Here's why I would not watch the film. It may as well be called "Passion of the Catholic Christ."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passion_of_the_christ
Details in the film not present in the New Testament
(Where possible, the source of these details is indicated in parentheses after the entry.)
* During Jesus' distress in the Garden of Gethsemane, Satan is shown speaking to him. (In Luke 4:13, it is said that the Devil left Jesus "for a time", and many theologians reason that Satan's moment was in the Garden, but this encounter is not recorded in the Gospel.)
* In the Garden, Jesus crushes a serpent's head. This was a reference to Genesis 3:15, the Protoevangelion.[4]
* A Jewish Temple guard, sent to apprehend Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, drops him from a small bridge suspended from a chain. (Taken from Anne Catherine Emmerich, The Dolorous Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, chapter 3.)
* Judas is tormented by "children" whose morphing facial features suggest they are demons, driving him to suicide. Matthew reports that Judas committed suicide by strangulation, presumed to be from hanging. Acts states that his body also fell, causing him to burst open and spill out his bowels. (Emmerich reports that he "fled as if a thousand furies were at his heel" and later mentions Satan standing at his side to drive him to despair, chapter 14.)
* The movie depicts some Jews as opposing the absence of the Sanhedrin's quorum, thereby challenging the legality of the trial and intimating that Jesus was not being treated fairly by Jewish leadership. (Emmerich mentions a similar event in chapter 13.)
* When Jesus is first brought before Pontius Pilate, Pilate beholds his bloody, bruised condition and asks members of the Sanhedrin (the high council of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem) if they always beat prisoners prior to trial. (Emmerich, chapter 17.)
* Herod Antipas is portrayed as a mincing, lisping, effeminate homosexual, complete with a "boy-toy". Although this was a common caricature of Herod in medieval Passion plays and even in Jesus Christ Superstar, it does not appear in the Gospels and is contrary to the historical record regarding Antipas.
* Mary Magdalene is shown as "the woman taken in adultery" saved from execution by Jesus' famous "let him who is without sin cast the first stone" statement. The identification of Mary Magdalene with the adulterous woman is a matter of contention between the Catholic Church and various Christian denominations, feminists, and adherents to "New Age" religions.
* Pilate is shown discussing with his wife the fragility of his relationship with Tiberius Caesar, emphasizing orders Caesar gave him to avoid uprisings in Judea. (Cf. Emmerich, chapter 19. The gospel of Matthew only mentions a message from Pilate's wife delivered while Pilate is hearing the case.)
* During the scourging scene Jesus is nearly flayed alive, back and front, by a variety of whip implements, some with embedded shells, glass and nails. The Gospels state only that he was scourged (see flagellation). However, the Gospels do state that Christ was "almost unrecognizable" after that day.
* After the scourging, Mary wipes up the blood of Jesus with towels provided by Pilate's wife. (Emmerich, chapter 23.)
* Along the Via Dolorosa, Jesus is repeatedly rope whipped by a trailing Roman soldier.
* Simon of Cyrene, who helps Jesus carry the cross and puts his arm around him, is debased, treated poorly by a Roman soldier, and called "Jew" with a sneer. Only Simon's name, place of origin, and the fact that he helped Jesus carry the cross are in all three Synoptic Gospels. (Cf. Emmerich, chapter 36.)
* Along the Via Dolorosa, the image of Jesus' face is transferred to a cloth given to him by a woman. This event does not appear in any Bible narrative, but is a depiction of the Roman Catholic tradition of Veronica's Veil. (Emmerich, chapter 34, which also includes her offering Jesus a drink.)
* While travelling along the Via Dolorosa, Jesus falls under the weight of the cross three times. Also, Mary goes to Jesus so that she may comfort Him. Though these events are traditionally accepted in the Roman Catholic Church as part of the Stations of the Cross, they are never mentioned in the Gospels; however, Simon of Cyrene was compelled to complete the task of carrying Jesus' cross (which is mentioned in the Gospels). (Emmerich describes seven falls and also the encounter with Mary, chapters 31-36.)
* When Jesus' right arm does not extend far enough to reach a nail hole on the cross, a Roman soldier dislocates the arm at the shoulder by pulling it with a rope until the palm is over the hole. (Emmerich chapter 38.)
* After Jesus is nailed to the cross but before it has been raised, Roman soldiers flip the cross and Jesus over. When they are flipped face-down, Jesus and the cross seem to levitate above the ground, and when flipped back-down, both land with high impact on the ground. (Reportedly a mistake in the filming that Gibson decided "looked good".)
* The names assigned to the thieves crucified with Christ, Dismas and Gesmas (also Gestas), are traditional but are not given in Scripture. (Cf. Emmerich, chapter 43, and the apocryphal "Acts of Pilate," also known as the "Gospel of Nicodemus".)
* The crucified criminal who mocked Jesus was shown being pecked at mercilessly by a raven.
* In the film Jesus builds a table in a rather modern style -- one that one would sit at using chairs, but his mother tells him that "it'll never catch on."
* The devil is shown carrying an "Ugly Baby" during Christ's flogging. No mention of this is in the Gospels, and Mel Gibson is reported to have said "it's evil distorting what's good. What is more tender and beautiful than a mother and a child? So the Devil takes that and distorts it just a little bit. Instead of a normal mother and child you have an androgynous figure holding a 40-year-old 'baby' with hair on his back. It is weird, it is shocking, it's almost too much-just like turning Jesus over to continue scourging him on his chest is shocking and almost too much, which is the exact moment when this appearance of the Devil and the baby takes place." Another interpretation held by some viewers was that the baby was actually the Antichrist, symbolically being nurtured on the hatred of Jesus by the crowds. Yet another interpretation holds that the baby is representative of original sin (the curse Jesus came to remove by his sacrifice). Cf. James 1:15 "Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death."
* The earthquake described by Matthew causes a huge fissure to split the Temple down the center. In the Gospels it is only reported that the curtain at the holy of holies was split.
* The final scene of the movie shows Jesus leaving the tomb after the Resurrection. This detail is not present in the Bible -- it only tells of the arrival of the women at the tomb, where Jesus is nowhere to be found, though it can be assumed from the later Resurrection appearances where Jesus is described as having `the mark of the nails in his hands`. (John 20: 25-27)
Most of these details have been taken from Roman Catholic Tradition and the visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich, who vividly described Jesus' Passion in the book The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to the Meditations of Anne Catherine Emmerich (Sulzbach, 1833). For Catholics, the visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich are not considered part of the oral Apostolic Tradition and therefore Roman Catholics are not compelled to accept them as true lest they be outside the faith. (Emmerich received beatification in 2004, though her visions were not considered as material for the process, since they were written down by another, who appears to have elaborated on them.) Details beyond primary textual sources are to be expected in dramatizations of historical events, but the trend and tenor of non-source material can assist in understanding the general tendencies of the creators.
