By Kaitlin Keane

Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” opened on Ash Wednesday (Feb. 25), earning the highest opening-day ticket sales of any February film in Hollywood history, despite accusations of graphic violence and anti-Semitic sentiment.

The film, Gibson’s privately-funded depiction of the last 12 hours of Jesus’ life, has spurred international debate for several months, inspiring claims of anti-Semitism by leaders of the Jewish community and raising questions of inaccuracy and unwarranted brutality among others.

The ongoing controversy has provided priceless publicity for the film, generating constant dialogue from news stations to college campuses.

“It seems this film could definitely have negative backlash, said Morgan Bass, a freshman psychology major. People will always take things as they want, and this portrayal could quite possibly be taken out of context and have negative effects.” While many members of the Northeastern community claimed not to find the film offensive, they saw the potential for anti-Semitic perception. Others felt Gibson could have done more to present the story in a less-biased manner.

Rachel Utain-Evans, Student President of Hillel at Northeastern, sees the film’s selective portrayal of the Jewish people as disappointing, as it fails to mention that “thousands of Jews were crucified under Roman rule.”

“What seems most disturbing is the fact that the negative aspect of the Jewish people is given so much more emphasis than the human aspect,” said Utain-Evans, a middler linguistics major.

Susan Setta, a professor of philosophy and religion at Northeastern, observed “a veneer of anti-Semitism” in the film, but said it was deliberate.

“I believe Mel Gibson when he says he’s not anti-Semitic, but I think he is relying on what teachings have gotten wrong for thousands of years,” Setta said, who also teaches a course in Biblical studies at Northeastern.

Setta is one of many Biblical scholars who worry that the anti-Semitism comes from possible misinterpretation of the actual text. Her criticism includes incidents of mistranslation and actual altering of the text.

“I think Gibson thinks that he is using accurate interpretation in this film, but he’s not,” she said. “To me, he just didn’t seem to be informed at all.”

Rabbi Ronne Friedman, of Temple Israel in Boston, is among many religious leaders who believe one’s “faith and personal and historic experience” will greatly influence the way this passion rendition is perceived. A passion film or production, in general terms, dramatizes significant events in the life of Christ based on Biblical texts.

“As a Jew, the film participates in a rather sad history of the misuse of the Passion narratives,” he said of the film’s potentially offensive message.

While members of the Anti-Defamation League, an organization whose mission is to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and community, have expressed concern about the film’s potential to rouse anti-Semitic feeling, many Catholic organizations seem to have shied from official statements condoning or denouncing the film.

Despite initial reports of the Pope’s approving statement, “it is as it was,” the official Papal spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, in a official press release, said, though he has seen the film, “it is the Holy Father’s custom not to express public judgments on artistic works.”

Archbishop Sean P. O’Malley, of the Archdiocese of Boston, said he had not seen the film but hoped rumors of anti-Semitism were unfounded and encouraged religious leaders and teachers to “take special care not to teach anything out of harmony with the truth of the gospel and spirit of Christ,” according to the Web site of the Archdiocese of Boston (www.rcab.org).

Though he declined to officially endorse the film, Archbishop O’Malley said in an official press release on the Archdiocese Web site that he hopes it will “inspire all who see it to imitate Jesus’ sacrificial love and be resolved to promote reconciliation among all ethnic and religious groups.”

Despite the lack of a specific position on the film taken by Catholic leadership, some local clergy have expressed their overwhelming approval. Father Harvey Egan, a professor of Theology at Boston College, found the film to be a “powerful and moving” depiction of the story, and denies claims of anti-Semitism.

As a Jesuit priest, Egan approves of personal interpretation of the Gospels.

“Mel Gibson is an artist and he made a film, not a documentary, of the Gospels. He took artistic license, and for me, it works,” he said.

A number of opponents of “The Passion” find little or no evidence of anti-Semitism in the film and pay no attention to Gibson’s family background, but have a difficult time accepting the amount of gory violence. Nearly all reviews of the film mention the tremendously graphic scenes of torture and death played out on screen, a distressing aspect that some describe as necessary.

“Sometimes violence is appropriate. In this film, it isn’t violence for the sake of violence, it was a violent time,” Setta said. “The irony is Mel Gibson gets the violence right.”

While the violence may be viewed as acceptable in its accuracy in relation to the time period, some viewers felt is was given far too much emphasis in the telling of the story.

“The emphasis is put entirely on the cruelty, the suffering and the pain, rather than on the resurrection — and it is done at the expense of the Jews,” Friedman said.

Despite claims of unwarranted violence, discriminatory undertones and questionable intentions, some students see the attention itself as excessive, though continuous media coverage has not threatened the film’s box-office success.

“They needed it to be controversial,” Moskowitz said. “I guess any publicity, positive or negative, is good for the movie.”

Freshman computer science major Steve Flanders is one of many students amused by the media’s obsession.

“I just find the controversy very interesting,” he said. “Obviously everyone has different feelings about how the story should be depicted, but you can’t expect one version to please everyone.”

At this point it is uncertain how the film will affect Gibson’s career or the handling of future movies of a controversial genre. It has undoubtedly caused a roused interest in the interpretation of the story, and possibly formed new opinions worldwide.

“I think the controversy is a good thing, if as a result people learn about what goes on in the Bible,” Setta said.

In the end, though, “The Passion of The Christ” may finally be remembered as what it is — a film.

“It may portray Jews in a way that doesn’t please everyone, but it’s still just a film,” Bass said. “It is a story according to Mel Gibson, and that’s all it should ever be taken as.”