A PASSIONATE DEBATE

On Ash Wednesday, Mel Gibson released what may be the most controversial film in decades, "The Passion of the Christ," a blockbuster recounting the final 12 hours of Jesus' life and his ultimate death on the cross. Gibson, who directed and co-wrote the film, based the script largely on the Gospels of the New Testament.\nTheaters were crowded throughout the week with church groups and interested movie-goers alike. Many churches bought large blocks of tickets, often making up a majority of the audience. Kerasotes Theatres spokesman Scott Cottingham says "The Passion" was by far the biggest seller in Bloomington during its release week, noting that pastors would buy advance tickets and then pass them along to their congregations.\n"The picture was sold primarily through grassroots support through the churches," he says. "So far, the majority of the tickets sold were from church groups."\nJeff Chudy, a campus director for the Campus Crusade for Christ, was among those who saw the film on Ash Wednesday. He and his wife usually lead a Bible study Wednesday night, but last week they decided to invite their students to the film instead of the regular meeting. Chudy says seeing the movie rekindled his curiosity as a Christian.\n"It caused me to want to look more into the biblical records of how Christ died," he says.\nReactions to "The Passion" have been mixed. Audible sobbing in theaters was not uncommon and some people have even found the film so violent they either had to look at the floor or leave the theater to gather themselves. Others say it was the most moving and inspiring film they have ever seen and the gore only strengthened the film's message for them.\nSeveral groups are even accusing Gibson of promoting anti-Semitism through his portrayal of Jews in the film. Others say it is simply a historically-accurate account of Jesus' death and shows no bias against any specific religious faith. \nSue Shifron, rabbi and executive director at the Helene G. Simon Hillel Center, says she could see several instances of anti-Semitism in the film. She says the Jews in the movie are portrayed in a stereotypical fashion, most with large noses and dark hair. Also, she remembers a scene in which Jewish children morph into the character of Satan. Shifron says she is afraid the movie will cause a rise in anti-Semitic sentiment.\n"When passion plays like this are released, they are generally followed by a rise in anti-Semitism," she says. \nFreshman Daniel Birenbaum shares this fear.\n"The Jews in the movie were portrayed as a big, angry mob just demanding Jesus' death," he says. "It made it seem that, 'If it weren't for those damn Jews, then everything would have been fine.' I'm afraid that somebody's going to see it and say, 'Oh, it's because of the Jews that all of this horrible stuff that we see in the movie happened to Jesus, and I want to go out and do something about it.'"\nJunior John Waddell, a parishioner at St. Paul's Catholic church, says while a few people may walk away with anti-Semitic feelings, most viewers won't.\n"I really don't think it's anti-Semitic, I think it's historical," he says. "I think that, overall, most people certainly are both intelligent enough and emotionally stable enough to see it and not draw false conclusions or jump to the idea that they should go out and harm Jewish people because this is what so and so did 2,000 years ago."\nGroups are also divided on the historical accuracy of the film. Some feel Gibson, a traditionalist Catholic, shows too much of his personal bias in his portrayal of Jesus' death. Others, like Waddell, feel the film is as close to the Gospel accounts as possible.\n"I was just hoping that it would be as historically accurate as possible and that it would stay true to the Gospel accounts as far as what Mel Gibson would have seen," Waddell says. "Him also being Roman Catholic, although he's part of a group that doesn't recognize Vatican II, he would be reading the same translation that I would be reading. So I would hope it would follow that very closely and I thought that it did."\nShifron says there were several inaccuracies in Gibson's portrayal of Jewish people, noting that the Jewish high priests would never have had much pull with the Roman government, and even if they had, they would never have called for crucifixion, as it was never used by the Jews.\n"It really made a mockery of the Jewish priesthood of that time," she says.\nAnother contradiction pointed out by both Christians and Jews alike is the portrayal of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of the region in which Jesus was killed. In the movie, Gibson portrays him as an enlightened overseer who is reluctant to put Jesus to death. Both Waddell, a history major, and Birenbaum agree that Pilate's position as governor of Judea would not have been a high position, but more of a punishment or low-level job. He probably would have been more brutal and less caring of Jesus' plight.\nAnd then there's the violence. It's hard to argue that "The Passion" is not an intensely violent movie. Instead, the discussion is whether or not the violence is warranted. Chudy felt the level of violence was necessary to get the message across, though he will not take his two youngest sons to see it.\n"I have never seen a movie that depicts the death in that fashion," he says. "I think it was healthy for me to see, as much as I hated to see it."\nShifron says the violence was unnecessary and made her uncomfortable, as well as the two Christian clergy she viewed the film with.\n"I think it was absolutely overly violent," she says. "It was above and beyond what the Gospels tell from what I've read. I think the movie could have made its point very well without quite as much violence and brutality."\nWaddell says he felt the level of violence was crucial to maintaining historical accuracy.\n"We worry about the violence in the movie, but the bottom line is the ancient world was not particularly friendly towards most people," he says. "That's probably exactly how it would have been. It would have been that messy, it would have been that horrific. To say it would have been any other way I think is diluting ourselves about the way humanity has always been."\nShifron says the majority of the Jewish students she works with don't plan on seeing the film. Birenbaum, who did see the film, says he tried to keep an open mind going into it. Christians, on the other hand, seem to be flocking to theaters en-mass to see this movie. He wonders if there isn't pressure for Christians to it.\n"There's pressure for Jews to see "Schindler's List," so there's probably pressure for Christians to see this movie, especially because there's so much hype about it and bishops and priests are coming out and saying 'This is how it was,'" he says.\nWaddell says no matter what people take in with them, he hopes they don't leave with the wrong message. He says the movie is not about what the Jews did or didn't do to Jesus -- the message is much bigger.\n"I hope that people will take it as it is meant to be taken and not use it as a springboard for hating Jews, because ultimately it is not the Jewish faith that killed Jesus, it is humanity," he says. "And I think that to look at it any other way would be delusional."