Professional Documents
Culture Documents
By:
Endy Mulio
1115060002
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I. Characters
*The following characters are the one who involve and are
considered important in the flow of the story.
*The director, Mel Gibson, pictures each character’s trait in this film
similar with theirs in the Bible.
*Background of the characters is taken from the Bible. It holds true to
their background in the film.
A. Protagonist
1. Jesus Christ
Character
Background
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His mission in life was to spread God’s Word and give service
to other. Ultimately, He sacrificed Himself to atone for our sins.
Role
The film revolves around Jesus’ life when He was near at His
crucifixion.
In the film, Jesus was accused for blasphemy by head priests.
Then, he was brought to Pontius Pilate. The Roman then sentenced
Him into crucifixion. While the crucifixion was not enough, Jesus must
pass the whip trial first. After that, He was forced to bear His cross to
the Golgotha. There, His hands were nailed, and He was crucified to
His death. The last scene was the shot of Jesus resurrects from His
tomb with both hands are hollow.
2. Peter
Character
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Background
Role
In resemblance of the Bible, the film shot the scene of the night
of Jesus’ arrest. Within that night, Peter was asked by the crowd
whether he knew Jesus or not. He denied it, and the crowd still asked
the same question to him. After denied three times, the cock crowed
and he remembered of what Jesus had said before. Then he went
outside and wept himself.
Other scene of Peter was when he cut off the ear of the man
who wanted to arrest Jesus in Gethsemane Garden.
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3. Virgin Mary
Character
Background
Role
In this film, she was the one of the supporters of Jesus when
He walked His path bearing the cross to Golgotha. Mary helped
Jesus to stand back after Jesus was stumbled due to the heavy
burden of the cross. In the likely event, Mary flashbacked Jesus’
childhood as she was also the one who helped Him get up after He
fell to ground.
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4. Mary Magdalene
Character
Background
Role
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5. Simon of Cyrene
Character
Role
Simon was the one who is forced by the soldier to help Jesus
carrying the cross. He then helps Jesus throughout His path to
Golgotha.
B. Antagonist
1. Satan
Character
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Background
Role
2. Caiaphas
Character
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Background
Caiaphas was the head or chief priest of Jew. He, along with
other priests, were responsible to the arrest of Jesus. They obviously
tried to make any guilt in Jesus and in the end falsely accused Him
for blasphemy.
Role
3. Pontius Pilate
Character
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Background
Role
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4. Herod Antipas
Character
From the way he spoke, we can judge that the character always
looked down to others as he laughed at Jesus for His silence
throughout Herod’s interrogation.
Background
Herod Antipas was the ruler of Galilee and Perea. He led to the
executions of John the Baptist and Jesus, both from the accounts of
these events in the Bible New Testament.
Role
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C. Protagonist Turns to Antagonist
1. Judas
Character
Background
Role
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II. Plot Summary
Intro
Escalation
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Then, Jesus was interrogated thoroughly by Pontius Pilate. On the
other hand, Jesus remained silent when He was asked and offered
the freedom by Pontius Pilate.
“I have the authority to punish and set free people,” said Pilate.
However, Jesus replied that Pilate do not have it, God Himself that
gives Him that authority.
Pilate had tried to persuade the crowd not to kill Jesus, and offered a
whip punishment to Jesus. The crowd disagreed and started to make
chaos. Having found no way to save Jesus, and in the same time, he
wanted to lessen the chaos caused by the crowd; he chose to first
gave Jesus whip punishment.
Pilate still made an attempt to save Jesus by giving the crowd choice
of whom they will set free. The choice was between Jesus and the
criminal named Barabas. The Pharesees provoked the crowd to
choose Barabas instead of Jesus.
Climax
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After all the punishment, Jesus was once again brought to Pilate.
Pilate tried to persuade the crowd that Jesus had been punished
enough, yet the crowd still wanted to kill Jesus. Thus, Pilate washed
his hands as a symbol that he would not be involved in Jesus’
punishment. All decisions on Jesus were responsible to the crowd.
With weakened body, Jesus must bear the cross through Jerusalem,
all the way up to Golgotha. One of the people in crowd, Simon of
Cyrene was ordered to help Jesus to bear His cross.
Anti-climax
At Golgotha, there was more physical torture for Jesus as both His
hands are nailed to the cross. On the cross, there were 2 criminals on
left and right side of Him. One criminal insulted Jesus while the other
repented himself. To the one who repented himself, Jesus assured
that he would go to heaven with Him. The other criminal met tragic
fate as his eye was pecked by a crow.
On the cross, Jesus felt thirsty. One of the people came with sponge.
He then sopped the sponge into sour wine, then inserted into the
stick to let Jesus drank.
Jesus then died on His cross. One of the soldiers pierced His
stomach with spear to make sure about His death.
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Soon after His death, earthquake struck and the sky ripped off.
Everyone was scared and began to believe that Jesus is truly Son of
God.
Denouement
Jesus was soon buried. However, on the third date, Jesus defeated
death and rose from His tomb. In the end, Lucifer screamed in agony
for he had been defeated by Jesus’ resurrection.
Whipped and weakened, Jesus was presented with the cross and
was ordered to carry it through the streets of Jerusalem, all the way
up to Golgotha. There, more corporal cruelty took place as Jesus was
nailed to the cross--suffering, he hanged there, left to die. Initially, in
his dazed suffering, Jesus was alarmed that he had been abandoned
by God his father. He then beseeched God. At the moment of his
death, nature itself over-turns.
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III. Ideology
A. The Film
W
ithout any doubt, this film focuses on the meaning of
Jesus’ sacrifice to atone for humans’ sins. It gives the
theme of love, faith, hope, and forgiveness. However,
there are also some implicit ideologies that are inserted throughout
the storyline.
One of the ideologies of this film is sadism. It may not his first
intention when he makes this film beforehand. However, Gibson
wants the viewers to feel the pain undertook by Jesus in His
crucifixion. In order to emphasize that, Gibson explicitly depicts
Jesus’ agony in His crucifixion, and sheds Jesus’ blood in most part
of the film. The most striking one is when Jesus is whipped by the
soldier. Even His flesh was torn over by the spike of the rod.
The other ideology is martyrdom. The ideology that shows one must
be tortured in order to keep his faith. The film emphasizes Jesus’
affliction in the crucifixion because of His faith to His Father. The
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disciples of Jesus, except Judas, also shows sign their sign of
martyrdom towards Jesus.
1. Pilate’s wife, is Jewish characters who does the most to try to ease
the sufferings of Jesus,
2. Simon of Cyrene, the man who helps Jesus, is also a Jew,
3. it is Roman soldiers who tortured Jesus,
4. the involvement of the Jewish Pharisees in the plot to have Jesus
killed is
a biblical fact. It is not made up by Gibson, and
5. the film itself teaches about love and forgiveness, so it is
impossible if
it also fuels the anti-Semitic issue.
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sins. Jesus’ sacrifice in the crucifix had atoned for humans’ sins; and
it becomes the basis for the Christian doctrine.
B. The Characters
1. Jesus
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Both of them resemble to love. When Jesus suffers, both of
them always readily helped Him to relieve and supported Jesus. They
also had faith in Jesus, especially Virgin Mary who is His mother.
4. Caiaphas
5. Satan / Lucifer
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