The Passion of the Christ

The Passion of the Christ was a movie produced by Mel Gibson and bankrolled with his own money. The film is based on the last 24 hours of the life of Jesus, as read in the Gospels. Gibson felt that God wished him to make this movie as a "repayment" for the forgiveness of God.^{[Citation Needed]}

Gibson was not even able to find a major distributor for his film.^{[Citation Needed]} For a year before the movie was even released, and well before it was first previewed or seen, attacks on the movie began. This turned out to be coupled with personal attacks on Mel Gibson with such titles as "Crazy Mel" and then attacks on his father and a call to Mel denounce his father, which Mel wouldn't do.^{[Citation Needed]} The New York Times especially started a campaign of almost daily attacks on Mel Gibson and his family.^{[Citation Needed]}

Nevertheless, the movie went on to be a blockbuster grossing over 370 million in the U.S. and over 600 million world wide^{[Citation Needed]}, an especially unheard of showing for the time of the year it was released. Cries of anti-semitism were largely silenced as people saw the movie. With so many critics denouncing the movie without having seen it, Mel did an end around and went directly to church pastors, who were almost unanimously supportive and told their congregations.^{[Citation Needed]} Monetarily, it was the most successful Christian film ever.^{[Citation Needed]}

For Mel Gibson it was a personal affair. Thick skinned by the nature of the business, he still did not expect the virulent attacks. For the star Jim Caviezel, it meant being blackballed. While blockbusters usually make people's careers, for Jim it has been hard to find anything more than minor roles.