Mel Gibson's Jesus Christ Pose  The Passion of the Christ Marks
the Latest Chapter in the Making of a Hollywood Martyr
Generations ago, film exhibitors used to dread the springtime
"Lenten slump," when many Catholics atoned for their sins by
giving up the movies. If Hollywood's most famous Catholic has
his way, though, the pious will kick off Lent at their local
movie house. On February 25, Ash Wednesday, Mel Gibson's The
Passion of the Christ will finally arrive in theaters, more than
a year after the project first began fomenting controversy for
its brutal, exhaustive depiction of Jesus Christ's last 12 hours
as a mortal man. Alternately praised as a "miracle" and
condemned as anti-Semitic medievalism by the few who have seen
it, the film might prove a must-see rumpus or a cross to bear
for independent distributor Newmarket Films, which recently
scored a decidedly more low-profile success with the art-house
sleeper Whale Rider.  "The Holy Ghost," Gibson has claimed, "was
working through me on this film"—an