Dalvin

This is the most moving piece of cinema I have ever seen. To see Barabus helping carry the cross up to Calvary with Jesus with the haunting music is Extremely moving. I am going to say this gets some serious nods come Oscar time next year. I believe it will be nominated for the following(if not more) 1) Best Picture(Could very well end up winning the prize....if you have seen the film you know what I mean). Best Director- Mel Gibson 3) Best Actor- Jim Caviezel 4) Best Score and 5) Best Cinamatography


Oscars 2005 will be "The Passion of the Christ" Oscars I can feel it

B.A.

I have a feeling they won't touch this film w/ a ten foot pole in regards to the major awards.

Jericho

I agree with B.A. Baracus. And also, I pity the fool!

ephesix

i think it could go either way. God willing, it'll be regarded as a great work of filmaking that, while NOT perfect, does an incredible job of telling the story it wants to tell. which should be the mark of any great film.

just a small quibble with your post: it was Simon of Cyrene who helped him carry the cross.

Kal-El

Just to clarify, I don't think it was Barrabas who helped Jesus carry the cross. That would be Simon the Cyrenean.

DaveNinja

No chance if Ace Ventura comes out this year.

Ergyu

Are they making an Ace 3?

I don't think they will touch this movie either, regardless of how good or bad it is.

Dalvin

If it doesn't win for best musical score than something pretty PHENOMENAL has to top it, or the Academy doesn't.
I feel the Academy will want to honor the film in some respects, so it might not win the Big Prize(which would be amazing.....since it would be the first foreign language film to do that...correct?). If not the Big Prize, it has to get something, and Jim Caviezel needs to get at least a nomination.....He is so believable in the part

Supermallet

I think you're too optimistic. The controversy around this film, mixed with its release date, will either make people A) forget about it or, B) not want to nominate it.

When the films made to get awards come out, I have no doubt Christ will get lost in the shuffle.

Jackskeleton

Dalvin, I think your faith is blinding you on this. The flick is being released in feb. By Oscar time either or will happen:

A.) People would have forgotten it with all the other Oscar films released after summer
B.) People wont touch this for the obvious reason that Hollywood is full of jews and Scientologist
C.) the academy usually stays away from gore filled flicks
B.) Hearing God do an acceptance speech for Writing this would be sorta... difficult

There is a reason why Jan/Feb/March are dumping grounds for films by studios. They can get released on dvd by christmas time and well.. they want to save the big hitters for either summer or Oscar nomination seasons.

You claim that the score is phenomenal, but the year bearly started. I'm sure there is much more on the horizon that will beat it. Like the others said.. No one is going to touch this sucker with a ten foot pole come awards time.

movielib

I don't think it will go unnoticed that this film is getting s and s from critics in about equal measure (for whatever reason). Those are not usually the films that get major or numerous nominations.

Shannon Nutt

I think an Oscar nod for cinematography and perhaps Best Director and even Best Picture aren't beyond the realm of possibility...especially if this movie sticks around in the theaters until May when the summer movies start coming out.

Remember, Silence of the Lambs was released on Feb. 14th and it swept the Oscars the following year. Forrest Gump, Unforgiven Gladiator and Braveheart were all summer releases - so it's not as unsual as people think for the best picture of the year to come out earlier than the previous fall.

It really depends on what else we're going to see this year...

Shannon Nutt

Unforgiven and Gladiator both got their fare share of thumbs up and thumbs down. Braveheart too, if memory serves...in fact, people forget that Braveheart was bashed by a lot of groups as being anti-gay...not to the extent that The Passion is being bashed for being anti-semetic, but a pretty strong bashing.

movielib

Unforgiven is 100% fresh (average rating 8.7/10) and Gladiator is 78% fresh (average rating 7.6/10) at Rotten Tomatoes. POTC (not the pirate movie) is 51% and 6.4/10.

Inverse

This is just about the worst possible time to release a movie for Oscar consideration--it's far too early in the year. Why, it'd take a miracle for the Academy to resurrect a February movie come Oscar time!

(Thank you, thank you, I'll be here for the next three days and nights!)

Supermallet

I doubt the film will stick around until May. And if it does, no one will notice it anymore.

The Silence of The Lambs is a very odd case in academy history in that not only was it released in February, but Orion also went bankrupt and couldn't do an academy campaign, and yet the film still went on to win the five major awards. However, it also happens to be one of the best films ever made. Certainly one of the best films of the 90's.

The Passion of the Christ has several things going against it.

1) It's about Jesus Christ. Even Ben-Hur was ostensibly about someone other than Jesus. And, in fact, as far as I can tell, Ben-Hur is the only best picture winner to feature Jesus as a character.

2) The charges of anti-semitism will work against it. Even reviewers who don't think it's anti-semitic have said that if people want to look at it that way, the evidence can be found in the movie.

3) The extreme focus on the last 12 hours. Some people have already claimed that this puts too little attention on the characters. Silence of the Lambs, as you might recall, has some of the strongest and most interesting characters one can put in a movie.

4) It's in Latin, Hebrew, and Aramaic. I know the academy has nominated foreign language films before, but I still think this will be held against it.

5) The extreme gore. Doubtless many academy voters will find it to be excessive.

All of these PLUS the release date make it unlikely that we'll have another Silence of the Lambs on our hands.

Groucho

Have I missed something? Is Natalie Portman in this or something?

PopcornTreeCt

Like the reviews its been getting, I think it will go 50/50. I wouldn't take any of the critics reviews with a grain of salt for this movie. One critic said it was a like a cinematic Rorshach(sp?) test. Interesting comparison.

Seeker

Nope - no major awards here. Nope. Nope. Nope.

Maybe a cinematography nomination or so...

Jackskeleton

Not even that. It's WAAAAAAAAAAAY to early to release a film and expect it to get any sort of oscar nod. the odds are stacked against it.

Patman

"Do miracles happen?" Stay tuned...

Frank TJ Mackey

I agree with the original post. It will be nominated big time, regardless of the February release.

Some people apparently have no idea how enormous this picture is going to be. Theatres are sold out across the country. There will be repeat business also.

The Oscars go a lot of times on how popular a film is these days.

It was pretty amazing, I was surprised at how much better it was than I thought it was going to be.

The violence is graphic, but not nearly as bad as some critics would have you believe, it's mainly the whippings and it gets repetitive. There are a few instances where a person might tend to cover their eyes, but it's not just wall-to-wall violence for 2 hours.

You might as well expect it to be re-released at the end of the year. Surprising though that Gibson didn't have it released in New York on a screen in late December just for consideration, but he may not care about that type of thing with this movie. It does seem really personal to him, and he believes what he's putting up there on the screen.

Jackskeleton

If you didn't realize that the religious viewers are there then you have been living under a rock. Veggie tales, Bible Man and many other Religious based films have done well in the past on video sales. I think the backlash will indeed be the violence in the film. Folks thinking of taking kids that are way to young will be in for a surprise and I'm sorry, but this is no titanic.

As far as storytelling, plot, character development, etc. All other things that make a film "oscar" worthy, this film is lacking in. It focus so much on his pain that it doesn't ever get past that to why or who or what is going on. Oscar voters will be put off by this.

Get Me Coffee

Too many Jews in Hollywood. Sad to say, but true. You're not going to see this win anything in the Oscars. Sorry for not beating around the bush.

movielib

How many would be not "too many"?

Posts like this say much more about the poster than the object of his or her post.