In depicting the last dozen hours in the earthly life of Jesus of Nazareth, Mel Gibson, who directs a script he wrote with Benedict FItzgerald, takes the gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John as literal truth. There is no allowance for metaphor or myth, no hint of contemporary interpretation. People will see what they want to see in a movie shorn of any point of view not in literal accord with the gospels.

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