The violence got to be so over the top that I almost got desensitized to it. Upon leaving the theater I thought "that wasn't so gruesome" but it's the kind of movie that several hours later you start to think about it again and suddenly just how gruesome the movie was comes back to you. I understand what Gibson was trying to do though, too often you just see Christ up on the cross and don't realize all the pain and suffering he went through. The word Passion, of course, comes from the latin word meaning "the suffering" (Wow, I feel like SportsCurmudgeon dropping all this knowledge)
The movie was emotional and didn't really even need the subtitles, but it had no true character development or substantial background. If you're not at least remotely familiar with the story of Christ and others (such as Mary Magdalene) you can't really grasp the movie quite the same way as those who do.
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