My point remains- No one has argued that the Passion is not a relentlessly violent and sadistic movie. The creepiness I am referring to is the fact that this film is being trumpeted by Christians as an evangelistic tool- and by some of the very same idiots who were driven into fits of apoplexy by the Last Temptation of Christ because of a two second flash of Jesus and Mary Magdalene in bed. Several reviewers have alluded to its near-pornographic level of violence, violence which is so intense that it caused the death of a woman at a screening, ironically a screening presented by those First Amendment champions, Clear Channel Communications. So, am I alone in finding this all creepy, never mind the fact that Hutton Gibson, whom Mel's brother Chris says was Mel's primary inspiration for the making of this film, spouts Jew-hating drool that would give Goebbels pause?

I can't stand Gibson, and I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that he has a dark agenda with this movie, as would anyone who has followed his career or read his interviews . Not only do I think he has an agenda, but I also think he is deceptive and dishonest. Anyone who is familiar with the Radical Right/Conspiracist mindset that Gibson has repeatedly endorsed (and that his father is completely immersed in), or the Coughlinite brand of Catholicism he espouses would not have a shred of doubt what he is trying to do here. And I despise the kind of gory violence that Gibson is promoting, which is why I refuse to see movies like Kill Bill. What's more I think this movie will actually damage Christianity in the minds of agnostics and even moderate Christians,since it presenting such an extreme, manichean face of the Gospels, one that the Religious Right has obviously decided to run on with full force.
Gibson is trying to polarize our society and adeptly manipulated Jewish pressure groups to further his own twisted messianic complex.
My feeling is that it will probably blow over, but given the fact that this is an election year and Bush has thrown his lot in with the Relgious Reich, I am nervous it may not.


And I'm going to ignore all the kiddie name-calling bullshit by the keyboard commandos.

Fifty seven-year-old woman suffers from medical malady at screening of film and dies shortly thereafter = the film killed the woman. Right-O.

And you wonder why one might be inclined to scoff at what you’re posting. Troy

:::scoffs:::

Yeah wow, that scene was something that belonged more in a horror movie than a passion play movie. I don't recall who it was either (I thought it was Judas) but basically Jesus is being lead away on the top of a stone wall and the soldiers decide to knock him senseless until he suddenly falls off the wall. But just before he hits the ground the chains around his neck and the rest of his body catch him and he hangs suspended, choking and gasping, face to face with the apostle who just happens to be there cowering on the ground. After a dramatic pause Jesus is then pulled up, and the unnamed apostle sits in the dark for a few seconds and then suddenly the monster jumps out growling.

Jog's last paragraph sums it all up better than I could.

I saw it and I'll just "me, too" Jog's post.

But I'd be lying if I didn't find a few scenes emotionally effective, all of them involving close-ups of women crying. Thus, my new rule-of-thumb with Christian movies: the closer to Dreyer, the more I get weepy, the closer to fundamentalism, the more I think of Monty Python.

And, yeah, anti-semitism isn't too hard to read. But, Chris K., the violence is justified.

Bullshit. Violent? Of course (though it only simulates violence, of course). Sadistic? That's a moronic assumption. Depicting violence does not equal sadism, any more than enjoying a violent movie equals masochism.

Ed

Has anybody seen Nick Ray's King of Kings? Is it as wincingly/entertainingly fucked up as his other Hollywood compromises (think Wind Across the Everglades)?

Best movie Jesus ever: the one leaving the orgy at the end of L'Age d'or!

I'm not paying to see the Gibson movie, but I imagine I'll see it at some point...

My pick: Peter O'Toole in "The Ruling Class"...

Well, before I'm done with this topic I thought I'd leave you with Christopher Hitchen's excoriation of Mad Mel

Hitch crucifies Nutcase Mel

Haven't read that particular essay by Hitchens yet, but I'm about to. Thanks.

You criticize the film for what I find to be one of its strongest features, the erotic violence. The whole film is about the suffering of the flesh to free the spirit, the only permitted form of masturbation to conservative Catholics. Pain, pain, pain ... release! If Gibson weren't so incompetent a filmmaker, this could've been an amazing movie, based purely on its perverse sexuality. Ah well, back to Pasolini ...