Harry Knowles’s Ain’t-It-Cool News moviesite has a copy of the trailer for The Passion, Mel Gibson’s controversial film about the final days of Jesus Christ. It looks incredibly well done. This trailer has graphically violent images, so be forewarned. As you’ve no doubt heard, the Anti-Defamation League and a group of scholars affiliated with the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (which later distanced itself from them), have issued a condemnation of the movie as anti-Semitic, based on their review of a stolen early draft of the script. It’s hard to believe that this condemnation of a film they haven’t even seen has nothing to do with the fact that The Passion still doesn’t have a distributor. Anyway, check the trailer out for yourself. (Important: make SURE you have the latest version of QuickTime software, which is available for free from Apple.com.)

I cannot wait to see the entire movie — and if it’s anti-Semitic, then it will reap the condemnation it deserves. And if not, not. But “The Passion” deserves the chance to be seen and judged on its own merits. The more people see this trailer, the greater the demand for the movie.