[liberallarry]

It is populated with medieval-type caricatures, screaming out of context, laughing at suffering...
Everyone is gruesome and grotesque, apart from a handful of people such as the Virgin Mary...
Herod is some cross-dressing lunatic, the Pharisee leaders, some of the brightest men of the age, are all obscene brutes and the Roman soldiers and the mob resemble crazed gargoyles...
Barabas...was a Zealot leader, possibly a local aristocrat. We read our Hebrew and Greek, know about Essenes, Sadducees and Jewish life and culture. We understand. Yet here he is portrayed as a dribbling psychotic. As are most of the Jews in the movie...
Jews are generally shown as hideous, stupid and barbaric, but then so are the Romans...
Apart from Pontius Pilate, who is here compassion embodied. The thing is, he was a notorious killer who crucified thousands of people without a second thought...

The author is saying that Gibson portrays medievil myths and prejudices as truth. If he's correct then so is the ADL.

[newzhawk]

I loved the movie- cried and was horrified as well.
I agree that I realized Mel Gibson always goes overboard with the graphic violence and a little bit of embellishing ( as in Patriot) - also is known to horrify with the brutality of the evil ones and their joy of being brutal(Patriot, Braveheart,Lethal Weapon) especially to innocent family members. And the Star Wars effect of Satan and satanic characters was creepy but significant in that it emphasized the Devils' involvement in sinful behavior.
Catholics have been a favorite whipping boy of the media in the last 20 years - no surprise there. It was the attitude he has that is wierd and presumptuous - not Gibson's movie. To act as though it would be something absolutely UNLIKE a Gibson movie is suspicious griping to me!