>But see, I think that in order for us to understand from a
>storytelling perspective why the death of Jesus is important,
>we need to see MORE of him spreading his message. It's exactly
>why I liked the last third of the movie, because we get to see
>through flashback Jesus preaching to the people. It helped the
>storytelling (albeit too late into the movie in my opinion)
>because it helped us understand both what this man was about
>and why people wanted to kill him. The movie for the most part
>was simply resolution without conflict. Mel thought the
>conflict was him getting beaten, when the FAR more interesting
>conflict is the spreading of his message vs. the THREAT of
>getting beaten.

the why and the conflict is presented in the opening scene of the movie when Jesus is confronted by Satan in the garden of Gethsemane. like I said before, if you want to see a movie that focuses on Jesus spreading his message, watch The Greatest Story Ever Told. The focus of Gibson's movie is on the price Jesus pays for humanity's salvation, and from a storytelling perspective there's nothing wrong with that.


>>sadly sensationalism is what sells in religion(and society),
>>not the true meat and potatoes or principles the religion
>>could teach
>>thats not Mel Gibson fault tho, like i said thats just the
>>modern state of Christianity
>
>But Mel is a HUGELY influential Christian, you don't think
>that perhaps he could get away with altering the conventions a
>tad?

he's an obsessively traditionalist Catholic, he's not trying to alter any Christian conventions. and the sensationalist violence in the movie is the least problematic thing about it wrt Mel being such a hugely influential Christian... I mean you haven't even commented on the anti-semetic undertones in the movie, but you're worried about the gore factor? wow.