[Brandon]

When I say it's a movie for Christians I don't mean that non-Christians won't think of it as a good movie. What I'm saying is that it has been geared towards current or prospective believers. Why? Because Mel Gibson called it "historically accurate." He doesn't operate under the pretense that he's just following the Gospels, and he never claimed to be doing so. To Saint Mel, everything from the demon kids to the splitting apart of the temple is the naked truth, and the movie reflects that viewpoint.

And guess what? He doesn't even follow the Gospels that well. A great deal of the scenes and portrayals in the movie (particularly the level of violence inflicted on Jesus, Satan's appearance in Gethsemane, and Pilate's wife) came not from the Bible but from the "visions" of Sister Anne Catherine Emmerich, a Catholic nun whose experiences (which were accepted by the Catholic church) are recorded in "The Dolorous Passion."

This isn't a historical account. It's not even literary adaptation. It's theology, and that means Christians (specifically Catholics, it seems) are the target audience.