Separating Gibson from his 'Passion'

Mel GIBSON'S "The Passion of the Christ" arrives tonight, with the rest of the world in hot pursuit. It's one thing for every dimwitted morning radio DJ to have an opinion about Janet Jackson's breast baring, but since when has everyone from the pope to Howard Stern to the cashier at Canter's deli weighed in with their two cents about the last 12 hours in the life of Christ?

At the Daytona 500, Bobby Labonte's Chevrolet was transformed into a billboard for the movie. (Alas, he finished 11th.) Four thousand prints of the film will be in theaters, with many planning to play the movie 24 hours a day. James Dobson of Focus on the Family has endorsed the film as "an unprecedented evangelistic opportunity," urging churches to buy tickets for every kid in Sunday school, even though the film is rated R and -- trust me, I've seen it -- at least as violent as "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."

At first, the denizens of Hollywood dismissed the film as a crackpot vanity project by a movie star crazy enough to spend more than $25 million of his own money on his religious convictions. Now they're green with envy at the blitzkrieg of free publicity Gibson has generated for the film. The movie made the cover of Newsweek (whose cover asked the immortal question: "Who Really Killed Jesus?") while Entertainment Weekly drolly portrayed the filmmaker wearing a crown of thorns. Gibson's appearance on Diane Sawyer's "Primetime Special Event," where he muttered darkly that "it's only logical to assume that conspiracies are everywhere, because that's what people do, they conspire," earned better ratings than CBS' "60 Minutes" interview with Michael Jackson.

So what does this all mean? Is "The Passion of the Christ" just one of those periodic lightning bolts that sparks a media thunderstorm, or is it something more? I vote for the latter.

It has been astounding to watch how people who've seen the film in screenings are affected by it in such wildly different ways. Many filmgoers are appalled by "The Passion's" graphic violence. Many are profoundly moved by "The Passion's" portrayal of Christ's last hours. Others are disturbed by Gibson's one-dimensional rendering of Caiaphas and his Jewish high priests. Still others -- like me -- are especially disappointed to see many of the same people who were so quick to rally against Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ" loudly berating anyone raising questions about "The Passion."