[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Everybody keeps bringing this thing up about Mel's hand. Meaningless. It's JUST .... a .... hand.

No, it isn't just a hand. It is the filmmaker's hand. It is the hand of a non-Jew. It is the hand of someone who was never a Roman soldier. It is the hand of a human being who is acknowledging his own sin, his own guilt, his own role in this story.

like the WHOLE movie .... make Jews look like monsters.

Oh really? Does Jesus (a Jew, and God himself, to boot) look like a monster in the movie? How about his mother? What about the girl who tries to bring him water? Nearly every protagonist in this film is a Jew.

But I guess that doesn't count, 'cause you don't want it to.

[mercy]

It counts to me. It does not count to many Jews. The preponderance of Jews are made to look like monsters. In this movie the only good Jews are Christians already. So it looks like all non christian Jews are monsters. This could have been avoided and it was not the case at the time of Jesus' death. Quite the reverse but the movie does not show this. The Gospels make this clear. The movie does not.