I found the film’s portrayal of two of its villains problematic. Mattia Sbragia plays Caiphas as a cartoonish distortion—like an over-the-top early silent movie villain—and the way he was presented made me uncomfortable. I’m not surprised that some were outraged by this. I also found it interesting that Hristo Shopov as Pilate was a more multifaceted character shown wrestling with qualms of conscience, although in the end he seems to do what he thinks will minimize the risk to himself. I can only guess at what Gibson intended, but perhaps one way to interpret the scenes with Caiphas and Pilate is as a commentary on how religious and political bureaucracy react to the status quo being threatened.
The DVD version of “The Passion of the Christ” I watched was in widescreen and contained no bonus materials of any kind. I have listed the DVD’s special features below. There’s also a separate DVD version of the movie in full-screen (1.33:1), alternatively known as pan-and-scan, that provides the same special features as the widescreen version. It seems to me that if there was ever a movie that cried out for a DVD version with lots of meaningful bonus materials, “The Passion of the Christ” is it, and I’m hoping that such a DVD will become available in the future.
DVD Details:
- Anamorphic Widescreen (2.40:1), Color
- Feature Run Time: 2 Hours 6 Minutes
- MPAA Rating: R for Sequences of Graphic Violence
- 5.1 Dolby Digital
- 5.1 DTS
- Dialogue in Aramaic, Latin, and Hebrew
- English Subtitles
- Spanish Subtitles
- English Captions for the Hearing Impaired
- English-Language Audio Commentary for the Visually Impaired