expatriate Filipino Nery entwines his encounters with the crucified with his own reflections and asides on the Philippines. His voice, the voices of the crucified, the mayor, the parish priest and the Passion Play director, provide a counterpoint to images poignant, melancholy, grotesque or wryly comic but always characteristic of place and time and Philippine social life.

Robert Nery, born in QC, now lives in Sydney. He graduated from Sydney U. with an honors degree in Social Anthropology and a major in Philosophy. Black Nazarene, premieres in Manila in 2003, has been shown in Darwin, Melbourne and Sydney. Nery will answer questions from the audience.