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Evidently, you are not an asute student of history. I mean real history, not the bible or four gospels. Rather then take my word, I suggest the next time the History Channel presents the miniseries on the Roman Army you watch it. It fact the whole Roman Empire was brutal with its enemies, whether they were killed as victims in the Coliseum, slaughtered in battle, fed to the lions, nailed to the cross, etc. Every person nailed to the cross was totally abused. In fact Roman law prohibited Roman citizens from this torture. The Roman army also invented the word decimination. You know what it means! Whenever Roman soldiers or allies would not fight to the death in battle, after the battle concluded, ten percent of the soldiers were selected at random and killed on the spot. Mr. Gibson's portrayal of the scourge of Christ was right on the mark. Jesus, willingly accepted the scourge as atonement for the sins of all mankind. You call yourself a Christian, but I think you do not understand that Jesus Christ was born to die for the salvation of the human soul! I am not cross with you, I just pity your lack of knowing real history and understanding the purposes of the Lord!

Take 2...

Remember, this is about the movie. Period.

Historical accuracy is n/a as Gibson takes a very jumbled and selective approach to it. I can list the inaccuracies if you like, but I'm sure you've already gleaned them from TLC. Historical inaccuracy is beside the point, however. The viewer shouldn't have to have prerequisite knowledge of *facts* to be moved via an artistic medium. Astute student of history or not, we can all understand manifestations of basic human motivation...the likes of which could have been crisply and unobtrusively illustrated. Mel did a poor job of that in many cases. I'll tell you a good case though...the role of Peter was very well done during his denial of Jesus. We were given a great reason to believe that Peter was capable of that...as he was caught off guard by an angry mob. Another bad case, however...Barabbas. Probably the biggest cliché in the movie. A frothing, filthy, rude, degenerate imbecile devoid of any vestige of humanity. That's what Mel believes it takes to tell the audience that he's "bad"...since we're idiots. He uses a sledge hammer to drive penny nails.

I've been more choked-up by local easter plays.

You'd think I'm insulting Jesus himself because I think Mel Gibson is a hack. Gimme a break.