I agree Nick..
I thought this was a fair review and account of the movie in there eyes.
For two long hours, the rabbi, the priest and the preacher sat in a half-empty theater Wednesday afternoon and watched Jesus get arrested, chained, tossed off a bridge, beaten to a bloody pulp and nailed to the cross.
Two thumbs way down, one thumb up, leaning to the right.
Those were the interfaith reviews after Rabbi Stephen Pearce, the Rev. Rob McCann and the Rev. P.T. Mammen attended the first public showing in San Francisco of "The Passion of the Christ," Mel Gibson's controversial movie about the trial and crucifixion of Jesus.
After the movie, the three clergymen sat in what passes for a quiet corner of the Metreon, speaking over the roar of car crashes and gunfire coming from the video-game arcade.
As blank-eyed teenagers played Need for Speed and Deer Hunting USA, these three men of God tried to make sense of the ancient violence they had just witnessed on the wide screen.
"It was the quintessential torture of a Jew,'' said Rabbi Pearce, speaking of his own viewing experience.
"It's faithful to scripture,'' said Pastor Mammen, the president of the San Francisco Association of Evangelicals.
"It's only half the loaf,'' said Father McCann, an Episcopal priest from Orinda. "Where is Jesus' message of love and wisdom?''
With the exception of a few brief flashbacks, Gibson's "Passion" focuses on the carnage from the scourging of Jesus and the horror of his crucifixion.
Like many passion plays of the past, the movie has sparked controversy for its depiction of the leading role that Jewish authorities allegedly played in sealing the fate of the Christian messiah.
Pearce, the senior rabbi of Congregation Emanu-El, condemned Gibson's film as "blatantly anti-Semitic.''
"Why are almost all the Jews in the movie portrayed as bloodthirsty?'' he said. "There is even a scene where Satan is literally seen standing behind the Jewish priests.''
McCann, a former Catholic priest who now shepherds St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Orinda, agreed with the rabbi.
"I see it as very anti-Semitic -- way over the top,'' the priest said.
Mammen, a minister with the Church of the Nazarene and pastor of the International Christian Center in San Jose, did not see the movie as anti- Semitic.
"Jews are God's chosen people. They are special in God's eyes,'' he said. "This is not a message of hate. It's a message of love.''
Many fundamentalist Christian churches and organizations are promoting Gibson's film as a way to bring new converts to their churches.
They are buying up blocks of seats and inviting the "unchurched'' to go to the movies.
While the 1 p.m. show at the Metreon was only half full on Wednesday, the 7:20 p.m. performance was sold out in advance.
"Evangelicals are using the opportunity that this movie presents to give nonbelievers a chance to hear and see the story in a nonthreatening theater environment,'' Mammen said.
But both Pearce and McCann said the film does not put the trial and torture of Jesus into historical and theological context, which makes it easy to misunderstand and see it as an indictment of the Jewish people.
"If I were a man from Mars and came down and saw this movie," Pearce said, "I'd say, 'What kind of religion is this? Why is it so focused on violence and death?' ''
Mammen, who was moved to tears by the film, agreed that Gibson "used too much violence to make his point.''
"But I have no problem with the message, that Jesus came and laid his life down for all of us," he said.
Mammen also suggested that everyone calm down a bit -- including the news media.
"It's a film,'' he said. "It's just a movie.''
E-mail Don Lattin at
dlattin@sfchronicle.com.