Alessan:
Believe it. To me, Lag Ba’Omer is to celebrate the life (on the anniversary of his death) of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, and to celebrate the fact that the plague which afflicted Rabbi Akiva’s students finally stopped. I have never heard of it being associated with what a good showing (in a losing cause) we made during the Bar Kochba revolt.
The Shimon Bar Yochai part is also celebrated in Israel, at least by the more observant, as well as the whole wedding and first haircut thing - but to *hiloni *Jews, Lag Ba’omer is all about the bonfires, in honor of the fires lit by Bar Kochva to raise the countryside. I wouldn’t be surprised if the smoke from the hundreds of thousands of fires burning that night was visible from space.
It’s also the greatest holiday in the world if you’re a teenager with access to beer, music and members of the opposite sex.
Alessan:
Well, that certainly explains why that aspect isn’t very much publicized amongst the Orthodox.
Hey, I’ve always suspected that those Bnei/Bnot Akiva have a lot more going on than they’re willing to admit…
I think there may be in this case an influence in that the *Books of the Maccabees *are included as biblical canon by the Catholic churches (Roman and Eastern Orthodox); Gibson being known to belong to a radical Catholic fringe sect, he may have more familiarity with that story.
Well, yeah, but they became famous because in the end the Greeks won the war (only to then start tearing one another apart, but that’s another story). You don’t see many movies about Numantia or Saguntum.
But hey, now that I see the username: how about doing Judith? C’mon, it’s got sex and violence, severed heads in bridal chambers, FUN stuff! 
Or for that matter the life of King David - it has it all. What other Biblical figure had sex scandals both straight (that Bathsheeba thing) and gay (that Jonathan thing)? 
Where do you live? In the UK Lag Ba’Omer is very much a Bar Kokhba holiday, although it isn’t as major because we’ve got another, bigger “let’s all drink and set things on fire” holiday later in the year.
I would love a big-budget action film based on Judith!
I think that Richard Gere movie ruined the cinematic treatment of David for 20 years.
I’d love for HBO to do a miniseries of Joseph Heller’s God Knows, a both irreverent and moving retelling of David. A couple of years ago they launched the TV show Kings that was the retelling in a modern setting with Ian McShane as the Saul character but it failed epically for several reasons; for one thing, the story of David is multigenerational: there’s an arc for his young life (Goliath to becoming king), his middle age (kingship/Bathsheba/etc.) and his later years (Absalom’s revolt/Abishag) and you can’t do it as a nighttime soap without skipping ahead years at a time. Also it’s hard to do it without legal polygamy- the various wives and concubines of Saul (they never got to David’s many marriages and concubines) were just treated as adulteries.
Are you kidding ? I erupted in laughter during The Patriot, when he had the red coats do a perfect re-enactment of Oradour-sur-Glanes (a semi-famous war crime where SS units cordoned off a small French village, shot all the men and locked every woman and child in the town church before setting it on fire, as retaliation for a couple Germans who’d been shot by partisans). Couldn’t help myself, it was so transparent and over the top.
Since I was in a packed theater in Denver at the time, and it was the fourth of fucking July, it didn’t go over too well with the locals.
I still enjoy *Braveheat *in all its camp goodness (or would that be gudneyss ?), but The Patriot… come on, Mel. Come the fuck on.
IIRC, he parodied his over-the-top movie hijinks on THE SIMPSONS, by using an American flag to stab a guy.
IIRC, he did that before starring in THE PATRIOT, where he of course uses an American flag to stab a guy.
I would like Mel Gibson to go away; sorry fans. I just don’t see this guy being relevant or capable for anything serious. He never has. If anything he ought to just concentrate on honing his acting skill. I generally have hard time buying his acting. He’s not comfortable under his own skin type. Renaissance man he’s not.
Ok, I forgot about The Patriot. The Patriot sucked.
It did, however, introduce the world to Heath Ledger and Jason Isaacs, so it has that going for it.
I think you’ll find 10 Things I Hate About You introduced the world to Heath Ledger - and what an introduction.
Gibson’s rabid anti-Englishness is a distinct cause for concern.
Sorry… introduced the *male *world.
Dude. Julia Stiles covered in paint.