I'm not going to use this posting to preach at anyone, or try to change anyones opinion on religion. As a college professor who has to deal with many fellow professors who are non-believers, I don't feel like going through the frustration and anger of trying to convince anyone about anything they have set their stubborn minds to. I guess I could include myself in that equation. Anyway, I wanted to see this movie because I am a believer, raised in a Christian backround. Also I take joy in being a historian, so for me to miss this movie, on the big screen, would have been a major loss. I think the thing that really shocked me, even though I knew they were, was how brutal and cold-blooded the Romans could be. One reads about these things, but to see it graphically on film was shocking. The wonder of it all is that God didn't wipe out the human race for what we did. I sometimes wonder if there's any hope for us. While I put the Lord Jesus on a higher plane, it does seem like we always ridicule and kill the best among us (Gandhi, King, St. Peter, Lincoln, etc.). I sometimes think that we are intent on committing suicide as a species. Anyway, while this is a great film, I wouldn't recommend it for small children. It is pretty vivid and I don't think many of them could handle it.