I when this movie came out, I remember Hollywood declared this movie as being highly "anti semantic" and were protesting against it strongly.
This never made much sense to me because.
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This movie was not atypical to any other movie about the crucifixion of Christ. There had been many movies about the crucifixion of Christ showing Pharisees in a bad light prior to this. There were about 25 minutes of Jewish people treating Jesus cruelly. The rest of the movie was of the Romans brutalizing Christ.
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I really doubt these white skinned secular Hollywood billionaires really feel any connection to these ancient Hebrews.
So what was the real reason for this outrage?
Every director and actor who makes it big is controlled. Some of them cut the strings and flip, when they do their character is assassinated and their career derailed. Mel cut his strings and continues to succeed. They HATE this.