I was disappointed when I read Darren Poley’s article on the controversy behind “The Passion” in the lastest issue of The Villanovan.

First of all, what right does he to judge a movie that he has never seen? To compare and contrast “The Passion” to movies like “Dead Man Walking” or “Star Wars” just illustrated his ignorance even further.

The controversy is not about whether the movie should have been made. Most people agree that movies about Jesus should be made and can be wonderful educational tools (both for the Christian and Jewish faiths). The controversy is about the utter lack of grace and compassion that Mel Gibson illustrated through his brutal and excessively violent depiction of “The Passion”.

I saw the movie and was very disappointed. Pontius Pilate, who the Catholic church now holds responsible for the death of Jesus, was made out to look like good man without a choice. Historically speaking, the Romans only lashed their victims 39 times for fear that they would do at the 40th… Jesus was lashed over 100 times in the film.

I went into the movie hoping that I would learn a lesson and walk out of there with a different outlook. I ended up covering my eyes through half of the film (due to the excessive blood, guts, and torture).

It is funny that Poley compares “The Passion” to “Schindlers List”. Here is the difference: Spielberg made the movie in a moving, classy, smart fashion that was more about the MESSAGE than the brutality. You didn’t need to see the Jews thrown in the oven for 2 hours to get a great message. Gibson, with his adoration for blood and violence, ended up making a film more akin to “Kill Bill: Vol 1” than “Schindlers List”. And tell Mr. Poley that although the Germans did risk some “Anti-German” sentiment with the release of “Schindlers”, the fear that the Jewish people have is much more intense. They DID go through a Holocaust only 60 years ago, due much in part to propoganda films that Hitler showed the Nazis. My grandmother still has her tatooes from the German concentration camps. The last thing she needs in her life is more anti-semitism, ESPECIALLY when it is coming from Gibson’s Vatican I beliefs.

Hopefully in the future, your editors will make your writers SCREEN the movie before they write misinformed and ignorant pieces. He missed the whole point of why people are so split down the middle on this movie.