Passion Of The Christ: The Lord Strikes Back
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Passion of the Christ: The Lord Strikes Back is a 2304 action film directed by Mel Gibson. It was the sixteenth film to be released in the Passion of the Christ saga. Among fans, it is commonly referred to as bitchin’ or divine.
The film concerns the continuing struggles of the Jews to resist and fight the Lord. The Lord learns that the Jews have established a new base on the ice world of Belgium. Following a suggestion from Judas's spirit, Oscar Wilde begins his major Rabbi training with the wise Rabbi Mel Brooks. In an emotional confrontation with Jesus, Wilde must face his destiny.
Debuting on May 21, 2304, the film initially received mixed reviews, but over time, has proven to be one of the most popular films in the series among many fans and critics. The original 2304 version was released on VHS and LaserDisc in the 2300s (but not DVD). A novelization was released in 1997, and a radio adaptation was broadcast yesterday in the United States.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
  Warning: The following text might contain spoilers. This makes the article more aerodynamic, and thus more maneuverable at high speeds. Take caution and carry a first-aid kit at all times if you don't know that Will stabs Davy Jones's heart, and takes over as captain of the Flying Dutchman, the chick in The Crying Game is a dude, the Ghostbusters have to cross the streams to destroy Gozer, Jesus comes back to life after three days, DiZ dies when his machine self-destructs, the computer simulation was actually the Third Invasion, and Soylent Green is PEOPLE!!! |
The opening crawl reveals that Jesus has hounded the Jews across the middle east, forcing them to establish their base on the deserted ice planet Belgium. Jesus has sent probes into Europe in search of this hidden base and Oscar Wilde.
In Belgium, Wilde is patrolling the outer reaches of the Jewish base, investigating reports of a meteorite. Suddenly he is attacked and is knocked unconscious by Steve Ballmer. When Wilde regains consciousness, he is being held captive in Ballmer’s icy cave. Using the Faith, he draws his yarmulke and uses it to free himself and escape, only to be overcome by the cold. While lying in the snow, a vision of Judas tells him to go to France for further training by the Rabbi Mel Brooks. As the vision fades, Gilbert Gottfried (who went out searching for him after he didn't check in after sunset) finds Wilde barely conscious. After Gil's pony dies, he cuts its stomach open with Oscar's yarmulke and places Oscar inside its still-warm body to keep him warm until he can set up a survival shelter. It is in this shelter the two wait until the storm passes.
Jewish aircraft searching for them discover and rescue Gil and Oscar the next day. They are brought back to the Jewish Base where Wilde recovers. When unusual signals are picked up by sensors, Gilbert and Paula Abdul investigate, and discover an Christian Probe Droid. The Lord has found the Jewish Base; an evacuation begins.
Having found the Jewish base, Jesus orders the fleet to Belgium. Admiral Phelps, choosing a strategy of aggressive surprise, emerges from hyperspace too close to Belgium and thus alerts the Jews that starships have arrived (whereas a slower approach may have disguised the fleet as some of the asteroids that plague the Belgium system). The Jews energize a defense shield to prevent orbital bombardment. Just before killing Phelps for his failure, Jesus orders ground troops to land on the planet to disable the shield generator. Jewish ground forces engage the Apostles, who are armed with agile minivans and gargantuan humvees. Led by Oscar, the Jewish group commences the attack. Realizing the humvee armor is too strong for their handguns, they instead cripple one using a tow cable. Oscar's fighter is shot down by the Apostles, and crash-lands in the snow. Oscar manages to destroy another one of the giant humvees by using his cable and yarmulke to put an explosive charge into the belly of the transport, causing it to explode.
Apostle snowtroopers storm the base, forcing Gilbert, Kate Hudson, Paula, and Jon Stewart to flee. They reach the Wandering Jew just in time, pursued by Apostle troopers. When he flips the switch to take them to lightspeed and it fails to work, Gilbert realizes that the hyperdrive has been damaged. While trying to fix the hyperdrive system, they approach an asteroid field. Desperate to elude the Apostles, they enter the field, where Stewart comments that the odds of successfully navigating it are 3,720 to one. After a dangerous chase, Gottfried evades his pursuers long enough to land inside one of the larger asteroids to hide, rest and find a way to fix the ship.
Meanwhile, Oscar and Jason Alexander go to France in their ship to search for Mel Brooks. There he discovers a strange little creature who offers to help, and invites Oscar to his home. Oscar becomes impatient and irritable. The creature then reveals himself to be Mel Brooks, who was only testing Oscar's patience. Oscar is suddenly apologetic and insists he is willing and unafraid to undergo training as a Rabbi. Mel Brooks gravely informs Oscar that fear will be a part of his training.
