No, I’m not going to see the movie, The Passion of the Christ. I will not give into the hype for a movie that by most accounts is dreadful. A newspaper film critic posted an honest review of the film, and was blasted by readers who (one) haven’t seen the film yet and (two) thought that a bad review of the movie reflects commentary on the “real” Christ. The film critic’s response was published/posted in the NY Daily News. What is the purpose of a movie that shows immense, graphic, painful physical suffering? I believe it has something to do with guilt. Read the review. This critic is not the only one who felt this way. There’s no way I can support a movie that is so blatanly anti-Semitic.
As I’m writing this, Mitch and Mickey are performing A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow on the Academy Awards. That’s just awesome. On top of that, it’s being followed by Belleville Rendez-vous. Nice… and the musicians are playing on bicycle parts.
Well, I did go and see it, and quite frankly, I wasn’t impressed. I haven’t read that review (or any review), yet, but I just wasn’t impressed. It dragged in parts, it was overly dramatic in parts, it tried too hard to be a Hollywood movie in parts. I don’t, however, understand why everyone keeps calling this movie blatantly anti-Semetic. If it is, than it is no moreso than any other telling of the final days of Jesus that I’ve ever seen or heard. This movie, like every other version, depicts Jesus’ people (the Jews) turning on him and demanding his crucifixtion. Isn’t this the same story told in Jesus Christ Superstar? The reason people are specifically attacking this movie now is because of Gibson’s father’s public anti-Semetic views, and the assumption that Gibson, himself, holds the same views. Whether he does or not has no real bearing on the movie, specifically.
Regardless, the movie wasn’t that great, and it’s not really worth going out to see. Maybe rent it when it comes out on video, but that’s about it.
Having just read that review and the response to it, I think I can elaborate a bit on the idea of the anti-Semetic views of this movie. If you already have anti-Semetic views in your mind, then yes, this movie will meet what you are looking for. But it never occurred to me to watch the mob in the movie calling for Jesus’ death and think, “Look at those Jew bastards.” What I thought was, “Wow…those people really hate Jesus.” And for me the distinction between “Jew” and “people” never materialized. Maybe that’s just me, but again, I didn’t see it as any worse than any other telling of the story that I’ve ever seen or heard.
I gotta agree with Darren here. If you choose not to see it, that’s fine. I also have chosen not to see it at this point. But to agree with a critic without seeing a movie is just as bad as disagreeing with a critic before seeing a movie. Anti-semitic? Well, it tells the story from the Bible. And yes, that story is a biased one. But, in my opinion, it would have been worse to change the story to make it politically correct by modern standards. At the same time, it’s a damn shame that the modern public can’t be trusted to see through an ancient bias.
Then again, I haven’t seen it. 🙂 So, I can’t really say anything one way or the other.
Its worth noting that Gibson gave in and removed the part that was supposed to be blatently anti-semetic. So to see it isn’t now doesn’t mean it wasn’t.
Anyway, I have no interest in seeing the movie. From the clips I’ve seen on tv it looks horribly gory. Plus I know how it ends and it pretty much just leads to bad news for the world for the next 2000+ years.
I’m curious to see it, especially after hearing my monstermother-in-law railing against it, but not wanting to put any more money in Gibson’s pocket’s, I’m dl’ing it.