"; if(is_file("header.php")) include "header.php"; else include "../header.php"; ?>

Travesty I don't have any problem with Jesus being played by Jim Caviezel---those who think that they know what Jesus looked like (light-skinned or dark) are simply indulging in fantasy: no one knows how a Galilean of that period would have appeared. I don't have any problem with someone wanting to tell some version of the Gospel stories with a measure of cultural accuracy: that is an interesting idea, and perhaps timely. I have no problem with the writer adding mythological elements of his own: that is to be expected, and anyway it is in accord with biblical mythology. I see no merit in the claims of anti-Semitism: only the leader of the Sanhedrin is really blamed for Jesus' condemnation, and it is clear that others disagree. There is no uniform antipathy directed towards the Jews in this film. And yet I find this film one of the most despicable exercises in sadism that I have ever witnessed. There is not a shred of genuine religious feeling here, just a terrible desire to turn the gospels into a fantasy of cruelty beyond anything that is actually written. Yes, the Romans were capable of great barbarism, but what we see here is beyond all belief. (Strange that no Italians have risen up in protest: they have far more cause to complain than those who are Jewish.) This film is not a testament to a Christian faith, it is a testament to a sickness of soul that, by the tone of many of these laudatory reviews, is now horribly shared. And finally, those who took children to see this film, knowing what it is like, lacked judgment to a degree that I cannot fathom. What were you thinking? I hope it was worth all the nightmares.