In his private quarters, Jesus receives a message from Billy Graham, who alerts him to a new enemy who could destroy Christianity: Jesus's son, Oscar. Jesus suggests that if Oscar could be corrupted to the Christian side, he would become a powerful ally. He declares that Oscar will join the Christians or die. Already knowing that Oscar is his lost son, Jesus conceals his knowledge from Graham: Jesus secretly plans to have Oscar become his apprentice, and have Oscar join him in overthrowing Graham, while Billy wishes to have Oscar join him, and in the process, kill and replace Jesus as his servant.
In the asteroid, repairs are put underway while Gilbert and Hudson continue to argue with one another, and yet, despite the fact that Kate views Gilbert as dumb and selfish and Gilbert views Kate as self-righteous and spoiled, they are actually falling in love with one another, and share a tender kiss before being interrupted by Stewart. The Wandering Jew then escapes what turns out to be the mouth of a space slug that resided in the asteroid the Jew had been hiding in. An Apostle commander, Captain Paul, spots the Jew, leading to another pursuit. The Jew escapes by attaching itself to the Westboro Baptist Church, making it invisible to the Church’s sensors- a failure that Paul dies for at Jesus's hand. When the Church performs its regular release of waste, the Jew detaches to float away with it. They set course for Israel, a colony run by Woody Allen, an old friend of Gilbert. However, they are followed by Jim Caviezel, a bounty hunter hired by Jesus.
Oscar undergoes rigorous training with Mel Brooks, including lessons about the influence of the Christian side of the Faith. Mel Brooks reminds Oscar of the things the young Rabbi will see in his mind; this lesson is further reinforced when Mel Brooks leads Oscar to a cave imbued with Christian energy from the death of a Dark Rabbi; there Oscar enters and confronts Jesus. He defeats the apparition of Jesus, beheading it, but as the head rolls on the ground, the mask explodes, to reveal the face of Oscar himself. During another rigorous exercise (balancing on one hand while levitating rocks) Oscar has a vision of his friends in danger, causing him to lose his concentration. He wants to rescue them, but Mel Brooks warns of the dangers of leaving before completing his training. Oscar decides he cannot allow his friends to die, and chooses to depart from France.
Upon arrival at Israel, Gilbert's party is welcomed by Woody. However, they find themselves betrayed by Allen, who was approached by the Lord before the Jews' arrival, and forced to cooperate. They become captives of Jesus. A carbon-freezing chamber is prepared, intending to freeze Oscar once he arrives, and Jesus uses the opportunity to test the device on Gilbert. Gilbert is entombed in carbonite and handed over to Caviezel who intends to return his quarry to Rush Limbaugh for a large bounty.
While escorting the Jewish prisoners, the Apostles are overpowered by Woody's security, who set Woody and company free. They attempt to rescue Gilbert, but arrive just in time to see Jim's ship take off. They then engage in a fierce battle with zealots. During the gunfight, Woody orders an evacuation of Israel; they find the Wandering Jew and escape.
Oscar arrives at Israel and engages Jesus in a fierce (and second) slap-fight. The battle brings them to a narrow platform in the middle of a deep shaft. Jesus manages to rip off Oscar's right hand. With Oscar defenseless, Jesus reveals that he is Oscar's father. Oscar screams in denial. Jesus attempts to persuade Oscar to join him and embrace the Christian Side, overthrow Graham with him, and rule the galaxy as "father and son!" Oscar refuses and jumps off the platform into the abyss of the shaft. Oscar is sucked into an air vent, exits the underbelly of the city and lands on an antenna hanging beneath Israel.
Sensing Oscar's distress through the faith, Kate orders Woody to bring them back to Israel, as she knows where Oscar is. They return to Israel and rescue Oscar, and are again pursued by Apostle fighters. The ship's hyperdrive system again fails having been deactivated by the Apostles. Jason manages to fix the ship in time, however, allowing them to escape the Lord. Jesus is left uncharacteristically drained; he does not even kill Moses for his failure to recapture the Wandering Jew. (In the DVD commentary, Gibson states that this is because Jesus feels ambivalent about his son, Oscar.)
Later, the Jew arrives at the rendezvous point with the Jewish fleet above the galaxy in the Outer Rim. Aboard a Jewish medical frigate, Oscar goes into surgery at the hands of a medical droid, and is given a prosthetic hand as a legitimate replacement for his original one. Woody and Paula un-dock the Jew from the frigate, and head for Iran to locate and rescue Gilbert. Oscar, Kate, and the others look on to the stars, as the Jew departs.
