The Two Jesus's

This weekend I read the book "In the Footsteps of Jesus" from cover to cover. Written by Bruce Marchiano, it tells of his experience in getting to know the REAL Jesus he portrayed in the film "Matthew". It's fascinating, enlightening, humbling.

Got me thinking about it vs. the upcoming "The Passion of The Christ" movie that everyone's going on about. This in particular struck me:

(from an interview with Mel Gibson)
Gibson, who funded, directed and co-wrote the upcoming movie, said he wanted the movie to be shocking and extreme.

"It's very violent and if you don't like it, don't go, you know?" Gibson said in excerpts of the interview provided by ABC. "If you want to leave halfway through, go ahead."

(from Bruce's book)
The night before (we shot the crucifixion) we had brainstormed some graphic crucifixion ideas. We wanted to tell the story in its hard realities, and we talked about shot after shot of Jesus going through horror after horror. We were going to give the world what it had never gotten before, and we were excited to give it to them.

But before the cameras rolled on that first scene, Regardt (the producer) came bounding up with a mixture of awe and excitement on his face and said, "You won't believe this, but when I was praying about the work this morning, the Lord spoke into my heart: Don't be sorry for me."

Regardt then decided the Lord would have us go ahead and shoot reality, but shoot it simply and honestly, resisitng all self-indulgent desires to slap people in the face with it.

Quite simply, they wanted people to see Jesus and not be compelled to leave, or be forced by an age restriction to not even see it.

Now, I have not seen either film. I may be WAY off mark here. But reading Bruce's book impressed on me how much prayer and pleading had gone into every second of every scene in the Matthew film - intercession by producers, cameramen, makeup artists, everyone down to the smallest figure. How nothing was done without first asking for God to reveal and work through what they planned - and how plans would be changed immediately and at the last minute if the Spirit moved differently.

I'd be interested to hear if the behind-the-scenes of The Passion was the same, or if it was created for graphic, big-budget shock-factor instead, revolving around the man Mel, instead of The Man Jesus.

Like I said, I'm not an expert on either film. Just made me wonder...