That idea has been going through my head for awhile.
The critics, with a few surprising exceptions, are behaving as I always thought they would. They finally find a violent film that they don't like. And yet the near pornographic violence in NATURAL BORN KILLERS, KILL BILL and PULP FICTION, films that have absolutely no respect for the value of human life,elicits the highest praise from these same people.
Pray for them, that's the only thing we can do.
I wish you were right. But I think what will happen when his movie opens is that despite its power to move believers, it will will also become clear that as a work of art this film has some serious flaws. I have no doubt the film will make back the $25 million Gibson laid out to finance it, as well as a good deal more. I also believe it will be playing in church basements for the next 20 years. But I'll be surprised (when I go to see it this weekend) if it's the movie of the century, as some people have claimed. I think it will be more like Apocalypse Now, a movie which while extremely interesting at times ("I love the smell of napalm in the morning") was also seriously flawed (think of a fat actor whose initials are Marlin Brando).