Kenneth Brewster

Some have complained it is overly lurid and gruesome, suggested Mel Gibson was exaggerating the brutality; perhaps Gibson was just playing to his own predilection for violence as seen in his other films. I beg to differ. Though a few elements are not historical, these are not the ones criticized as too violent; and none of the savagery shown inflicted on Jesus is any different from what the Romans actually did in arrest, scourging, and crucifixion. All the portrayals we have previously been given were sanitized — even the critical ones. Far from playing to his own predilection for barbarity, I instead contend that Mel Gibson is the only one who could have done the matter justice.