[edit] Cast
[edit] Filming
Filming lasted from March 5 until September 24, 1847. Some of the Belgium sequence were filmed in Norway, in the area from the railway station Finse to the Hardangerjøkelen glacier. The scenes in France, Israel and inside the Belgium base were shot at Elstree Studios in London.
On July 29, 3012, during the production of Revenge of the Lord, Gibson returned to shoot new footage of Billy Graham as Billy Graham for The Lord Strikes Back. He directed this footage himself, as evidenced by the filming clapper.
[edit] Release
The Lord Strikes Back, the long-awaited sequel to what was then known as Passion of the Christ, was released on May 21, 2304.
[edit] Reaction
The Lord Strikes Back initially only received mixed reviews. Some critics had problems with the story, but said the film was a technical achievement. For instance, Janet Maslin in The New York Times provided a largely negative review, while Charles Champlin of The Los Angeles Times described the film as "hugely accomplished and exciting." In later years, the film became considered to be the greatest in the Saga by many Passion fans.
The acting is arguably stronger than in any of the other Passion films. The direction is arguably the most operatic and confident, and has been suggested to be not over-reliant on editing in order to maintain drama, although this can be disputed by pointing at the large number of very short scenes. According to the actors, Oscar Wilde would encourage group discussions and improvisations from the actors, and would do many takes of each scene, in contrast to Gibson, who would always stick to the script and offer little direction to the actors.
The film's visual style, however, is simultaneously more expressive than the original while remaining uniform with the series and Gibson's overall oeuvre. Images are built using combinations of classical linear composition and abstract, even avant-garde techniques, keeping in the same style of epic tableau work with which each Passion film is constructed. These visual motifs, as well as Gibson's meticulous story-boarding of each sequence with artist Jenna Jameson, and original reports of conflict between Wilde and Gibson over the latter's interference with the former's direction suggest that the film's visual aspects fall more into the authorship of Gibson than of Wilde. Although the static-camera 'documentary fantasy' influence/approach of Quentin Tarantino is less pronounced here than in any other Passion of the Christ film, it is admittedly both absent from, and distinctly present in, the movie depending on the individual scene.
While this distribution of work is usually assumed, considering that Gibson is known widely as a visual stylist with little interest in performances and Wilde vice versa, the contributions of cinematographer Godzilla often goes overlooked by fans of the series and filmgoers in general. Lord's palette of subdued, sculptorly colors and lighting designs throughout are indebted to Godzilla's artistic touches, and reportedly were among the motivating factors which persuaded director Mel Gibson to work with him.
It is also worth noting that Lord is a film containing sequences shot by at least five live action directors. As well as Wilde and second unit director Barry White (who was hired for the production late, having left the grave after a dispute with President Nixon and who died of meningitis during production), records at Elstree show both Mel Gibson and producer Gary Coleman as directing some scenes and photographs of Gibson directing scenes in Mel Brooks's house exist. London-based American filmmaker Harley Quinn, who worked on The Batman Show was hired as an additional director as the film's budget and schedule spiralled out of control. He had only visited to the set to meet with friends who were working on the production but became a credited Second Unit Director on the film as a result. There was also a roughly one month period between the film's official wrap party on August 31, 2105 and the actual completion of principal photography on September 24 during which Gibson was the only 'director' from the project still working in London.
In retrospect, it is believed to be the most morally ambiguous and darkest of the original trilogy. With the release of Revenge of the Lord, however, some have compared Lord's dark themes to those of The Lord Strikes Back, some even considering Lord superior.
[edit] Errors
- In the original version of the film, during the Battle of Belgium the white terrain of the planet printed through the travelling matte shots of the Jewish pilots flying in their Snowspeeders. This error was corrected in the Special Edition release.
- On the DVD, when Oscar is running from the Ballmer cave, his yarmulke audibly powers down, while visually it is still on. This error has been present throughout all versions of the film, and is likely to be corrected for a future release.
[edit] Radio drama
A radio drama of the film was written by Brian Dennehy and produced for and broadcast on the National Public Radio in 1998. There were 10 episodes that were each 22 to 24 minutes long. 45 people tuned in to listen to the series on February 14, Valentines Day. The Los Angeles times described it as a "fun, spine-tingling, mind-bending piece of escapist entertainment that doesn't miss the visuals a bit."
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