The Passion Of The Christ

[Pozer]

Well what, you want them to lose money on it so they'll stop making these types of movies?

[pete]

there is no "stop making these types of movies" to begin with.  There is no Biblical epic autuer, it's one of those things that every other catholic filmmaker does precisely ONCE in his lifetime, actually most of them don't even get to make Catholic films.  So not promoting the Jesus movie will not mean that much to most people.
The preacher at my church played a trailer and a little special promo DVD yesterday, where Mel Gibson and others beg you into going, 'cause it's for your own good, it's actually, for GOD's own good.  And this is kinda funny.

[Pozer]

I met "artistic types of movies."
And did Mel Gibson & others REALLY beg you into going to see the movie cause it's for your/God's own good?

[metroshane]

What's so bad about begging one to see thier movie?  I'm probably going to beg people to watch mine.  At least it's honest and he didn't make up or manipulate press lines to put on the poster.

[Sebastian Haff]

That picture is great, Ghostboy. And not really surprising. The guy that owns Interstate Batteries is a hardcore Born-Again type who gets behind these sort of causes.

I saw Gibson's interview on Dateline last night and I have to say that he was incredibly articulate about his faith and his convictions. That's more than you can say for most Christians in the media. I was impressed and am looking forward to seeing the film.

[RegularKarate]

I saw the interview too and I thought he was being an egocentric dork and I think the movie will suck (evidently God wanted him to put subtitles on this movie), but I think his attackers are being ridiculous and I respect him for a lot of the things he said.

and I'm sure I'll see this movie, as much as I'm convinced it will be a pile of holy horse shit.

[metroshane]

That's wierd...a good social studies experiment...as I watched the interview and got something very different.  In my perspective, he looked very nervous and very sincere.  He looked almost scared that he'd bitten off more than he could chew and was afraid he didn't pay justice to the  story.

[MacGuffin]

Gibson in the lion's den
Diane Sawyer's interview with 'The Passion of the Christ' director Mel Gibson is weirdly illuminating. Source: Los Angeles Times



There's something about the hot glare and blinding toothsomeness of the secular media that makes a religious true believer look a little medieval, possibly demented.

Or maybe it was just Mel Gibson, staring down the barrel of Diane Sawyer's squinty malocchio. Over the course of Monday night's hourlong "Primetime Special Event," a fascinating hour of television during which a cockeyed Sawyer tried gamely to extract a shocking confession of bigotry, indisputable proof of insanity or, failing that, then at least a lurid account of the view from rock bottom from the onetime People magazine Sexiest Man Alive.

Gibson veered uncomfortably between looking like a pious man forced to defend his religious beliefs on national TV (where the camera adds 10 pounds of incredulity), an affable movie star trying — and failing miserably — to make light of a heavy situation, and a paranoid maniac former addict suffering from delusions of persecution.

Sawyer, speaking at times in a canting lilt and, at others, in the kind of tone used by a psychiatric evaluator conducting an intake interview with a potentially violent psychotic, offered the following interrogatory gems:

"What does the evil side want?" (This as a follow-up to Gibson's statement that, "If you believe, you believe that there are big realms of good and evil and they're slugging it out.")

"How bad did it get?" (This, of course, as a follow-up to Gibson's de rigueur confession of past debauchery).

And, "You said the Holy Ghost was working for you.... Do you believe God wrote this film?" (The moment when the interview journalistically jumped the shark; Sawyer couldn't have been serious, could she?)

In terms of sheer strangeness, Gibson didn't disappoint. The interview was peppered with manic effusions and bizarre outbursts — some, to be fair, merely failed attempts at jokes.

Discussing his addictive personality: "Don't I look like a rummy?"

Talking about how he'd like to hide out: "I'm going to pitch my tent near the weapons of mass destruction, that way they'll never find me."

And, perhaps most memorably, describing what happened after he reached the "pinnacle of what secular utopia has to offer," as the period when "I got my proboscis out and dipped it into the fun and sucked it up."

Whoa!

It was indisputably weird. But apparently not weird enough to beat "CSI: Miami" on CBS. At times, it also seemed quite clear that Gibson had not been granted the courtesy cleanup a "get" of his stature can normally expect. Sawyer and the producers of "Primetime" violated the usually sacrosanct cross-promotional compact. All of Gibson's performance glitches — his asides, his mugging for the camera, speaking directly to it — were left in, which only enhanced Gibson's jumpiness.

