What surprised me about this film is that people kept on constantly referring to the violence in this film. To me the violence was realistic - I mean come on, how can you tone down nails being hammered into someones palms - and the film was good. These people that claimed The Passion... had too much violence would be the same people who would most probably happily sit through a horror film and watch people blow each others brains out. When you look back at history and you read some of the things that Kings and Queens especially in the Elizabethan period used to do to criminals when they tortured them it was beyond violence. Mel Gibson did an extremely brave thing by making this movie. Like it or not it's given the exact reaction he wanted. When the public was informed that Mel Gibson was going to make a film about Christ's last hours all spoken in Hebrew with English subtitles the press found this downright laugh out loudable, well I can say that like it or not Gibson's had the last laugh.