The Passion of the Christ

This Mel Gibson movie is causing lots of controversy. Jews say that the movie will set Christian-Jewish relations back 100 years, due to the portrayal of the Jews betraying Jesus in the movie. Noone seems to be able to figure out if the Pope approves of the movie, or if he disapproves. Some say the crucifixion scene is too graphic and drags on for too long. The clips I've seen do look pretty brutal. At one point they show Jesus with the crown of thorns on, bleeding and with one of his eyes swollen shut. Mel Gibson faults Hollywood for trying to stop his movie from coming out. He pointed out that most of the large movie companies are owned and run by Jews. I believe Mel used $30 million of his own money to make the movie. Mel has said that he believes his own wife will go to hell because she's not Catholic.

I've heard that the carrying of the cross, whipping, crown of thorns, nailing to the cross etc takes up about 45 minutes of the movie. It will probably be tough sitting through that much straight brutality. I have a trouble when I see someone in a movie being taken advantage of, beaten, tortured etc, so I would imagine if it really does last that long, it will be tough to handle.


I respect Mel Gibson for feeling so passionately about getting this movie out there. Anytime religion comes into play their will always be controversy. You can give 100 people the same Bible passages and they would come up with 100 different interpretations. One things for sure, the movie will do huge business. Releasing the movie on Ash Wednesday will certainly draw more attention to it. Catholics, well priests anyway have been painted in a pretty poor light lately. I hope Mel interpretation isn't too over the top and fanatical. During his interview with Diane Sawyer, it seemed like he is a bit fanatical.