The Passion
What a powerful representation of the passion story. Two words that come to mind are: brutal and bloody. During most of the movie either the romans or the jews are beating on Jesus. Since this is only a movie, it cannot be taken as fact. However it is directly taken from the Bible and from what we know of that time period there is no reason to think that it isn't close to the truth. So it would be safe to assume that Jesus did experience severe physical suffering before he was crucified. In the movie, his body is basically an open wound. One realization that I had was that by the time he was nailed to the cross, his body was probably numb.

Some other important items to note. The movie is not in english. They are speaking the languages they would have spoken for real. So it is subtitled. This made the movie more powerful. During the brutality scenes, there are flashbacks to the last supper. These scene are quite powerful also.

I know there is some controversy about the movie being anti-semitic. However the movie seems to be an accurate representation of the facts. The high priests were the ones who instigated Jesus' death. To say that it is anti-semitic would be like saying the movie roots is anti-white. Jews need to realize that this is part of their heritage. They did not believe that Jesus was the messiah and they believed he was blasphemous and needed to be stopped. Now they need to accept their part in the story.

I'll step off the soap box now, and you go see the movie!