Whatever Gibson's announced intentions, the film depicts the Jewish hierarchy, wearing questionable religious garb and some resembling stereotypes, demanding over and over that Jesus be executed. They are shown as relentlessly bloodthirsty, mean-spirited and determined beyond all reason to insist that the Jew who flouted their authority be killed. In contrast, Roman governor Pontius Pilate (Hristo Naumov Shopov) is portrayed totally as Mr. Nice Guy. He and his wife Claudia (Claudia Gerini) are shown to have sympathy and conscience and desperately want to save Jesus. But Pilate, who has the power to make the decision, finally agrees to the execution out of political expediency. Gibson's extremist version of the last 12 hours in Jesus's life may well inflame passions and strip away the ecumenical efforts to remove from Jews the anti-Semitic libel they have suffered through the ages. I swear, Mel, I didn't do it.

However, to examine the film only from this perspective would be insufficient. There are ample other reasons to castigate it. Gibson glories in cruelty and violence to an unprecedented degree for a major motion picture. While he obviously wants to impress us with the extent of Christ's suffering, a valid point to be sure, he goes so far as to make long stretches of the film almost impossible to watch. Indeed, in the gospel according to Gibson, Jesus is whipped and whipped with lethal instruments to the point where his flesh has been stripped off, his body beaten to a pulp with gashes everywhere and his blood spurting all over his sadistic, grinning Roman torturers reveling in their brutality. Jesus would have been dead long before he could be crucified. Gibson's scenes are so unremittingly vicious that they look like a primer for sadists.

The first part of "The Passion of the Christ" sets the stage for the events to come. Once the violence to which Jesus is subjected takes over, there are occasional flashbacks to suggest the spirituality behind Jesus's mission and his preparedness to accept his fate. But there is minimal reference to Christ's teachings and humanity in the context of the numbing exploitation of violence. Gibson has made a one-dimensional film that fails to have the artistic vision needed to be more than the work of a director whose interpretation is mostly a horror spectacle.

In terms of casting, Jim Caviezel conveys Jesus's suffering convincingly and gives solemnity to his inspirational moments. Maia Morgenstern is a haunting presence as Mary and Monica Bellucci adds sensitivity as Mary Magdalene. Caleb Deschanel does his customary first-rate job with cinematography. John Debney's pretentious music thunders along mercilessly as if to tell us that we are watching an epic meant to be important. The script was co-credited to Gibson and Benedict Fitzgerald, and as you no doubt have heard by now, the dialogue is in Aramaic and Latin with English subtitles.