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Religion has replaced people's sense of individual choice and responsibility, and reactions to movies like "The Passion of Christ" and "The Da Vinci Code" exhibit this transition in two distinctly different ways while both highlight the dire need people have for concrete, unchangeable belief systems.

"The Passion of the Christ" stirs public sentiment for two reasons: its depiction of violence and its religious implications. If the film's plot did not revolve around the physical embodiment of God's Son, all the viewer would be left with is an over-produced snuff film, a big-budget horror movie at the very least. Its depiction of torture and gore would receive an altogether different reaction from religious watchdog groups if the visual images were divorced from a connection to the Divine. Making a spectacle of the physical demise of God's Son seems to make all previous concerns about the effects of cinematic violence irrelevant. Instead, the graphic images are deemed enlightening and cathartic, as if the representation of Jesus' physical suffering allows the viewer to feel closer to God, to possess a deeper understanding of Jesus' sacrifice by cutting the audience to the visceral core. Has anyone yet theorized why cinematic violence perpetrated against human beings allegedly produces detachment and amorality while cinematic violence perpetrated against the Divine apparently produces spiritual enlightenment and appreciation? This arbitrary distinction, based solely on the object of suffering, brings the second nerve religious-themed films tread upon into sharp focus: the sanctity of personal spiritual beliefs.

Both "Passion" and "The Da Vinci Code" strike this nerve of religious identity by suggesting blasphemous alterations to long-held religious ideals and understanding. For many Christians and Catholics, "Passion" merely depicts the persecution and suffering of Jesus. For many people of the Jewish faith, however, the film represents an attack on Judaism, clearly positing the Jews as torturers and executioners of any belief system posing a threat to their own. Many critics have pointed to the historical fact that Jews did in fact drive the Crucifixion. However, Mel Gibson's highly publicized anti-Semitic remarks coupled with other historical events such as the Crusades and the Inquisition highlight all religions' potentials for attempting to desecrate and obliterate alternate perspectives, not just Judaism. Jesus' execution resulted from the assertion of religious

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