The Passion of the Christ

"I am the good shepherd. I lay down my life for my sheep. No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down and the power to take it up again. This command is from my Father."

"You have heard that it was said, "Love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. If you love those who love you, what reward is there in that?"

"Take this and drink. This is my blood, spilled for you and for many. Do this in memory of me."

"My heart is ready, Father. My heart is ready."

"Peter, you could not watch even one hour with me?"

"Judas, you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?"

"Forgive them, Father. They know not what they do."

"Elahi, Elahi, lema sabachthani? ("My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?")"

"It is accomplished!"

"[Last lines] Father, into your hands I commend my spirit."

"This has been germinating inside me for 10 years. I have a deep need to tell this story. It's part of your upbringing, but it can seem so distant. The Gospels tell you what basically happened; I want to know what really went down."

"I felt like a great presence came within me at times when we were filming. This prayer that came from me was, "I don't want people to see me. I just want them to see Jesus. And through that, conversions will happen." That's what I wanted more than anything, that people would have a visceral effect to finally make a decision whether to follow Him or not."

"When that Jesus movie came out, Jews didn't want people to see it. Everybody blames the Jews for killing Christ, and then the Jews try to pass it up on the Romans."

"The lacerating detail in which the torture of Jesus is portrayed in the film, it seems to me, is a way of diverting attention from these alarming elements of reactionary propaganda. It isn't all that hard to upset Jews, as Gibson must have known he would, and it's even possible to suspect him of doing so in order to create a climate of emotional publicity."

"To be fair to [Mel Gibson], he has made what is now probably the definitive movie on the Easter story, The Passion of the Christ, which, when it first came out, was subjected to quite a lot of criticism and abuse, mainly because it's a cynical piece of gratuitous trash aimed at simple-minded born-again plankton. And for this reason it made a lot of money, so now some Hollywood studios get a panel of Christians to vet their movies before release just to make sure they won't offend any ignorant born-again shit-kickers who might happen to be watching. The future looks bright for American culture, wouldn't you say?"