The Passion Director and His 'Religious Fanatic' Dad; AS CHRIST FILM OPENS IN UK, ATTENTION TURNS TO MEL GIBSON'S OUTSPOKEN FATHER

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Byline: JAMES LANGTON

WITH its scenes of shocking brutality and torture, Mel Gibson's The Passion Of The Christ is one of the most talked about - and successful - films ever made.

But as the film goes on general release in Britain today, attention has focused on the controversial views of his father.

Hutton Gibson has publicly played down the Holocaust and claimed the Pope is involved in a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world.

Now his son - whose film has been attacked for its allegedly anti-Jewish message - has come under pressure to distance himself from his ultraconservative father, who claims there were more Jews alive after the Second …