The Passion of the Christ

Trivia: Satan is actually played by a woman - the Italian actress Rosalinda Celentano.

Trivia: During filming, Jim Caviezel was accidentally whipped in the back, and since the crew were filming, his real reactions were incorporated onscreen.

leyesalot82789

Trivia: The hand that draws the line in the sand during Mary Magdalene's flashback is Mel Gibson's.

Trivia: Is the highest-grossing ($370 million) R-rated film in North American box office history, breaking the previous record held by "The Matrix Reloaded" (2003).

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Trivia: With box office receipts of over $370 million (as of September 5, 2004), "The Passion" has become the highest-grossing religious-themed film of all time.

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Trivia: Mel Gibson filmed the scene where Pilate is offering to release either Barabbas or Jesus and Pilate says "why do you want to crucify Jesus, he has done nothing wrong" (paraphrased) and the people shout, "Give us Barabbas, let His (Jesus) blood be on our children" which is taken directly from the gospel of Matthew; however, Gibson deleted the subtitle for the line because he felt it would fuel anti-Semitism.

Jeanne Perrotta

Trivia: In that grisly scene where Jesus is being flogged, Jim Caviezel stated that he was actually struck twice. The first time knocked the wind out of him, and left a 14 inch scar on his back. The second time hurt so badly that is caused him to wrench his hand from the shackle, scraping his wrist. What with also getting struck by lightning in a different scene, he wasn't exactly undertested for the role.

Trivia: James Caviezel's initials are JC (like Jesus Christ), and was 33 years old around the time of the film's shooting, about the same age Jesus when he was crucified.

Trivia: Until October 2003, the film was originally called "The Passion" until Mel Gibson found that Miramax owns the rights to that name (from a romantic fantasy book), so he decided to add "of Christ" to it. Then a month latter, Gibson added an additional "the" between "of" and "Christ" which makes it "The Passion of the Christ," the title which was released in theaters.

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Trivia: The movie apparently has some beneficial effects as well, for there are at least two real-life cases in which a murderer and a Neo-nazi terrorist have turned themselves over to the police after having watched this movie.

Trivia: Before an Israeli arthouse theater decided to screen the film in Israel, no theater in the country was willing to show it because of the anti-Semitism controversy.

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Trivia: Is currently the fastest major theatrical film to earn back its production and marketing costs ($55 million in three days). It is also the fastest film to earn a profit (grossing over the $110 million threshold within five days), since a film needs to earn twice the production and marketing costs to make a profit.

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Trivia: Not only is the film the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time in North America, it was the first to pass the $300 million mark on March 24, 2004. However, it is only second ($609 million) to 2003's "The Matrix Reloaded" ($739 million) as the highest-grossing R-rated film worldwide.

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Trivia: As a rarity for a dramatic film, there is no disclaimer that states it is a work of fiction and that the characters resembling actual people are coincidence.

Jeff Walker

Trivia: Mel Gibson wanted originally to present this film without subtitles until negative responses to the radical idea from potential distributors compelled him to change his mind.

Trivia: Director/producer Mel Gibson wanted the film to look like the paintings from the Italian baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1573-1610). The artist is known for works marked by intense realism and revolutionary use of light. His best work is the "Deposition of Christ" (1604).

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Revealing mistake: During the scene where the Romans soldiers raise Jesus' cross, they use two ropes on each arm of it. If you look at the rope on the left side of the screen, you can see that it is slack, it's obviously not supporting the weight of the cross. There must have been some device lifting it off screen.

RJR99SS

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Jesus: Forgive them, Father. They know not what they do.

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Question: Does anyone know the significance of the Romans clubbing the feet of the two thieves crucifed at Golgotha? And why they did not do this to Jesus? I know there's an explanation for this somewhere in the gospels but I can't find it.

Jeanne Perrotta

Chosen answer: When someone is crucified, they die from suffocation because when the arms are stretched out that far wide and you can't move your legs it is close to impossible to breathe. The platform that their feet were nailed to would serve, for a while, a way to boost your body up enough to be able to take small breaths in and out. Eventually when they were tired of waiting for you to die they would break your legs so you couldn't boost yourself up enough to breathe well and you would asphyxiate quicker. When the storm came after Jesus died, they broke the legs of the 2 thieves, but did not break Jesus's legs. The prophecy stated that the Messiah would die with no broken bones.

princesskelli

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