Maybe that was in the cut footage though. Well, I checked the end credits and didn’t see my name up there, so I’m pretty certain I didn’t cause the scourging. To them, this torture and inevitable death shown on screen was done by them - Christ died because of their sins. For a lot of people it’s a hard movie because of their beliefs. No matter how you cut (or recut) it, this is a hard movie to watch. Personally, I don’t think anyone should watch a movie this powerful and devastating often enough to catch the changes, but I’m sure there are some out there who have. I’ll be honest, I haven’t watched The Passion of the Christ enough to catch all of the changes in The Passion Recut, although some of the more gratuitous shots are obviously missing. How does removing five to seven minutes of that open the picture to a wider audience? I get that Gibson felt he was making the movie more attractive to a broad audience, but at the end of the day this movie showcases Jesus being tortured. The film, which is about Christ’s capture, torture, and eventual death, is now having some of that torture removed. This is a movie I don’t quite comprehend. Continued Barbera, “The fact is of particular value, considering this is the year in which the recently renamed Venice Production Bridges is presenting six VR projects among the 40 proposals of audiovisual projects in search of funding, which includes films, documentaries, TV series and web series.Now, a year after its initial release, Gibson has compromised his film again, releasing The Passion Recut, his same film minus around five to seven minutes of graphic violence (the reported amount of time cut seems to vary from interview to interview). “‘Jesus VR’ will serve to demonstrate the narrative and dramatic potential of the new technology, which has since been limited to short movies.” The news comes just days after “Passion of the Christ” director Mel Gibson confirmed that he and screenwriter Randall Wallace are working on “The Resurrection,” a follow-up to their massively successful 2004 film.
“We are particularly pleased about the opportunity to present the first feature film in the world made entirely for virtual reality,” said festival director Alberto Barbera.
READ MORE: Mel Gibson Says ‘Passion of the Christ’ Follow-Up ‘The Resurrection’ Will Be ‘A Huge Undertaking’ “Jesus VR: The Story of Christ,” a feature-length 360-degree movie, is set to screen in an abbreviated form at the Venice Film Festival.
Following the likes of “Last Days in the Desert,” “Risen” and “Ben-Hur,” 2016 is about to see another film about Jesus - albeit of a different kind.