In Catholic teaching, all of us who have sinned are responsible for Christ's suffering and death. In the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "All sinners were the authors of Christ's Passion." It seemed to me that the entire point of the film was to drive home this message. Every bloody detail of the scourging of Christ by Roman soldiers, the tortuous path to Golgotha and the crucifixion itself is meant to make viewers uncomfortable -- not in order to blame someone else, but to blame ourselves.
No doubt this will distress many people -- believers and non-believers. But it is certainly not anti-Semitism. Nor does the film contain anti-Semitic stereotypes.
While Caiaphas and most of the Pharisees are cast as antagonists in the film, other Pharisees are seen leaving the Sanhedrin trial in disgust when some witnesses make obviously false charges against Jesus. All of the protagonists of the film are Jews as well, and Gibson's movie shows a very Semitic-looking Jesus, actor James Caviezel, not a fair-haired, blue-eyed version like those depicted in most previous movies. The only characters who come off as demented sadists are the Roman soldiers who torture Christ after Pilate orders him beaten -- and these truly seem to be possessed of the Devil, who appears as a specter-like character throughout the film.
"The Passion" is an incredibly powerful interpretation of Christ's last hours on earth. It is clearly a project of love on Gibson's part, one that should inspire -- not anti-Semitism -- but much soul-searching on the part of Christians as to their own culpability in Christ's suffering.