10 Great Movies With "Rotten" Scores On Rotten Tomatoes

The blood-soaked depiction of Jesus Christ’s final hours, and highest grossing R-rated film in U.S. history, has a Rotten score of 49%.

There is so much about The Passion that makes it divisive, but the most obvious thing is its extreme violence.

Some critics called it a “snuff movie” and a “pornographic bloodbath”. Others praised the gory depiction of Christ’s suffering as “indescribable in its power and emotion”.

However, Roger Ebert, giving the film four out of four, simply called it the “visualization of the central event in the Christian religion. Take it or leave it”.

There’s no denying that Gibson achieves what he sets out to achieve. It is an artistic endeavour rooted in deep faith. It is uncompromising and massively brave. Gibson commits so fully to showing the unending torture of Christ because it makes His call for forgiveness all the more miraculous. That is the point of the film.

Furthermore, the cinematography is beautiful even when it is splattered in red, and Jim Caviezel's performance is both heart-wrenching and mind-blowing - just imagine taking on this role!

You may not like what you’re having to watch, but that’s of no consequence to Gibson. The Passion is an astonishing piece of filmmaking which answers to the Big Critic in the Sky.