The answer? Americans have profound respect for religion, and the genius of Mel Gibson is that he has marketed this film as a spiritual experience. How is it possible for so many to witness graphic images that ensure nightmares - and happily bring their children along with them? How can an American society that becomes frantic at the momentary sight of indecent exposure at the Super Bowl be so indifferent to the 90-minute display of unimaginable cruelty? "Jews are always going to find fault," she said, "with a story that tells the truth about our Lord!"Īnd then I understood. But her anger and the words that followed made me understand the real problem with a film that has already achieved not only unparalleled press but also a veritable cult following.
Surely what she meant was that I had reacted by way of my religion's sensitivity and abhorrence of bloodshed. "You must be Jewish," she said.įor a moment I felt complimented. I was in no mood for a theological discussion so I simply said I was appalled by the violence.
#INAACURACIES IN THE PASSION OF CHRIST MOVIE MOVIE#
True, I had been duly warned by reviewers that this is no less than "The Goriest Story Ever Told," a Marquis de Sade version of the Gospels in the words of Leon Wieseltier, the literary editor of The New Republic, "a repulsive, masochistic fantasy, a sacred snuff film." And still I was not prepared for what appeared on the screen.Īs the movie mercifully came to an end and the lights went on in the theater, the woman seated next to me, a total stranger, turned and asked how I had liked it. I went to a showing of "The Passion of the Christ," I watched for as long as I could bear it, and then, when the scenes of sadistic torture began to make me feel physically ill, I closed my eyes. "Well," people ask me, "did you finally see the movie?"