Tikkabik

Bonnie and I scored a couple of hours away from the kidlets (thanks, Mom) so we ended up down at the big theater in Hyannis to see The Passion of the Christ. Beside Big Fish, which we've missed in its local run, it's the only movie that Bonnie has expressed any interest in seeing, and while it wasn't exactly a feelgood movie, I'm happy we went.

I'm not a biblical scholar nor have I ever been particularly interested in the New Testament, and I don't speak Latin or Aramaic. So I can't speak to the accuracy with which the story was told nor can I tell you how authentic everyone sounded speaking dead or nearly-dead languages. What I can tell you is that the movie was gripping, dramatic, deeply moving and intense.

Much has been made about the gratuitous violence exhibited in The Passion, and I must admit that even I found it a bit hard to take -- and I usually laugh when I see zombies tearing limbs off people. I think part of what I found so hard to take was not the depiction of violence itself, but the almost cartoonishly sadistic glee exhibited by the romans and temple guards. They were just having too much of a good time pummelling, scourging and otherwise humiliating Jesus to be seen as much more than vulgar caricatures; caricatures that otherwise diminished the power of what happened to Jesus in his final hours.

As usual, the whole movie-going experience was sullied by the absolutely crappy manners of other people in the theater. A woman four rows behind me insisted on taking *photographs* during the movie, with her *flash* on, if you can believe it. Several times, at several different crucial moments, the theater would be momentarily illuminated by the brilliant strobe of a Sony digital camera. I saw her after the lights went up. The theater was almost packed to capacity on this Sunday matinee show, and if it hadn't been filled with people clearly moved by what they had seen, I might have accosted that woman for her *incredible* lack of tact. The other problem was the obligatory asses that refused to turn off their cell phones. One fool even took the call, speaking in a stage whisper for a couple of minutes. At least no one brought infants.