The Big Question (Movie 2004): The Passion Talent Discuss God

The Big Question features The Passion of the Christ actor Jim Caviezel (pictured), Mel Gibson, Monica Bellucci, and other actors, crew members, and set visitors sharing their views on God and the meaning of life.

The Big Question (movie 2004) review: Low-key documentary features The Passion talent – including director Mel Gibson – discussing God and The Meaning of Life

It’s unfortunate that The Big Question, a documentary about the “big questions” surrounding religious faith, was made before the December 2004 tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people around the Indian Ocean. Filmmakers Francesco Cabras and Alberto Molinari could then have asked one more pertinent question to their dozens of interviewees of different religions, nationalities, and social backgrounds while on the set of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ:

If there is a God (or Goddess, or gods, or goddesses), how could such a horrific, unimaginably destructive tragedy have taken place?

Answers would surely have been as thoughtful, stupid, funny, weird, mean-spirited, and/or illuminating as those provided by the film’s talking heads while responding to questions such as “Who is God for you?” and “How would you describe who God is to your child?”

The Passion of the Christ as setting, not subject

Cabras (the bad thief Gesmas in The Passion of the Christ) and Molinari had previously worked together on the documentary Spaghetti Requiem / Italian Soldiers, shot during the making of the Nicolas Cage-Penélope Cruz drama Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, in which Cabras had a bit part.

But whereas Spaghetti Requiem was a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a Hollywood movie on location (Greece, with numerous Italian extras), The Big Question has nothing to do with the making of The Passion of the Christ in the outskirts of southern Italy’s ancient town of Matera – except in that it uses the film’s cast and crew members (and visitors) as a microcosm of the human race.

In fact, according to the filmmakers, the framework for The Big Question was inspired not by The Passion of the Christ but by Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1964 documentary Love Meetings / Comizi d’amore, in which the director asks his subjects about their views on sex.

Talking heads & hands

In Cabras and Molinari’s film, we never actually see the filmmakers asking any of “the big questions.” Instead, we are treated to a variety of heads of different sizes, shapes, colors, and age groups talking directly to the camera. Additionally, in a montage representing thought and faith as manifested through the body, we see close-ups of “talking” hands.

Although a mostly static camera focused on nonstop talking heads may sound unexciting, the directors’ cinematic approach is in fact intriguing. The questions asked may be grammatically simple, but they are both weighty and complex.

So when the interviewees talk while looking into the camera, it’s as if they are having an intimate conversation with us, whether agreeing with or challenging our own beliefs and assumptions. For even within The Big Question’s relatively confined boundaries, the responses to inquiries about God and faith are remarkably disparate.

Thus, different viewpoints are spilled forth, sometimes leading to disagreements between the interviewees themselves. At other times, we see through the filmmakers’ clever montage how the various concepts of divinity are at their core intellectual decisions based on one’s cultural background, level of intelligence, and personal experiences and prejudices.

See below, a fake-blood-covered Jim Caviezel discussing Jesus Christ in The Big Question.

‘Prone to be insane’ Mel Gibson

Among those providing memorable talking-head moments is a wide-eyed, wildly gesticulating Mel Gibson, who – convincingly – says he’s “prone to be insane,” while explaining how he felt the urge to look for divine guidance after finding himself lost in the nothingness of fame and wealth.

In another curious vignette, a Christian clergyman declares that there is only one God – of the Christian kind – and that it’s either faith in that God or No Salvation, for “in the end something has to be right.”

Regrettably, the Christian man of the cloth isn’t followed by an equally radical Muslim imam asserting that it’s either Allah or Eternal Damnation, but at least we do get to see Romanian actress Maia Morgenstern (the Virgin Mary in The Passion of the Christ) stating that “when you start to say my religion is better than your religion, then it’s the end.”

Caviezel & Gibson vs. ‘democratic approach’

Now, credit must be given to Cabras and Molinari for not having The Big Question revolve around The Passion of the Christ’s Big Names. Mel Gibson, Monica Bellucci, and Jim Caviezel get about as much screen time as extras, crew members, and visitors.

One important qualm about this democratic approach, however, is that the directors refrain from telling us who their subjects are. They clearly want us to see everyone as equal “religion experts,” so we will not regard one opinion as worthier than another because it comes from the mouth of an authority figure or a famous movie star.

That’s a well-intentioned approach, no doubt, but it’s also a self-defeating one, for those watching The Big Question will easily be able to identify members of the clergy by their clothes. Most will also recognize the traditionalist Catholic Gibson, and many will know something or other about Bellucci and Caviezel. But chances are that audiences will have no idea of the identity, or the social and cultural background of most of the other interviewees.

Also, if we learned more about the respondents’ histories, their opinions and religious views might then seem less personal and more cultural – or, as the case might be, vice versa – thus adding a new dimension to the replies.

The Big Question documentary with Greg the Dog.

Dog-wolf in search of the big answers

Interspersed with the interviews are several beautifully photographed sequences of a lone dog roaming through ancient ruins, overcoming obstacles, and staring inquiringly at the universe. These scenes are an obvious but no less effective analogy to the human experience on this plane.

After all, Greg, the half-dog half-wolf truth seeker, has a more expressive face than most two-legged actors working in films nowadays, and his search is made more moving by Alessandro Molinari’s evocative score. (It should be noted that I watched The Big Question on DVD in less than ideal conditions; even so, the technical and artistic qualities of the film remained impressive.)

Puzzling mysteries

As to be expected, no definitive answers to The Big Questions in Life are provided before the documentary’s final fade-out.

Instead, The Big Question will likely leave viewers asking questions that aren’t as commonly asked as they should be. Potential queries include:

• How does our social and cultural background influence – or downright determine – what we believe in? For instance, if a fundamentalist Christian from Tennessee, U.S.A., had been born and raised in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, would he or she have grown to become a fundamentalist Muslim? Or vice versa?
• Are religion and spirituality one and the same?
• Is religion a worthy spiritual path or is religious dogma an obstacle to spiritual enlightenment?

What if there is no God?

And what if there is no God?

As seen in The Big Question, for Mel Gibson – and others like him – the absence of a divine power would mean total chaos from which one could escape only through artificial means.

There is, however, another way of looking at that possibility. As another interviewee explains, if there’s no God then our responsibility for doing good becomes all the greater.

Could that be true? In its simple, unpretentious manner The Big Question suggests that we stop and ponder.

The Big Question (movie 2004) cast & crew

Directors: Francesco Cabras & Alberto Molinari.

Screenplay: Francesco Cabras.

Cast: Greg the Dog.
Interviewees: Mel Gibson. Monica Bellucci. Jim Caviezel. Rosalinda Celentano. Maia Morgenstern. Luca De Dominicis. William J. Fulco. Claudia Gerini. Christo Jivkov.

“The Big Question (Movie 2004)” endnotes

The Big Question documentary reviewed at the AFI FEST (website).

Jim Caviezel video and Greg the Dog The Big Question documentary image: ThinkFilm.

Jim Caviezel The Passion of the Christ image: Newmarket Films.

“The Big Question (Movie 2004): The Passion Talent Discuss God” last updated in April 2023.