Agreed on that. Dare we hope that we get more film of this quality? I hope so!
the portrayal of the Sanhedrin is not an indictment of the Jews, but rather one against intellegencia and elitists of all the ages, the "secular humanists",
And that's exactly what the Sanhedrin was. They had so dissociated themselves with the Spirit of God that their entire lives revolved around Temple politics. They were the "politically correct" of their time. I think that showed through in the film quite well.
I was very pleased to hear Mel Gibson make the statement on one of the talk shows the other night that "no one can be a Bible believing Christian and be anti-semitic." If you read the book... you will see that to follow Him you must not be. I was just so pleased to hear Mr. Gibson say that, because the concept is so difficult to get across to people sometimes!
Yeah, I know, the goober-heads won't have heard Mel say it either...