Big Opening for The Passion of the Christ

Feb. 26 -- The Passion of the Christ opened Wednesday on 4,000 screens and took in took in an estimated $15 million to $20 million after just one day of release. Mel Gibson is no stranger to hit films, but I bet even he is surprised at the reaction to this film.

I must confess I was surprised. This is a very good film, powerful and moving. Some critics have called the violence "excruciating." I wonder if they know excruciating comes from the same root as "crucifixion." Yes, violent.

Gibson combines his many gifts as an iconic action hero and Oscar-winning director, and his deep faith as a Catholic traditionalist.

In other films about Jesus, I'm put off at biblical epics where everyone speaks Oxford-accented English or, even worse, American slang.

Gibson has the dialogue delivered in subtitles as the characters speak Aramaic, Latin, and some Hebrew. This draws us into the drama, as does Maia Morgenstern's incredible portrait of Mary and Caleb Deschanel's, I'll use the word, "miraculous" cinematography.

Caiphas, high priest of the Jews, has Jesus arrested and demands that Jesus be killed. A Pontius Pilate who's much more passive than the Gospels or history suggest washes his hands of the matter … literally.

Still, I did not sense any anti-Semitism. It is Jews who show compassion, who bring water, who carry the cross, while Jesus is whipped, flayed, scourged and tortured by Romans.