2 Jewish Leaders Upset After Viewing 'Passion'

New York Times

I'm a little skeptical about these critiques. I don't think you're going to find an portrayal of Jesus' last hours in which the Jews come out looking too good. Except for Jesus and his disciples, that is. And I think that says a lot, actually - if someone where to truly come out of the movie thinking Jews were horrible people, they'd have to forget that Jesus is one. That's not an easy thing to do in a movie about him.

I think the message for any mildly-intelligent viewer would be that some Jews were bad people, and some Jews were good. Just like some Catholics are bad, some are good, some Americans are bad, some are good, etc. The fact that some people won't swallow this doesn't say anything about The Passion, but about how idiotic some people are. If we had to make movies around what idiots would think, Rollerball would be the norm.

I'm not arguing that these critics don't have a valid point about Gibson picking and choosing from the very worst interpretations of certain Jews' behavior - I'm not qualified to judge that debate. But whether Gibson did or didn't, some Jews from two millennia ago are going to look bad. But the movie might still be worth a watch.