Some of article below
I’ve wanted to hear Always Look on the Bright Side of Life in the original language for some time now.
Hmm? Oh…
Oh, I was waiting for this. Snore. Every movie about Jesus–or ANY religious figure–inspires some outraged hoo-hah by those who haven’t seen it yet. And after the film’s released, it invariably turns out to be much ado about you-know-what.
Of course I haven’t seen Gibson’s film yet, either–but how could it possibly portray Jews COLLECTIVELY as responsible for Jesus’s death when Jesus, His disciples, and His other followers were Jews themselves? Just in case we don’t get that, Gibson has his actors speaking in Aramaic and Hebrew! This just may turn out to be the first film that really gives us a good portrayal of Jesus as a Jew.
Apropos of nothing, but I’ve always liked this joke:
Three rookie cops come in on their first day as police officers to get their assignments. The Chief of Police says to them, “Before I give you your assignments, I need to ask each of you a question: Who do you believe killed Jesus Christ?”
The first cop immediately says, “The Jews.”
The Chief says, “Okay. Your beat will be the Irish Catholic neighborhood on the west side of town.”
The second cop says, “Everyone knows that the Romans killed Jesus.”
The Chief says, “All right. Your beat is the Jewish neighborhood on the east side of town.” Then he turns to the third rookie. “Who do YOU think killed Jesus?”
The third cop says, “Can I think about this a little bit and tell you tomorrow?”
The Chief, glad to have such a thoughtful young man on his staff, agrees. So the rookie goes home.
His wife asks him, “How did your day go, honey?”
The rookie cop replies, “Oh, it was awful! It’s my first day on the job and they’ve already assigned me to a homicide case!”
I thought it was a bit odd that Mel is so concerned with having everything as accurate as possible, not even allowing subtitles for the Latin and Aramaic, and yet most of the actors aren’t Israeli or even Jewish but Italian.
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0335345
Gibson’s religious devotion has always struck me as rather odd coming from a fellow who makes millions in movies that glamorize violence and non-marital sex. True he’s homophobic, but otherwise he’s hardly what you’d expect from a “man of the Book”.
Apparently you’ve never read the Old Testament.
I would rather say that he’s built his career on playing characters who’re out for revenge. The exceptions to this rule are scarce and far between.
Rather easily. There’s no reason one precludes the other; some Jews would surely have viewed him as a heretic. If the scene has Jews en masse choosing to free a murderer over Jesus, that can certainly look anti-Semitic - depending very much on context, of course.
The movie may or may not be anti-Semitic, I’d have to see it and I dub that highly unlikely. However it should be noted that according to the ADL, EVERYTHING is anti-Semitic.
Is the ADL anything like the Catholic League?
Guin- the ADL is exactly like The Catholic League
I loathe Mel.
I didn’t know Mel Gibson is a homophobe. Is there some sort of cite backing up this assertion or is it common knowledge?
I believe he has said that he has religious convictions against homosexuality.
Although I personally have no problems with consenting adults doing whatever they want with each other, I reject the term “homophobe.” People can have genuine religious or moral convictions that homosexuality is wrong without having a phobia about the issue.
We’ve discussed this a lot in other forums, let’s try not to make it into a hijack here if we can.
Well, if others are going to use it to describe Gibson’s beliefs, they would be the ones hijacking it.
Gibson’s homophobia, if he has it, could actually relate to the movie. Meanwhile, there was a Great Debate very recently that went into a lot of back-and-forth about whether disapproving of homosexuality is the same as homophobia.
Why does the ADL want to review the film before it’s released? What are they going to do if they don’t approve of its content? They’re certainly justified in criticizing the film if they believe it’s anti-Semitic, but why can’t they watch the film with everyone else and make a statement then? Do the ADL representatives think they might be (or should be) able to block the film from release if they don’t like how Jews are portrayed?
Frankly, yes, I think they do think they should be able to block it. They’ll certainly cause trouble for the fillmmakers, sponsors, etc. This isn’t really unusual behavior for them. They complained to no end about the Hitler miniseries, sight unseen, because they felt it would “humanize” him (apparently he wasn’t a person) or portray him as a victim of circumstance or some such. Then it came out and they had no problem with it. Although some wondered if the series didn’t try to avoid such charges and lose something in the process.
How exactly? The movie has nothing to do with the question of homosexuality.
Not to hijack, but to respond: I consider the following comments from this 1992 interview from the Spanish periodical El Pais (The interviewer was Koro Castellano) to be homophobic:
Gibson: They take it up the ass. (Bending over and pointing to his rear-end.) This is only for taking a shit."
Castellano: You worked with with gays and had gay instructors while studying at the School of Dramatic Arts, didn’t you?
Gibson: Yes, of course. They’re unavoidable in show business. For the most part they were good people, kind. Their thing is not my thing.
Castellano: But you were obsessed with the thought that if you were an actor, people would confuse you with one of them.
Gibson: Yes, but I did it. I became an actor despite that. But with this look, who’s going to think I’m gay? It would be hard to take me for someone like that. Do I sound like a homosexual. Do I talk like them? Do I move like them? What happens is when you’re an actor, they stick that label on you. I go from playing rugby one week to taking dance classes in black leotards the next. Many of the girls that I met in school took it for granted that I was gay.
He never denied the comments and in fact apologized for them, adopting instead the standard “Hate the sin but love the sinner until such time as s/he dies and burns forever in hell”. Hypocrite.