Mel Gibson's passion play

This post comes to you from a fairly devout Catholic, mind you. :)

*ignores RJG's post*

Surely this movie has already been made, except with more bonecrushing, and it was called Braveheart.

Quite honestly, no. I too didn't see what the big fuss was about. Same with Priest, because I thought it would be nice to see that priests are human too with their own human weaknesses and to revere them as godlike is to tread too closely to the whole "having other gods besides Me" type thing that God directed Christians not to do in the Ten Commandments.

Besides, both movies are works of fiction. It would make more sense to think real, true-to-life examples of anti-Catholic (or anti-Christian in general) sentiments would be a trillion times more dangerous to the faith.

is this going to be the sort of film which uses contemporary modes of realism to render a decidedly unrealistic/traditional story more palatable? or will it be an actual inquiry into the jesus myth? i think gibson is trying to convert people.

dan perry: "bill clinton is: jesus" only awaits oliver stone's participation.

See also The Bible

(ducks)

*ignores amateurist's post*

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00005NKT6.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

(hedges)

I wonder if Gibson's beating Verhoeven to the punch, heading him off at the pass with -- as Amateurist says -- something more sermonizing, or if the projects developed entirely independently.

And I have no idea. You're asking the new girl here. But I could do a lovely little search for you! *giggles*

btw, I saw when that Catholic cable channel did an interview with Mel Gibson about the making of the film and about faith life in general. Gibson is a man who is obviously operating from his own personal convictions when it comes to this film in a manner I haven't seen since Steven Spielberg decided to tackle the Holocaust in Schindler's List. I deeply admire both efforts.

anyway verhoeven isn't a believer and i think his film would invite a torrent of controversy for addressing jesus's charisma and the politics of ancient palestine and dismissing out of hand the son-of-god stuff.

has anyone ever read the script to dreyer's planned jesus film? dreyer was a nonbeliever who nonetheless made religious films of enormous integrity (and complexity, which is the same thing most times).

other films made by directors operating from their own personal convictions: glen or glenda?, hitler jungenquex, my son john, robin hood: prince of thieves

Common Utterances By The B/F Whilst Watching The Passion, Broken Down By Percentage:

36% "That so never happened."
23% "They totaly fucked up the ablative there! Hahahaha!"
8% "What the fuck? What is that Aragonese-shit-ass construction?"
17% "Did a monkey write this? Is it ablative or dative, folks? Make up your mind!"
12% "You think we could fool around after this is over?"

this film is propaghanda for a christianity that is legalistic (which paul warns against)--by that legalism the view of the church as alive and interacting with its traditions is lost, with these things lost, there is also lost the progressive church inspired by a view and of Jesus as a radical and progessive social leader.

he is v. much informed as well by a political agenda that is as conserative as it comes.

i am not looking forward to this film, as i am not looking forward to the continued infulence of thoughts similar to Gibson, including Cardinal Ratzinger, who has met and disucssed the persavation of the family with our friend mel.

*"identified" = considered myself one though my mass attendance was spotty and I was generally more interested in whiskey sours than eschatology

Paul cannot be explained away, and he is too complicated and ambigous to be used as fodder either way, and for that i apologize. also i am feeling patronized.

obv we can cut out the chatter about paul, though, since gibson's forthcoming movie shall address this and other issues in a thorough and intellectually satisfying way.

Sorry for calling you "charming" Anthony I know that's what made you feel talked-down to and who could blame you. i still kinda meant it though (sorry!): Paul warns somewhat against legalistic Christianity, but also warns against the perils of disobeying civil authority, etc etc etc

but i'll shut up, this is a thread about the movie which has a thousand interesting things of its own without my ex-Catholic bile coming to bear on it

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a Pauline apologetic (well, technically, I'm secular about all this anyway, but even if I weren't...) -- it's just that not everything he said was horrible and damaging, you know?

I grok having issues w/ Christianity -- I've been thinking lately that essentially I handled mine by going into religious studies as a secular thing, so I can be all clinical about it. (Mine're ex-fundamentalist issues, not ex-Catholic, so there's that, too.)

Internet personality Matt Drudge told MSNBC: ``It depicts a clash between Jesus and those who crucified him and speaking as a Jew, I thought it was a magical film that showed the perils of life on earth.''

Lightning strikes Gibson's Christ
Friday, October 24, 2003 Posted: 4:40 AM EDT (0840 GMT)

ROME, Italy -- Actor Jim Caviezel, who plays the son of God in Mel Gibson's controversial film "The Passion of Christ" has been struck by lightning during shooting. http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Movies/10/24/gibson.passion/index.html

Concerns misplaced about Jesus movie

Why are we so afraid that Mel Gibson's movie might have a backlash against the Jews?

You have to remember that the Jews only handed Jesus Christ over to the Romans, who killed him by crucifixion. The Romans -- now called Italians (the name change does not excuse the crime) -- are the ones who technically killed Jesus. Now that the true culprits are out in the open, it's the Italians who should be afraid fo the potential ransacing and burning of every pizza parlor in sight.

The question is not who killed Jesus, but why he was crucified. ACcording to Scripture, the crucifixion plan was laid out by God before the beginnings of the world, way before Jews and Italians populated the Eart. Jesus was the sacrificial lamb for my sins and yours. If you really want to know who killed Jesus, look in the mirror.

If you blame the Jews or the Italians, you miss the message.

M!ke Westerh0use
Fremont, CA

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=4168331

hahahaha

anyway has anyone ever written about the staging of the passion in the history of the cinema. some of the first and most ambitious films did exactly that, and now we have yet another version professing to authenticity. and then you have many centuries of painters and illustrators who tackled the very same scene with varying and gradually evolving variations in its intended symbolic or "reality" effect...

http://www.nypost.com/gossip/liz.htm

Mel on the Defensive

January 30, 2004 -- 'YOU'RE GOING to have to go on record. The Holocaust happened, right?" Peggy Noonan asks of Mel Gibson in the Reader's Digest for March.

Gibson: "I have friends and parents of friends who have numbers on their arms. The guy who taught me Spanish was a Holocaust survivor. He worked in a concentration camp in France. Yes, of course. Atrocities happened. War is horrible. The Second World War killed tens of millions of people. Some of them were Jews in concentration camps. Many people lost their lives. In the Ukraine, several million starved to death between 1932 and 1933. During the last century, 20 million people died in the Soviet Union."

Gibson sat down with conservative Catholic writer Noonan to speak of his controversial film, "The Passion of the Christ," to explain his faith - which he says became a strong force in his life after years of being "a monster," having become "spiritually bankrupt" in the thrall of success. And Gibson admits his spiritual life is "nowhere complete yet. I'm still so full of flaws." Noonan pushed him about the Holocaust because of accusations that the actor's father questions the attempted extermination of all Jews by Hitler. Of his dad, Gibson says, "My dad taught me my faith, and I believe what he taught me. The man never lied to me in his life."

Gibson talks eloquently about his passion for "The Passion," the gospel and what he wants to do next - "something light and funny and nobody'll be angry at me!"

Noonan: "Give me the headline you want to see on the biggest paper in America the day after 'The Passion' opens."

Gibson: "War Ends."