BLOOD, BUT LITTLE FORGIVENESS, IN MEL GIBSON'S 'PASSION'.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

`THE PASSION of the Christ'' is exactly the kind of movie you'd expect from a man who has staked his career on bone-crunching martyrdom. Mel Gibson's version of the last 12 hours of Jesus' life has the Christian savior being bound and chained, thrown off a bridge, beaten and spat upon, kicked, mocked, his shoulder ripped out of its socket and in an excruciating (and repetitive) 30-minute torture scene, flogged until he's nothing more than a bloody pulp.

By the time the movie makes it to the crucifixion, the cross - not to mention Jesus' mission - seems like an afterthought.

Lost in the film's beautifully lit orgy of abuse is the sense of who Jesus was and why the Jewish priests - Gibson's villains in this old- fashioned melodrama - wanted him crucified. Gibson, who directed the film and co-wrote it with Benedict Fitzgerald, teases us with brief flashbacks of Jesus' life - the Sermon on the Mount, the Last Supper, some tender moments with mother Mary. But these are just blips between the relentless brutality. Jesus' suffering is all that matters in this movie. It's as if Gibson is measuring God's love by the amount of blood he shows on the screen.

The centerpiece of ``The Passion of the Christ'' is, rather strangely, an episode of torture that doesn't rate a mention in the gospels of Matthew and Mark, while Luke and John only devote five verses to it. Here, it's one-fourth of the movie.

It begins with Roman soldiers caning Christ's back 30 times - a supervisor helpfully counts the lashes - followed by a camera pan to a table containing various instruments of punishment. The sadist decides on the cat o' nine tails, and it's back to the count-off - one, WHAM, two, WHAM, three, WHAM - all the way to 30 again.

When they're done flogging Christ's back, stomach and legs, the camera moves back to reveal a courtyard covered with blood, more blood, in fact, than any human body could hold, following a brutalization that no human body could endure. But the humanity of Jesus as Christ is not in play here. He is the Son of God, come to Earth to die in order to redeem our sins. Only in Gibson's ``Passion,'' Christ must not only die, he must endure the kind of punishment and persecution that the martyrs in Gibson's films - from ``Lethal Weapon's'' Martin Riggs to Scottish hero William Wallace - have grimly faced at the hands of enemies.

The enemies in Gibson's ``Passion'' are the Jewish religious leaders, led by the high priest Caiphas (Mattia Sbragia), who, from the movie's opening moments in the Garden of Gethsemane, will settle for nothing less than Jesus' death on the cross. The priests bring Jesus before the Roman governor Pilate (Hristo Naumov Shopov) on charges of treason. Pilate agonizes over what to do with a man he finds innocent; his wife (Claudia Gerini) urges restraint and goes so far as to bring towels to Jesus' mother, Mary (Maia Morgenstern), and Mary Magdalene (Monica Bellucci) so they clean the courtyard after Jesus' horrific torture.

If you're not familiar with Pilate's wife or didn't know the two Marys were there when Jesus was scourged (let alone mopped up the blood in the courtyard), you're not alone. Gibson invented these scenes. The film places a particular emphasis on the Virgin Mary, a figure central to Gibson's Roman Catholic faith, as well as an androgynous Satan, who lurks, cloaked, on the edges of the action.

Gibson doesn't take the stuff with the devil any place interesting. As presented, it's just window dressing, like something from the outtakes reel from a souped-up ``The Exorcist.'' But the moments between Jesus and Mary give ``The Passion'' its flashes of heart and humanity. For a few seconds at least, Gibson stops beating on Jesus and lets him breathe. And, for a few seconds, the audience can breathe, too.

But the film, which is in Aramaic and Latin with English subtitles, wants to shock you with its unrelenting violence; so Gibson doesn't let Jesus off the hook for long. The aim is for us to feel the enormity of Christ's physical sacrifice, and this the film does, helped immeasurably by actor Jim Caviezel's ability to silently express noble, dignified suffering.

What doesn't quite get through is Christ's message of forgiveness and love. You occasionally read it in the subtitles, but you don't really feel it in the movie. It just doesn't engage Gibson. He doesn't even show much interest in the Resurrection (given all of two minutes here), and why should he when his camera can zero in on a crow devouring the eyes of the mocking thief crucified next to Jesus? And that pretty much sums up ``The Passion'': God (and Mel) revealing himself through eye-gouging.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST - Two and one half stars

(R: graphic violence)

Starring: Jim Caviezel, Maia Morgenstern, Monica Bellucci.

Director: Mel Gibson.

Running time: 2 hr. 6 min.

Playing: Opens Wednesday in wide release.

In a nutshell: Mel Gibson measures God's love by the amount of blood he can show on screen.

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Photo:

Mary (Maia Morgenstern, left) and Mary Magdalene (Monica Bellucci) in ``The Passion of the Christ.''