A Kinder, Gentler Passion?
Mel Gibson heard the complaints about the graphic violence in The Passion of The Christ. So he edited out some of the harshest parts, and is re-releasing the film this week as The Passion Recut.
By Mark Moring | posted 3/07/2005
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Roger Ebert called The Passion of The Christ the "most violent movie I've ever seen." Many other mainstream critics also blanched at the bloodfest, complaining that director Mel Gibson got a little too graphic with the gore. The MPAA gave it a well-deserved R-rating "for sequences of graphic violence."
Even Christian critics—and millions of Christian moviegoers—found the film was gut-wrenchingly violent, warranting its R-rating. Some—including Christianity Today Movies—advised parents to think long and hard before taking their children to the film.
It appears that Gibson was listening to those comments. He and his production company, Icon, are re-releasing the film to theaters this week—just in time for Easter—but only after editing out some of the most gruesome parts.
The Passion Recut, coming to about 500 theaters nationwide on Friday, is about five to six minutes shorter than the original version, with some of the bloodiest scenes scaled back or eliminated entirely. Bruce Davey, president of Icon, told Daily Variety that "the scourging scene in particular has been substantially adjusted."
"I toned down some of the more brutal scenes without removing them or compromising the impact of the film," Gibson explained in a statement. "By softening some of its more wrenching aspects, I hope to make the film and its message of love available to a wider audience."
To that end, Icon and its co-distributor, Newmarket Films, attempted to garner a PG-13 rating for the new version. But the MPAA still deemed it an R-rated movie, said Newmarket president Bob Berney. (In Britain, Recut earned a rating of "15," meaning no one younger than 15 can see the film. The original version had earned a rating of "18.")
Berney said Icon and Newmarket have decided to release the film as "unrated" in the U.S., adding, "Perhaps it's ultimately somewhere in between [R and PG-13]. The end result is a shift in tone and balance that makes the film more accessible to a wider audience, particularly those that had concerns about some of the extreme moments in the original version."
Icon's Davey added that The Passion Recut was made "without compromising the integrity of the original film one bit."
As of this writing, Christianity Today Movies has not yet seen the new version (read our coverage of the original here), so we can't comment on just how much Gibson has softened the film's violence. But he apparently heard people's complaints about the graphic nature of the movie, and has responded in kind.
The original poster (left) was more bloody in its details than the new one.
"It has always been my wish to make the film accessible to as many of those who would want to see it as possible," Gibson said. "After the initial run in movie theaters, I received numerous letters from people all across the country. Many told me they wanted to share the experience with loved ones, but were concerned that the harsher images of the film would be too intense for them to bear. In light of this, I decided to re-edit The Passion of The Christ."
Gibson noted that The Passion Recut "is the same film in spirit," calling his original "a universal story of faith and sacrifice that speaks to the human spirit."
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