The Passion Of The Christ Movie

"THE Passion of the Christ" and "Fahrenheit 9/11" might have been the year's most talked about movies, cultural watersheds that produced hefty lines at movie houses and a mother lode of pundits yapping about the inevitable divide between red America and blue America.

Wafer, anybody? Sip of wine? For those fans upset by Oscar's "snub" of "The Passion of the Christ," Republican adman Patrick Hynes has a suggestion for you: Give up watching the Academy Awards this year in favor of holding a "Passion Party." "We're not targeting the Oscars, or the movies. We're not saying you shouldn't patronize the advertisers. Instead, don't watch the Oscars, rent 'The Passion' and invite your friends over," says Hynes, who nonetheless says: "It's not really a boycott.

Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" became the top grossing R-rated film ever with $611 million in worldwide box office receipts. Now, Newmarket Films is rolling the dice on an unrated version. Aimed at those who were kept away by the movie's graphic material, "The Passion Recut" is due out in 950 theaters on Friday, in advance of the Easter holiday. Gibson had hoped that a seven-minute cut would bring him a PG-13 rating. But his Icon Productions was informed by the Motion Picture Assn.

Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," a drama about the last hours of Jesus, is set to debut on 2,000 screens -- an unusually large release for an independent religious film made in dead languages. The movie, with dialogue in Latin and Aramaic and English subtitles, will hit theaters Feb. 25. That would mark the widest opening ever of a subtitled picture, Variety reported. The previous record was 1,225 screens for the Hong Kong action film "Iron Monkey" in 2001.

A good Hollywood publicity campaign does not stumble over technicalities -- like the truth. Still, it takes a particular sort of chutzpah to put a phony quote in the mouth of Pope John Paul II. But according to the pontiff's longtime secretary and confidant, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwicz, that is precisely what filmmaker Mel Gibson and his company have done as part of the run-up to next month's Ash Wednesday release of "The Passion of the Christ."

The controversy over Mel Gibson's upcoming film "The Passion of the Christ" deepened Thursday as two Jewish organizations announced that members had gained admittance to early screenings of the movie and found it painful, offensive and capable of stoking anti-Semitism. On Thursday, Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said he had sneaked into a screening Wednesday at the Beyond All Limits Conference, a pastors' gathering in Orlando, Fla.

The leader of one of two Jewish organizations that this week condemned Mel Gibson's forthcoming film, "The Passion of the Christ," as an incitement to anti-Semitism said Friday that his organization is preparing an 11th-hour appeal for a cinematic postscript to the movie. Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said in an interview that he has all but given up hope Gibson's final cut of the film will omit problematic material from the synoptic Gospels.

In Plano, Texas, two members of a Baptist mega-church bought out a 20-screen multiplex so 6,000 people could watch the premiere of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" next month. In Costa Mesa, a nondenominational church is canceling services on opening weekend and has rented 10 movie theaters. In Dallas, a NASCAR sponsor plans to redesign its race car's exterior to promote the film. In Riverside, another Baptist church, energized by the film's coming, designed an ad ("You've got questions.

As the controversy swirling around "The Passion of the Christ" escalates, director Mel Gibson sent a letter Friday pleading for a detente. Gibson's letter to the Anti-Defamation League's Abraham H. Foxman, a copy of which was obtained by The Times, asks him to join in "setting an example for all of our brethren; that the truest path to follow, the only path, is that of respect and, most importantly, that of love for each other despite our differences."

The body on the screen is beaten to a blood-drenched pulp -- flesh ripped by a cat-o'-nine-tails and rising in welts at the force of the blows. Leather sandals splash and soak in puddles of blood. It is an orgy of pain and violence. Long, brutal scenes such as that one make up much of the yet-to-be-released film "The Passion of the Christ."