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:: The Jewish perspective, by Andrew Pearlman

MEL Gibson has created a powerful and harrowing depiction of the last day of Christ.

He paints a stunning portrayal of Jesus and ancient Jerusalem with a deep conviction that gives the film intense emotional power.

It begins in the garden of Yesemini, with Jesus praying, watched by a sinister black-hooded figure, a living spectre whose haunting presence follows Jesus throughout the film and appears as a premonition of the awful events about to unfold.

The appearance of unexpected demons heightens the sense of foreboding, and reinforces the guilt of those who betray Jesus.

The demons are clearly apparent at Judas' suicide, showing us the depth of his guilt.

The use of Latin and Aramaic combined with understated costume helps achieve a sense of realism, a sense that we are actually witnessing Jesus' last hours.

The film's vivid power emanates from its violence, the shock of Jesus' torture, beatings, and crucifixion.

The Roman soldiers, who punish Jesus on behalf of Pontius Pilot, delight in whipping him.

They gouge out his flesh, beating him with a metal ended whip, in a state of almost primordial pleasure; degrading his body to the state of a bloodied carcass.

Jesus' suffering continues throughout the film, culminating with the crucifixion, which is shown in graphic detail, his hands and feet bleeding when the nails are hammered in and his mutilated body is hauled up before the gathered crowd.

The film, however, leaves you with no doubt who is responsible for the death of the Jesus, the Jews, the Temple Priests who convict him on slender grounds, spitting in his face and beating him, a common theme throughout the film, when he dares speak against them.

The Jewish crowd that gathers before Pilot are equally guilty because they demand Jesus' death and are not satisfied when they see the result of his bloody punishment.

Instead, led by Caephus, they call for his crucifixion.

The message is enhanced by Gibson's depiction of Barrabas, the prisoner Pilot offers to the crowd, as a grotesque and gluttonous gargoyle, whose leering presence the Jews wish to see live, if it means that Jesus, who Pilot believes to be innocent, can die; a decision that leaves the Roman Governor in a state of exasperated bemusement.

Pilot himself is the most sympathetic character, a world-weary man forced to serve in a provincial backwater, despairing of troublesome Jews, vengeful priests and of his wild and lecherous soldiers.

In washing his hands of Jesus' death he is depicted as trying to do the right thing in front of a crowd baying for blood.

He orders the crucifixion merely to prevent a general revolt of Judea, much to the horror of his wife who shows compassion to Jesus' family throughout the film.

Despite the prejudice, The Passion Of The Christ is a powerful and moving piece of cinematic drama, rich in symbolism and personal interpretation, underscored with an ever present sense of fatalism and demonic foreboding.

Andrew Pearlman is a York University student and a member of the York Jewish Society

:: The Catholic perspective, by Father David Grant

WHEN it was first revealed that Mel Gibson planned to produce a movie about the events leading up to, and including, the crucifixion of Jesus, with the dialogue in Aramaic and Latin, it seemed that Old Mel had become as crazy as the Mad Max character who had propelled him to stardom.

But then, as it became increasingly obvious that Gibson had a box office smash on his hands, the mood changed.

Gibson belongs not to the mainstream Catholic Church but to a very conservative splinter group which regards the contemporary church as too liberal.

Gibson's father, it was rumoured, had at least downplayed if not denied the Holocaust; so was there a sinister intent behind the making of this film?

It would seem Gibson was driven by a deeply personal motive.

As he became more successful in Hollywood, Gibson got into a downward spiral of drugs alcohol abuse and womanising.

It was a personal crisis which, in 1991, led him to contemplate suicide. What lifted him from this pit of despair was the Passion.

As the film's translator, Fr William Falco S.J. - professor of classics at Loyola Marymount University in California - has stated, in the early 1990s Mel was "bottoming out" when he had a religious experience in which "Christ reached down and embraced him". Since then "he has had an obsession with the Passion of Christ as a saving factor in his own life".

The film is not a straight retelling of one of the gospel accounts, neither is it a simple amalgam of all four gospels. It does take a lot from John's Gospel but Gibson has also added a female Satan figure who appears at the very beginning and keeps coming into the narrative until the conclusion of the story. At one point she holds a baby who turns and looks at Christ. The face is a shock, not that of a little child but a wizened, ugly old man - unredeemed humankind?

In the crucifixion scene the bad thief has his eyes pecked by a raven. That's not in the Bible either. But the main question: is the film antisemitic?

I say no. There are bad Jews and very compassionate Jews and the most sadistic violence - this film is not for the faint-hearted - comes not from Jews but Romans. The Catholic church in the USA has taken the opportunity to arrange meetings between Christians and Jews to discuss the implications of what the film portrays.

As a priest who looks at the image of the crucified Christ every day and perhaps has grown complacent about that sanatised image, I found this two-hour film very moving; it made me ask myself again, "Am I worth this much?"

The Pope is reputed to have said after seeing the film, "It is as it was".

Well, perhaps, but for a Christian whose faith is often jaded it was a harrowing, but faith affirming experience.

I shall be suggesting to my parishioners that it is an ideal way to re-connect with the central event of Jesus's life and theirs.

Father David Grant is parish priest of St Paulinus Church, Monkton Road, York

Updated: 10:01 Friday, March 26, 2004