This movie ran in Europe for quite a while in the 1980s. I saw it several times there and, quite unexpectedly, on HBO or Cinemax late at night a few years ago.<br /><br />The movie was about war and wars are nasty things. I do not think the violence was overblown in the movie - not after visiting a few Holocaust museums in Europe. McDowell's portrayal of a fanatical psychopath (not that know any) seemed very fitting.<br /><br />In terms of the amount of blood and gore on screen, it seems tame compared to movies made later. Schindler's List is much more terrifying. Starship Troopers has much more severed limb type stuff than The Passage. But what makes this so chilling and repulsive is its realism; that things like these truly happened and happened not that long ago...