how many people actually regard this thing as "controversial"? if not for the obsessive jewish groups trying to stop it, the damned thing would have attracted no more attention than any other jesus film, like demille's or the more arty attempts...
the need to depict gibson's religious stance as somehow more or less fanatic than any other believer in mythology and legend about divinity and special relationships to it should be laughable, but is more damagingly hypocritical...
as far as the anti-Semitism angle, either totally accepted or non-existent, depending on fanatic belief system, am reminded of a comment made here about preliminary evidence of anti-Semitism being found on mars...sorry i forgot who said it, but thanks to whoever it was...
am interested in hearing about the film from someone with no political or religious angle but for the moment will settle for a sweet young co-worker of my wife's...she is a church going catholic, but of good enough humor to deal with ribbing about religion from her workmates...her comment after seeing the film went along the lines of , very moving, it made me cry...when asked about anti-Semitism, she gave a blank look and said "what?"...
beauty , also, is in the eye of the beholder...
fs