Taking Certain Liberties

I am a sucker for the 3-hour epic movie. Not so much the newer ones like Troy and Alexander. Actually I haven't even seen them. They just do not strike me as something I want to see. I am talking about specifically, Braveheart, Saving Private Ryan, and Gladiator. While not an epic, I would also throw in Titanic. Stop freaking out, I'll explain myself right now on the Titanic pick.

I really like SPR and Titanic more than the others and it is due to the liberty the producers took in guessing how things went. What I mean is that they used some factual events and ways things happen and surrouned that with mostly conjecture. They guessed at how the "whole thing went down."

That openeing scene in SPR with the D-Day invasion changed me forever. War seemed all too real and not the glorious shoot-em up, roll the dice and remove army's from the gameboard, good guys always win idea I had in my mind. It was loud, dirty, gruesome, grisly, macabre, and bloody. For as bad as D-Day appeared in that opening scene, I am sure you can multiply that hundred-fold to how it really felt and looked. And to think, Hitler had moved most of his army away from Normandy (having guessed incorrectly where the Allied invasion would take place). Spielberg had a lot of historical fact and eye-witness accounts to go on, but still had to make it come alive. Still had over 2 hours of movie to do after that.

With Titanic, take away the love story, and you are left with the one of biggest human disasters ever. Cameron had some eye-witness accounts and historical fact as well to go on. But when that boat started to sink, it came alive. You understood how epic the event was. It was startling to see how massive the boat was and what it looked like while it sank (the ship was straight up in the air!!!!!). Cameron took a guess at how it all went down based on things he read. He took a stab at how it must have looked.

I honestly could not imagine what it would have been like to witness and have to take part in such an event as something that massive sinking into icy cold water.

It is when these directors take liberty in guessing how it happened and doing a very good job with it. It gives you elements and instances you never pictured or imagined. Additionally, the character development is there. Puts in more emotion and an attachment we get to the actor. Whether good or bad.

Which all leads me to The Passion of the Christ. Now, before I continue, I offer up this disclaimer:

I am a protestant, not Catholic. I understand that Mel Gibson
is Catholic, so I understand his point in the scene I am about to
talk about. It involves Jesus and Mary. Many of us know the
theology that Catholics and Protestants differ on in regards to
Mary. I am not here to discuss that, or further either thought.

In this movie, there is a scene where a flashback takes place. We are taken back to the home of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus. Jesus is building a piece of furniture (he was a carpenter, you know). There is an interaction between Mary and Jesus of your typical mother/son interaction in a family. We have no mention of any of this in the Bible. But, I have no doubt, something similar took place and probably more than once. Jesus really was human. With a mother and father. He really was a carpenter, who used his hands to build and fix things. It added this element wonderfully. He felt the love of an earthly mother. He felt the enjoyment of accomplishing something with your own hands. Bringing a sense of pride to his parents as they watched him grow.

Somehow, we always attribute Jesus to being born, 12 or so years later showing up in the temple and teaching, 18 years later getting baptized and starting his public ministry, 3 years after that his crucifiction. We just leave it at that. All that filler in between was Jesus living a true human life, with all the emotions and feelings we experience. He had to experience all this human aspect.

To me that flashback scene, made his whole death more excruiating and sickly. It adds a pure understanding of the fact that, Jesus, while on the cross, felt total desperation and total loneliness, so much so that he screamed out to his Father in heaven, "Why have you forsaken me?" How many times do we here this about people we know? They feel like nothing is there, like God left them in their most trying times?

Jesus knew this was all going to happen and had to happen, but he still had experienced human life and its full range of emotions.

I have met many people and had conversations with people, where they fluff off the pain and suffering claiming since Jesus already knew, it was no big deal for him. He understood he could just go through with all this and it would end and be over with and he would be fine. Honestly! This is their "excuse." (Nevermind the fact, they are all but admitting they believe the whole thing and that it had to happen, but they are just finding their own loophole or excuse).

The problem is when Christians do the same thing. They do not truly understand and comprehend the scope of pain and suffering. They chalk it up to just something Jesus had to do or it was somehow easier for Jesus to endure than anyone else. I understand it was something Jesus had to do. But it was no more easier for him than it would have been for anyone else, ever! No matter anyone else's upbringing or life.

Sometimes, we take certain liberties about events and writings in the Bible. I believe this is mostly due to the fact that hindsight is 20/20 and we already know the story and how it ends (or will end).

For instance, think of Abraham's leap of faith? How easy is it for us to think that it was easy for Abraham to just uproot his whole family and move to a new land that he knew not to one day become a great nation. We know what happens, so we just assume how easy it must have been. But if it is easy, why do we all stuggle and wrestle with moves, job-changing, etc.? What about when he was going to sacrifice Issac? Come on, no one can say they would do it themselves. But many of us do not realize the massive amount of faith that Abraham had at this time. Tie in his own human emotion and you wonder how he even got the nerve to ask Isaac to join him on a mountain climbing trip. We build up so much nerve when all we are doing is asking our spouse if we can go to the baseball game with the guys. Imagine telling her you are going to sacrifice your only son!?

Also, I always wonder about Moses coming down from the mountain after talking with God and bringing the tablets that GOD WROTE WITH HIS OWN HAND, and finding Israel worshipping a golden calf, how did he not kill someone? How did he maintain himself to just throwing the tablets and breaking them? How did he not blow a gasket and just walk away? No, he interceeded with God to not kill them and by so doing to not fulfill his promise. We seem to gloss over that fact, because we understand that Israel does march into Canaan under God's protection. But think what amazing grace and passion it took for Moses to do this?

While reading about the crucifiction, we know he will rise from the grave and ultimately ascend into heaven. So, to an extent, the full impact of the crucifiction isn't felt by us. Not the way the eye-witnesses felt it and saw it. This makes it easier for us to not fully grasp something. Do not take me the wrong way, please. We all understand the importance of the crucifiction and its impact on all of mankind. But, I think if we fully understood it (like The Passion did) we would live our lives a little less careless and truly understand what Jesus meant when he said, "Take up your cross and follow me." Because Jesus understood how hard that would be for any human to do at anytime.

HE LIVED IT