Jumpy as he appeared, Gibson seemed willing to submit to the ritual celebrity penance — at least until Sawyer pressed him to speak publicly about his father, who has been quoted as scoffing at the extent of the Holocaust. Gibson, who said he believed that millions of Jews died in concentration camps, dug in when Sawyer pressed for more about Dad.

"He's my father. Gotta leave it alone, Diane. Gotta leave it alone."

Not having seen "The Passion of the Christ," I can't say whether Gibson deserves the scrutiny he has received in its advent. But given the pitch, tenor and volume of the criticism leveled against him, I would expect the film to be well beyond simply distasteful, bad or boneheaded.

Yet Abraham Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation League and one of the movie's leading Jewish critics, told Sawyer that he did not consider the movie nor Gibson himself to be anti-Semitic. Another Jewish scholar interviewed by Sawyer, Amy-Jill Levine, came to the same conclusion.

The biggest concern centers around whether the film could incite people prone to hatred to commit acts of hatred. It's an interesting problem, in part because it puts the onus of having to predict all possible interpretations of the film on Gibson, who has not exactly strained to allay fears.

But there's something creepily interrogatory about the Gibson-centrism of it all, not to mention symbolic.

"That's what people do," Gibson responded to Sawyer asking if he believes the world is full of conspiracies. "They conspire. If you can't get the message, get the man. I think that's what we're engaged in, we're engaged in character assassination."

Granted, in this case, Gibson willingly took the bullet, having agreed to appear on the show and to sit down for numerous other interviews to promote the film and address his critics. But it was "Primetime" that really invited the messianic comparisons. At the very beginning of the show, Sawyer explained that throughout the "Primetime Special Event," "the word 'passion' is used in the original sense of the word. The Greek 'pathos,' which means suffering."

And what did they choose to title the interview? "Mel Gibson's Passion." It is as it was, or it looked like it anyway.

[NEON MERCURY]

......well guys its time that i reprasent in this thread.....


background:

i am a southern baptist as some may know here......and i'm a spiritual kind of guy....i'll just keep that as that for now...i don't want to get to religous on you peeps b/c some get to freaked out or don't care......but needless to say  i'm a Christian who tries to do the right thing and i have a good spiritual upbringing etc.....

.....when i first heard that mel gibson was doing this film ....i was not  that entralled as a film goer or a Christian......i though tthat he would cheese this out ....and hollyw$$d-nize it.......bu tthe kind people here on xixax....and through the interview by sawyer...has enilghtened me to really wanting to see this film...as a Christian and filmgoer....so the cycle is complete.....

.......i am glasd that mel is spending his money to do  something like this.it's great as an artist....and its great for   us Christians......and this news is paramount to  the fact that mel is PUTTING THE TRUTH ON CELLULOID.....TRUTH....TRUTH......TRUTH.....TRUTH.....let that sink in a bit....i believe that what mel has put together will be a brilliant film......i think it is necessary to make the events graphic b/c the audience ....NEEDS TO SEE WHAT JESUS CHRIST WENT THROUGH  IN ORDER TO SAVE US.AND HOW MUCH HE LOVED US.   (and no need to trivialize that comment b/c it makes you look bad).........maybe this film will open eyes....., maybe it will turn around people .....give them an understanding.....maybe  help solidify faith ....and the beauty of spirituality.......i  cannot wait for this film.......

[Pubrick]

what i can't wait for is 'The Liberation from Passion by the Buddha'.

[metroshane]

I agree with you Neon.   This film is important not to convert, but to simply explain why Christians feel the way they do.

[modage]

I agree with you Neon.   This film is important not to convert, but to simply explain why Christians feel the way they do.

about jews?

[metroshane]

That's a cheap shot modernage.  I'm sure you laughed to yourself quite heartily when you thought it.

Anyone who takes away the message of "look at how bad jews are" has some serious issues.  The message is clearly the suffering for love.  I mean did anyone really starting japanese bashing after Pearl Harbor came out?

[SoNowThen]

The only thing I'm bitter about is the fact that this movie is getting the support that Last Temptation deserved, despite its tangents from the Gospels.

[ShanghaiOrange]

Someone may have posted this already, but it doesn't matter who killed Jesus, because the whole point was that he was supposed to be killed.