Mel Gibson is deeply troubled but a genius film maker. Passion of the Christ is a brilliant horror movie but ridiculously over-the-top as a Bible movie. The visuals are beautifully crafted and fantastical in a nightmarish surealism but lacks any resemblence to historical reality. Passion makes the Robe look like a documentary, and the Robe was as campy as Bible movies could get until Passion.
Gibson never attempted to make this film realistic. It was shot on sets in Italy and looks nothing like the environment where the Bible stories take place. Monty Python's Life of Brian does a far better job of presenting a realistic Christ story even though it is a parody. Life of Brian is as brilliant in it's clean sparten simplicity as Passion is in it's European mystical theatrical fakery.
I never once felt like I was being transported to Roman occupied Palestine in the 1st Century in the Passion. It was more like seeing centuries of Catholic art works and icons being brought to life in a horrible nightmare. I enjoyed the Passion as a horror film filled with Gibson's guilt ridden demons and the hellish violence they spawn. But it is terriable as a realistic "Bible" film trying to bring the Gospels to life. The Passion appeals to the dark and primitive emotions and not the intellect. The entire dialogues spoken in ancient languages prove just how meaningless the words are in this story which is designed to appeal to the senses and emotions and not the mind. The drone of the languages became an hypnotic part of the soundtrack isolating the viewer ever deeper into the nightmare.
No human, no matter how perfect, could lose so much flesh and blood and live at all let alone stand up and still carry heavy beams to the execution site. The flipping of the cross over to bend the huge nails under was especially over-the-top in a movie of constant theatrical exaggerations. The maggot filled donkey, the silver toothed female Devil, the Devil-dwarf baby, the literal buckets of blood, the clots of torn bloody flesh flinging through the air, the brutal and ugly human faces smothering the viewer, the darkened sepia skies, and the clanking of heavy chains and wierd soundtrack noises all speak of bad dreams and not reality.
I find it odd that such an art house, R rated, Catholic flavored horror film could resonate so well with mainstream American Protestants. The fact that it did just proves to me how much raw emotion is really involved in even modern Christian belief. Sadism, fear, and guilt are such major components of these beliefs that they transend time and sects.