Gibson's film of Christ's last days alarms Jewish groups

[dArKeR]

On the face of it Mel Gibson's new film, The Passion, appears to be little more than a work of celluloid self-indulgence by a Hollywood veteran. Portraying the final 12 hours of the life of Jesus Christ, it has no distributor, features no stars and the dialogue is in Latin and Aramaic. It is not even certain whether the final product will have subtitles.

Yet the film, co-directed by Gibson, who has spent $25-million of his own money on the project, has already attracted lavish praise from evangelicals and stern criticism from Jewish and Catholic scholars, with one academic warning that it could provoke within the US "one of the great crisis in Christian-Jewish relations".

The star has claimed the "Holy Ghost was working through me on this film, and I was just directing traffic. I hope the film has the power to evangelise". But a panel of three Jewish and six Catholic scholars, who have studied a draft script, say the film is anti-semitic and theologically inaccurate, portraying Jews as bloodthirsty and vengeful and reviving the worst traditions of the passion plays which contributed to deadly attacks against Jews over the centuries.

http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=18219

http://darkerxdarker.tripod.com/

[BiggJawn]

1. When did Mel become a Bible-Burnout?

Last coupla movies, we here about his "Faith" how "Signs" was so "much more than a movie" to him.

Has he stepped off into the ultimate in believeing his own press releases? Does he REALLY think "Gawd talks through him"?

[VolcanoJen]

2. Mel Gibson has been alarming me since he started this film.

It's sad, really, what's happening to Mel. Maybe it's his folks... check out this June 15 article from The Age, which cites a March interview Gibson's parents gave to the New York Times:

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/06/14/1055220810601.html

Gibson's passionate defence of his film comes in the wake of a firestorm caused by his father, Hutton Gibson. In an interview with The New York Times, the 84-year-old said he did not believe the Holocaust ever took place.

Gibson senior - a former quiz show winner, Sydney radio broadcaster and resident of a small Victorian dairy town who now lives in Texas - believes the Holocaust was a fabrication because there were more Jews in Germany "after the war than before".

"Go ask an undertaker or the guy who operates the crematorium what it takes to get rid of a dead body," he said. "It takes one litre of petrol and 20 minutes. Now, six million?"

Joye Gibson, an American whom Hutton recently married, said: "There weren't even that many Jews in all of Europe."

So, Mel's parents are revisionist historians, too? This certainly won't help quell the firestorm that's sure to erupt when "The Passion" is finally released next spring.

Sigh....
Jennifer

ON EDIT: added link. Whoops!

[noonwitch]

3. I don't know if it is anti-semitic or not

It's a movie about the death of Jesus. He was executed by the Romans, and the ruling religious counsel of the jewish faith at that time made sure it happened that way. There is a difference between portraying the Sandherin as the killers of Jesus than the jewish people at large. His followers were also jews, the people who listened to him speak and loved him. As I haven't seen the movie, I can't say whether it is anti-semetic or not, but I suspect this is a case of over sensitivity.

Mel's dad is a loon-I always wonder what is wrong with holocaust deniers. He needs to go on a field trip to the Auchwitz memorial or to Therezein, if the photographic evidence isn't enough to convince him that it actually occurred.

[WoodrowFan]

4. dupe thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=126528&mesg_id=126528

Interesting story tho, ty for posting it..

[VolcanoJen]

6. Not a duplicate thread

The thread WoodrowFan refers to is a similar discussion in the GD Forum. Current DU Forum rules allow for intra-forum duplicates, especially between the fast-moving GD and LBN forums. Of course, duplicates within the same forum are still prohibited.

The other discussion refers to an article in the New York Times, which might be of interest to readers of this topic:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/02/national/02GIBS.html

Thanks! :-)
VolcanoJen
DU Moderator

[VolcanoJen]

7. Correction to Post #6

Sorry for the confusion, everyone. My post above should have referred to inter-forum duplicates, not intra-forum duplicates.

Here is what I intended, with special thanks to Atlant:

The thread WoodrowFan refers to is a similar discussion in the GD Forum. Current DU Forum rules allow for inter-forum duplicates, especially between the fast-moving GD and LBN forums. Of course, duplicates within the same forum (intra-forum duplicates) are still prohibited.

The other discussion refers to an article in the New York Times, which might be of interest to readers of this topic:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/02/national/02GIBS.html

Thanks! ;-)
VolcanoJen
DU Moderator

[WoodrowFan]

8. Sorry

Oops, sorry. I just didn't want the threads to die due to division of discussion...

[Mari333]

5. recovering alcoholics often make the worst bible thumpers

and looks like Mel is a patriarchal misogynist with a few screws loose..

he sucks as an actor anyway.

[JoFerret]

9. Yep...let's hope

he just keeps spending his own money on vanity projects. Patriarchal, misogynist and of course - goes without saying - crude homophobe. Interesting that his parents are such low-life.

[Hamlette]

10. misogynist? homophobe?

educate me. I don't know that much about Gibson.

[JoFerret]

14. Here's a brief primer

http://www.daily.umn.edu/ae/Print/1997/12/st/odd12.html

[knowledgeispower]

11. Mel is whacko

I really wouldn't worry about this. I know there are a lot of right wing bible thumpers, but they do not have the attention span to sit through a twelve hour movie.

[IndianaGreen]

12. Film clip to be shown on CNN's Buchanan & Press on now!

will be shown later on the show.

[IndianaGreen]

13. Film clip to be shown on CNN's Buchanan & Press on now!

will be shown later on the show.

[Liberator_Rev]

15. The real deal on the wierd Gibson family beliefs:

Sorry if this has already been posted, but here's what I've found about the wingnut beliefs Gibson & his father from The utra-conservative blog
<http://www.markcameron.blogspot.com/2002_09_08_markcameron_archive.html>
author M. Cameron says:
"I don't believe that Mel Gibson is a sedevacantist (Catholics who hold the belief that the Roman Catholic Church is without a "true" Pope. They believe (in short) that the "Vatican II" Popes lost their authority as Pope after teaching "heresy." or a subscriber to the Cardinal Siri thesis of his father. ( "the Siri Thesis," which proposes that Cardinal Siri was validly elected Pope, and was intimidated into refusing the papal crown. At this point John XXIII was invalidly elected and since then we have not had a valid pope. Moreover, Vatican II was an invalid council. )

Mel Gibson is an "independent" Latin Mass Catholic, who recognizes the validity of the Pope, even if he is not in obedience to his local bishop. I understand that during the filming of "The Passion", he had Tridentine (Latin) Masses said daily by a number of priests."