For this occasion, Mel Gibson welcomed Raymond Arroyo in Toronto, where he is finalizing the film’s editing, and granted him an extensive, profound interview filled with flashes of humor.
The Gibson who appears is the same as always: a man of faith, aware that his most important work was not just a movie.
“I wanted it to be as real as possible”
Gibson today defends, with the same serenity as then, the realism with which he portrayed the sacrifice of Calvary: “Previous portrayals were sugar-coated: they made it seem easy, and it wasn’t. I wanted it to be as real as possible, so people could enter that path, which is extremely hard.”
And the brutality that so many criticized? His response is pure catechesis: “I wanted to give an idea of the magnitude of the sacrifice. It wasn’t something halfway. It was everything, to the last drop. There were no reserves: it was the Lamb given completely.”
The doomsayers predicted that the film would bring violence and division. Exactly the opposite happened. What it brought were conversions, some spectacular:
“I’ve seen letters of conversions. There were people who, after watching it, went to confess serious crimes they had kept silent about for years. It’s incredible the power it had.”
And a power that does not expire: Gibson recounts that a few days ago a nineteen-year-old girl saw the film for the first time. “It left her speechless. I told her: ‘This movie is older than you, and it still did this to you.’ She came out moved and, in some way, changed.”
Caviezel, the actor who emptied himself; Mary, humility beside the Cross
About Jim Caviezel, Gibson reveals what he was looking for and what he found: “Someone capable of emptying himself and asking to be filled by something else. And he did. Daily. He became a kind of vessel.”
Especially beautiful is his portrait of the Virgin, whom no one had shown this way in cinema, accompanying her Son step by step to Calvary:
“She was a creature of humility. She didn’t want to draw attention; she was always behind. She spoke when she had to speak. She was like a mother to all the apostles. Her great treasure was humility. Think what it is to give birth to someone and see him suffer like that in front of you… and accept it. And not only accept it: forgive. It has been said that she would have died of grief if she had not been sustained by grace.”
Gibson confirms that the visions of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich illuminated his way of portraying the Sorrowful Mother.
“What is truly astonishing is that he came back to life”
Why tell what comes next, if many consider the Passion the climax of the Gospel? Gibson corrects the premise with the precision of a theologian: “It is not the climax. It is a part, an immense event, yes. But what is truly astonishing is that someone comes back to life by his own power after a public death, and shows himself again publicly. And it wasn’t only the apostles who saw it: hundreds of people saw it, and were witnesses, and proclaimed it.”
The project has cost him twenty years, ten of them spent only on writing: “It’s like a puzzle in which you first have to create the pieces and then fit them together.” The film will cover the great milestones of salvation history —Abraham, Moses, David— as prophecy fulfilled in a single person: “If you read the Septuagint, the ancient books, everything is Christic prophecy. And everything is fulfilled in one man. What are the odds of that? It would be easier to win the lottery. And nobody wins the lottery.”
There is a novelty that will spark discussion: this time there will be no Aramaic or Latin. The Resurrection was filmed in English. Gibson justifies it: “With the Passion it could be done, because everyone knew the story and the focus was twelve hours. But the Resurrection is an event impossible to encompass entirely, which demands much more from the viewer. It seemed absurd to force people to read subtitles while facing such profound concepts. This time we accompany them in their own language.”
“There are no coincidences”
Arroyo asks him if the timing of the release is providential. Gibson’s response sums up his entire vision of the world: “There are no accidents anywhere, so yes. I thought it was arriving late, twenty-three years later. It probably arrives just in time. It’s not my calendar.”
He also champions cinema as a communal, almost liturgical experience: “It’s good that it returns to theaters. They become witnesses to something at the same time, they share something. How was it? ‘Where two or more are gathered in my name…’”
Has making these films changed him spiritually? “Necessarily. Nobody plays in that sandbox without ending up with sand on them. You have to seek the heart of the matter, find grains of truth that resonate in you and that, with luck, will resonate in those who see it.”
His father’s advice: “Worrying is a lack of faith”
The final questionnaire offers delightful moments. About his enemies, of whom he has had no shortage: “You can’t despise anyone. We will all have enemies, and they can be brutal and ruthless. But if you don’t forgive, the one who suffers is you. It’s that simple.”
And the best advice he ever received came from his father:
“He told me: ‘You worry too much.’ I thought that was good, and he replied: ‘No, it’s a sin. Because it shows a clear lack of faith in Providence and in God.’ He didn’t worry about almost anything.”
The closing is straight out of the Spiritual Exercises manual. Arroyo asks what happens when everything ends, and Gibson responds without thinking twice: “Four things. You know which ones: death, judgment, heaven, hell. So one must prepare.” The Four Last Things, recited from memory in the middle of a Hollywood promotion. No small thing.
There is a nod to the longtime faithful: only one actor from The Passion repeats in the Resurrection. Gibson does not reveal the name —“we’ll leave it in suspense, but it’s good.”—
While the mystery is cleared up, the double date is set: The Passion of the Christ in theaters from September 10 to 17, with an exclusive preview of the Resurrection included, and the first part of The Resurrection of the Christ in May. Twenty years later, Gibson once again bets everything on the same card: that the greatest story ever told continues to convert hearts.