Controversy

Anti-Semitic? I don't think so.
Violent? It ends with a crucifixion.
Marketing? Got the job done, with extra, special thanks to people who have been saying it's anti-semitic.
Director standing up for his beliefs? My hat's off to you.

Any project that inspires dialogue to the degree that this film has, I believe is worth seeing.

The Passion of the Christ
I have never flinched so much. I didn't expect to like it because of all the hype. I loved this film.
Spoken Arameic and Latin with English subtitles. The fact that I am Catholic lent to the fact
that I loved this film, but it was not the only reason.
Spoken dialogue is limited. It's all in the facial expressions and the body language.

Scourging scenes. Damn. It's historically documented people were tortured this way.
Makes me wonder if we, as humans, have become any more civilized.

When it was all over no one moved for minutes. Dead quiet. With all the movies I have
seen, and they have been too many to count, I have never witnessed such quiet in a
packed theatre.

It goes without saying that Christianity is not a prerequisite to have an opinion, but try to form it
after seeing it for yourself instead of letting everyone else's opinions make up your mind for you.
If you choose to watch it...that is.

I doubt this film will be recognized in next year's Oscars and that will be a shame.