I watched the film again last night and the second viewing basically confirmed everything I felt from the first - absolutely brilliant piece of work, visceral, searing, deeply personal and a serious meditation on the humanity of Christ. I applaud everyone involved in it - it was quite obviously a labour of love.
I saw no anti-semitism, and I was looking for it this time bearing in mind the comments in this thread, but no - I saw various aspects of humanity presented, good, bad and ugly, applied to all characters - Romans (foot soldiers largely thuggish in the torture scenes, officers stepping in with obvious anger and disapproval when they saw it had gone too far, Pontius Pilate clearly wrestling with his conscience, foot soldiers along the Via Dolorosa and at the crucifixion clearly shown to recognise that this man was no ordinary man, even while their colleagues continued to scourge and beat him), and Jews (the religious elite, the Pharisees, and the ordinary people very quiet and sober during the scourging scene, not presented as revelling in Jesus' torture at all, but merely standing witness to it and aware of the terrible suffering involved, then the ugly side of the mob as Jesus was marched to his execution, with some in the crowd clearly distressed by events). I couldn't see any anti-semitism or any stereotyping at all, if anything I was more impressed on the second viewing with how much care had obviously been taken to show the mixture of human failings and human strengths on all sides. This is exactly the picture you get from the gospels.
Stunning piece of work, so glad I decided to watch it despite my feelings about the director.
