In Mel Gibson’s 2004 widely controversial film, “The Passion of the Christ,” the last twelve hours of Jesus Christ’s life were recounted and violently presented for a culturally select audience. Though widely distributed and marketed before the Easter and Passover season, the film succeeded in earning a mass profit and a number one spot on the charts for a three week period. Through the ideas of cultural studies one can see that this film was created for a specific target audience. As defined by Chris Barker, culture is; “the actual grounded terrain of practices, representations, languages and customs of a specific society.” (pg.7) Through Gibson’s film, signs, images, and binary pairs are presented to signify culturally symbolic meanings to an audience familiar with Christianiac roots. With Gibson’s depiction of how Jesus Christ spent his final hours, one can see structualist ideas with relation to how we understand the Christian culture.
In the film, “The Passion of the Christ,” an ancient Aramaic language was used by the actors to represent a more culturally accurate portrayal of Jesus’ final hours. While the language has been considered near extinct the audience was able to fully understand what was happening through the subtitles and the use of symbols to represent what was happening. Barker states in his introduction that; “In order to understand culture we need to explore how meaning is produced symbolically in language as a ‘signifying system’.”(pg.7) With this idea the film presents a structualist idea of the battle between good and evil, and the idea of a group of people being saved by a chosen prophet to die for their sins. Ferdinand de Saussure structualist ideas are based on language being an arbitrary act that is, as he states” passively assimilated by the individual.” In Saussure’s work, “Course in General Linguistics,” he states; “Language is a system of signs that express ideas…” (pg.77) In the opening scene of the film Jesus is seen praying to his father, (God) while resisting the words and possible temptations of the devil. The darkly lit scene juxtaposes the powers of good versus evil, along with the angles of the camera. When the devil seems to lose the struggle the audience can see the prophet fighting back and willfully stands over the evil figure while he crushes the symbolic snake that represents evil. The snake is understood as being evil because it is a culturally symbolic sign created by Christian religion.
Another signifier of evil is the devil. It is portrayed with a woman’s face and man’s voice. Throughout the Christian culture the temptress woman or Eve is seen as evil because she fell victim to the devil’s allure. It is no surprise then that the image of the devil is presented by a deviant looking woman. In all scenes that present the devil the image of this androgynous figure is lit with dark lighting and in a creepy manner. The devil is presented to the Holly mother Mary in a mob of people watching her son carry his cross up the mountain. It is also seen standing over the son of God while he is being tortured by the soldiers lashing him to a bloody pulp.
Many binary pairs are also seen with the image of the androgynous devil. The devil seems to represent all that is darkness and is thus cast in the shadows of fear and hatred, while God is seen through images of clouds parting, light, freedom, and miracles. The two figures representing good and evil are constantly battling with each other, and are ever present with signs, such as birds. In the latter half of the movie while Jesus is on his cross, he sees a dove flying through the sky. The dove is not only white but represents the grace of goodness also known to Christians as God. In a few seconds latter when a murder on a cross next to Jesus laughs at him dying, a black Crow swoops down onto the man and pecks out his eye. The black crow represents the devil, darkness, hatred and sinfulness.
Another significant binary opposition is how the Holy mother is presented as opposed to the ever present Mary Magdalene. One can see that both figures are only seen with their faces showing. Both women are fully clothed, but the audience understands that the Holly Mother is seen as reverent and in agony to see her son being callously tortured. She is aged, quiet, but dignified. She represents the virtuous woman, where Mary Magdalene is seen in once scene being stoned by a crowd of men. She is the fallen prostitute, and is displayed with alluring earrings and colorful clothing. Her hair is wildly flowing to express her sexuality and therefore is seen in a negative light. Though she is also in agony over the torture of her protector the film focuses more on the holly mother for she is the goodness that delivered the son of God into the world. But because Christianity has expressed the constant idea of the fallen prostitute that Jesus protected, and the holly virtuous mother the audience is able to distinguish the two from the very beginning. Their identities are understood based on what they are not.
While the entire movie is based on culturally significant symbols, the audience is able to understand clearly what the director is trying to achieve through the radical use of signs, and unpleasant display of torture and agony. Though the film is directed to a specific audience, the symbols presents are so widely expressed through western civilization that many who are not familiar with the Christian religion are able to clearly see and understand the signified objects and how they represent the overall theme of the movie. With these signified objects the viewer is able to clearly understand what is happening without needing to read the subtitles, and also helps display the movies theme.
Barker, Chris, “Cultural Studies, Theory and Practice." Sage Publications, Los Angles. 3rd
E.D. 2008
De Saussure, Ferdinand. “Course in General Linguistics,” In class article.
Gibson, Mel. “The Passion of the Christ.” 2004.
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