Movie Recommendation: The Passion of the Christ

One of the most controversial films in history, Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ is much more than sheer violence and blood. It is a wonderfully made movie of Christ's last day.

When I went to see this movie, I was surprised at the level of storytelling it brought. The word on the street was that it was simply a movie filled with senseless violence to make people feel guilty. What I saw was a brilliant, artistic movie that I believe should have been nominated for an academy award. The cinematography, art direction, and soundtrack are all stellar. The very fact that the film's dialogue is in Aramaic and Latin and is subtitled in English makes the experience more authentic than any other film about Jesus that I have seen yet.

That being said, this movie does have a great deal of violence in it, as violence is the subject of the movie, and of today's holiday, Good Friday. The violence is in the movie for a reason, and the reason is far bigger than making people feel guilty or disgusted by horrifying images. When you watch this movie, know that for every bit of pain that Christ went through, you were saved. Again, do not feel guilty, as guilt was not Christ's message. Freedom was the message and the passion of Jesus Christ, and it is by His blood that we can be free.

Movie Recommendation: Band of Brothers

I've wanted to watch Band of Brothers for years now. I even rented the first couple of episodes from the video store to begin them a few years ago. However, for some reason or another, I never really fully committed to watching the entire series. Last week, I completed Band of Brothers, and I dare say that I'm not sure that I've watched anything better.

Thanks to a friend of mine (to protect his identity, we'll just call him Brenden) who allowed me to borrow his DVD set of Band of Brothers, I watched the ten episode series over the last month and a half, spacing it out between classes and Xperience events.

Band of Brothers was produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks and was presented on HBO in 2001. It was based on the book by Stephen E. Ambrose which chronicled Easy Company in the 101st Airborne. This particular company was one that parachuted behind enemy lines on D-Day in Normandy and stayed at the front lines for pretty much the remainder of World War II. The miniseries is a stunning achievement in direction, acting, cinematography, and writing. The series' greatest achievement, however, is its telling of the story of those brave men of Easy Company and the hardships they faced together fighting to secure the freedom of Europe, and ultimately, the rest of the world.

It is a compelling story of a group of normal guys that decided to fight for their country and became heroes and comrades. Watching the documentary on the actual men of Easy Company in the special features, I realized how perfect the casting was and what a fantastic job the actors did in their portrayals of the soldiers.

Spielberg and Hanks created a World War II movie that far surpassed Saving Private Ryan in every way. Band of Brothers gets my highest of recommendations.