This is the second half of a series regarding the new film, “The Passion of the Christ.”

The theatre’s atmosphere during “The Passion of the Christ” changed dramatically from opening to closing credits at the Wednesday night showing at Carmike Cinema, 4800 Golf Rd.

During the previews, the audience bustled with anticipation and excitement. As the movie continued, demeanors began to change. Throughout the movie, the sounds of sniffling and people blowing into Kleenex could be heard.

When the final credits rolled and the theater began to empty, there was nothing but silence. There was no initial explanation for the audience’s sudden sobriety.

A member of that audience, junior Nathan Graham, expressed a mixture of emotions after viewing the movie.

“I was amazed by how powerful the film was,” he said. “It was extremely hard to watch Christ get beat so hard.”

Wednesday’s audience reaction after the movie wasn’t the only of its kind.

“When the movie got over, everyone kind of sat there,” said Terry Banker, an associate minister at the Church of Christ, W. 310 Polk Ave., who previewed the movie Tuesday morning. “It was absolute silence in the theater.”

It came after what Banker described as one of the most accurate depictions of Jesus’ final hours.

“It was much more positive than any film I’d ever seen about the crucifixion,” he said.

Despite negative comments regarding the movie’s controversial gore, Banker contended the Passion story necessitates such a strong depiction.

“As I watched it, I thought it was almost too graphic,” he said. “But as I reread the scriptures, I thought maybe it wasn’t. Romans were good at their job.”

While Banker used scripture to support the film, philosophy and religious studies professor Charlene Burns used it to criticize Gibson’s portrayal.

“Speaking as a religious studies professor, I have to say the movie is not faithful to the Christian Gospel message,” she said. “Nor is it historically accurate.”

The excess violence is what disengaged Burns the most about the film. Paraphrasing Time magazine, she referred to the movie as pornographically violent.

“I can’t see this as being a tool of evangelism,” she said. Gibson concentrated so heavily upon Christ’s suffering that he omitted what should have been the movie’s true purpose, she said.

“What doesn’t appear in that movie is the message of Christianity,” she said.

Different organizations’ support of the film before viewing it also bothered Burns.

“I think some people have been duped by Mel Gibson,” she said. “They’ve invested so much in it that it’s going to be hard for them to speak out against it.”

She pointed out several errors in the movie’s script, including an all-too-compassionate Pontius Pilate and encounters with Satan that are absent from the Bible. Nowhere during the Bible’s Passion does Jesus encounter Satan, she said.

While Banker’s and Burns’ views about the movie differed, they agreed on one level.

“I definitely would not recommend this for children,” Banker said.

Burns expressed apprehension at the idea of any child viewing “Passion.”

“I don’t mean to be sarcastic,” she said. “But you better be ready to pay for psychological counseling later in life.”