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The Jews really did kill Christ.
Oops. My Bad. This is the evangelical piece of information
that I learned by watching The Passion of the Christ,
the new piece of propaganda masquerading as serious cinema
directed by Mel Gibson, written by Gibson and Benedict Fitzgerald,
based on a story by GOD!
I didn’t go to this film expecting to be as offended
as I was. Sure, maybe The Passion of The Christ is
anti-Semitic, but so is half of Spike Lee’s oeuvre and
I think he’s a wonderful filmmaker. But I had no idea
exactly how anti-Semitic The Passion would be. The
Jewish clichés in the film (to call them “characters”
would be too charitable) are greedy, hook-nosed, money-grubbing
animals. They appear to have the character depth as a typical
bad guy in a typical Mel Gibson movie. I half expected Gary
Busey and Jet Li to show up in the background of the Jewish
mobs, grinning and explaining their evil plans just before
the third act.
“CRUCIFY HIM!” yells the Jewish mob. while Pontius
Pilate tries his best to save this poor, downtrodden messiah
from the evil Yids who are lusting for blood. “CRUCIFY
HIM” yells the Jewish mob, as Mary and Mary weep silently
in the background. “CRUCIFY HIM” yells every single
Jewish character that has yet to understand that Jesus is
indeed our Lord and Savior, and not just a dangerous revolutionary
threatening the status quo.
Think I’m overreacting? Think I’m acting just like
the Anti-Defamation League did two years ago after reading
a leaked copy of the screenplay, giving this movie boatloads
of free publicity and leading to all these advance ticket
sales? I’m not, trust me. The controversial line that
Mel supposedly cut from the film: "His blood is on us,
on our children" was not actually cut. It merely wasn’t
subtitled. This means that Mel really believes that the Jews
are cursed for what may or may not have happened 2000 years
ago. For fuck’s sake, Mel Gibson is a holocaust denier.
I really have trouble respecting someone’s so-called
artistic vision if he doesn’t respect genocide.
But the hatred doesn’t stop with the Jews.There are plenty
of other things wrong with this film. Just like other Gibson
films, The Passion of The Christ is also homophobic.
King Herod fops around the screen, wearing a curly wig and
eyeliner, doing a decent impression of Dom DeLuise in The
History of the World, Part I. If that wasn’t bad
enough, The Devil, who is played by Rosalinda Celentano, a
female actor, speaks with a male voice. In other words, the
Devil is transgendered. I expect nothing less from the director
who tossed a faggot out of a window for laughs in Braveheart.
But enough about anti-Semitism, homophobia, and the fact that
Mel Gibson will only admit that “some” Jews died
during World War II. I’m not writing a political tract,
here, but a film review. So how is the film?
Well, it’s kind of boring. That is, if you find extremely
violent torture, flaying, beating, spitting, and crucifying
boring. I happen to live in New York City, so it’s a
typical Saturday night in my neighborhood. Jesus barely registers
as a character at all. Pontius Pilate, Mary, Mary Magdalene,
and Simon of Cyrenian all have more interesting dramatic moments
then the King of Kings. In contrast, the most interesting
thing that Jesus does is look sideways out of his good eye.
Mel Gibson has been making violent movies for so many years
that he mistakenly thinks that violence = drama. But since
we all know how this movie ends, and since Jesus never questions
or fights his fate, there is no dramatic tension.
Okay, so maybe I never read the New Testament. It’s not
part of my belief system, which at the moment is limited to
drinking beer and watching John Kerry ignore another one of
Al Sharpton’s one-liners. Besides, this review is not
of the New Testament, but of one racist, homophobe’s
interpretation of it. I do understand that a great deal of
people believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ. And I respect
that. But this movie doesn’t bother to teach a non-believer
such as myself what Jesus Christ preached and why. The film
doesn’t examine why the teachings of Jesus were so dangerous
to those in power. I understand that Jesus died for our sins.
But, so did Lenny Bruce, and if you want I can recite his
entire “Masked Man” sketch. No, really, I can.
Let’s not even get into the fact that a definitive representation
of The Passion is impossible, since all four of the
Gospels disagree. They were also written 50 to 70 years after
the fact, and they had to make the Romans look good, since
they were still in charge.
This attitude that the filmmaker knows best and everyone else
would be foolish to question him, is the real problem I have
with the film. While I wasn’t happy to see images in
the film that I interpreted to be anti-Semitic or homophobic,
they really didn’t offend me. Gibson’s film speaks
to a much more dangerous evil. It speaks not only of egalitarianism,
but a severe distrust of any opinion that might differ than
one’s own. This is the reason why the Catholic Church
conducted all of its masses in Latin until 1970: they didn’t
want its disciples questioning what they were being taught.
This is the reason why our own government refuses to allow
any reporters to approach Bush unless all questions have been
cleared in advance.
Mel Gibson’s new film is not just racist, not just homophobic,
and not just sadist. It is religious fanaticism, masquerading
as fact. It is fundamentalism. It is a right-wing tract, released
at a time when our country is already in the middle of a culture
war that is threatening to divide us.
Do not see this movie.
God, that was depressing. Anyone feel like some matzo-ball
soup?
An
opposing viewpoint by BFA Editor in Chief
Email:comments@bobfromaccounting.com
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He's not really Jesus.
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