Recognizing that Jews often had been portrayed as vile murderers in passion plays, the council also warned that Christ's last hours should be depicted only with great care for nuance and accuracy.
The problem is that Gibson's fundamentalist doctrine rejects all the decisions of that council. However, under pressure from the Jewish community, Gibson agreed to edit out a scene in which Jewish mobs say "His blood be on us and our children" and "Kill him, kill him."
But his attempt to deflect criticism from Jewish groups suffered a setback when his 85-year-old father repeated his belief that the Holocaust was exaggerated.
Gibson has also been accused of crossing the bounds of good taste in his graphic description of Christ's final hours.
"It's essentially the destruction of this man's body," says critic Mike Goodrich. "The flogging scene is absurd. It goes on for 20 minutes or something."
"It's a terribly violent picture," agrees Variety editor Peter Bart. "I'm devoid of any sensibility, but I found it very violent."
RSS