I was thinking about the relationship between Mel Gibson’s “Passion of Christ” and Cecil B. DeMille’s biblical spectaculars back in the Good Ol’ Days of black and white films.
DeMille had figured out that he could get around the very, very tight moral strictures of the day WRT various things (sex, nudity, bondage, SM) by giving them a Biblical stamp. Frex, in one of his epics, “Sign of the Cross” released in 1932 (just before the Hayes Code went into effect) had scenes of graphic violence, near nudity, bondage, SM, and a little lesbianism thrown in (by Claudette Colbert!).
Now, I haven’t seen “Passion” because from all I’ve heard about it, as a nonbeliever it would be just two hours of male SM, and I’m not into that.
But I wonder if Mel didn’t take a leaf from Cecil B. DeMille’s book when he made “Passion” and I wonder if anyone else is gonna think along those lines in the chain of half-assed imitators that will surely follow.
Actually, Claudette was not in the lesbian scene–that was Elissa Landi and Joyzelle Joyner . . . Claudette does take a bath in asses’ milk, though!
The “show 'em the sins first, then the lesson” method of filmmaking was indeed pioneered by De Mille, in his silent period: Don’t Change Your Husband, Why Change Your Wife?, Manslaughter, The Ten Commandments–all pre-talkies, all red-hot before Justice Is Done.
I wouldn’t call The Passion of the Christ S&M as much as I would call it just S.
It’s not like JC was sportin’ a woody with the beating and scourging and the nailing to the cross.
It was, on the other hand, pretty friggin’ sadistic. It was a solid two hours of blood and gore. But I don’t really think Gibson was using the story of Christ to make a violent film. For one thing, in this day and age, if you want to make a violent film … I got nine words for you: Rhode Island Lesbian Cheerleader Belt Sander Massacre Part II.
I think that Gibson had his vision of the film, and ran with it in a context he knew well. He wanted to use the tools he knew he had at his disposal to make a film depicting a crucifixion as realistically as possible.
In my opinion, that was pretty much a mistake, if he was shooting for reverential or an eye toward converting people or whatever.
Eve: is there any truth to the old story that DeMille was once heard to yell on the set of one of his movies: “More blood! More blood! Give *me *the bottle!”?
Since I didn’t see the movie I can’t really speak to the issue of Gibson’s intent. The ones who follow him will be there to make a buck … I feel confident in predicting that!
Well, I taped Sign of the Cross yesterday and finally checked it out, and it was really interesting to see the way DeMille slid all that ripe cheese into his movie. I had no idea Colbert’s bathing in ass’ milk scene was so naked. And the scene with the gal tied up spreadeagled just above the ground for the alligators to eat … he anticipated the whole Florida postcard industry in that scene!
I did have one nasty thought, and I don’t know if it’s MY dirty mind or if DeMille was actually that sly … a little after the alligator girl scene, they had a woman chained to a piller and menaced by a goriller. But before the gorilla actually did anything to her, the camera panned away to the horrified/leering faces in the crowd. And I wondered … did the gorilla kill her … or what?
Probably just my dirty post-modern mind. But given all the other stuff DeMille slid in there under the radar, ya just gotta wonder …
The intent of the gorilla and the girl is scene is probably just what you were thinking. Pulp fiction and low-budget exploitation movies of the 1930s (e.g., Love Life of a Gorilla, Ingagi) had similar salaciousness.
Don’t worry, I thought exactly this as well. Now that I think of it, I vaguely remember having read (in one “pre-code hollywood” book or another) that this is just how the scene was supposed to be taken – she was supposed to be the gorilla’s … um … “bride”. What’s more, they show her again at the end when there is a shot of the aftermath of Lions vs. Christians. She’s still on the pole, still alive, but looking rather tired. Yikes. At least, I think that was her. I don’t have it on tape to review.
And I’m thinking this wasn’t exactly “under the radar”, either. As Walloon pointed out, the public was no stranger to the woman/gorilla lovin’ thanks to the likes of 1931’s Ingagi.
At one time I read something or other which claims that condemned women were raped by jackals in the Colisseum for the amusement of the crowd, but I had trouble buying it, because I don’t see how they’d manage it with unwilling women. I mean, if one or the other was interested, sure. But with both parties uninterested … eeeech.
