"But when a film is asking me to already believe at forehand, then I'm not buying." Believe what? What exactly do you feel that you have to believe to appreciate this film?
At the official website for The Passion Recut there is a trailer that looks to be the source for the 30 sec commercial (approx 1 min). There is also a short video of Mel Gibson explaining his motivation for this revised version. (also approx 1 min) Also, in a couple of articles I've seen this...
Anyone ever hear of the Clarkston Eccentric ? :) "We received many requests to re-release the film around the Easter holiday," Davey said. "Mel (Gibson) decided he wanted to recut a version that appealed to a broader audience without compromising the integrity of the original film one bit."
From a Charlotte Observer article; "Newmarket has no plans to release a DVD or video version of "The Passion Recut." This "recut" talk never made it to the software board so I figured I'd post this here.
Mel Gibson put up 25M (or whatever) of his own money to make this film. One thing everyone agrees on is that it was a huge financial risk that probably wouldn't payoff. How many hundreds of millions has Mel personally made at this point? You really think this is about money?
Brian, perhaps I'm missing something here but I don't understand your disappointment with using the Shroud as a source. You even used an exclamation mark. :) You, yourself said,
Wouldn't an authentic burial cloth of one of the nameless, innumerable victims of Roman scourging and crucifixion who...
I can understand you coming to certain general conclusions without having seen the film, but only to a point. You seem very certain of your views for not having seen it. I think it is safe to say that this film means many different things to different viewers.