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Blood Libel
I haven't seen Gibson's Passion, and I don't plan to, but the coverage sure makes it sound like a movie Sam Peckinpah would have loved...

...It's funny how, despite everything Jesus taught about peace and love and forgiveness, the fundamentalists (Catholic and Protestant alike) tend to focus so heavily on the bloody and violent circumstances of his death. They end up treating the crucifixation as the main event, and the resurrection -- the most powerful part of the story, in my opinion -- almost as a coda.

...Come to think of it, Blood Libel wouldn't be a bad alternate title for Gibson's film. Although "Jesus Chainsaw Massacre" -- the one that's currently making the rounds on the blogs -- is also pretty good.

...My friend, who knows the Middle East far better than I do, thinks Passion probably will do very big box office in the region. This isn't likely to reduce antisemitic sentiments there, either. (I'm not sure anything could at this point, but a bad situation can always be made worse.) Islam regards Jesus as a prophet -- not the Prophet, but a prophet nonetheless -- and some of its benighted offshoots also buy into the Jews-killed-Chri...um, Jesus myth. And now Gibson has given them a whole new Hollywood version to sell....