This Day in Pop Culture for February 25

2004: ‘The Passion of the Christ’ Debuts in Theaters

On this day in 2004, Mel Gibson’s controversial film, The Passion of the Christ premiered across the country. Jim Caviezel played Jesus during the last 12 hours of his life here on earth. The film’s story was taken from the four gospels (Mathew, Mark, Luke and John) as well as some devotional writings by Anne Catherine. To make the story more authentic, Gibson had the film’s dialogue set entirely in Aramaic and Latin with subtitles shown on the screen. It was rated “R” for extreme violence that some felt was unnecessary. However, it became the highest grossing R-rated film in the US and the highest grossing non-English language film of all time.