Mel Gibson is in the news about a recent interview with Glenn Beck, Gibson’s attitude toward Jewish people, his blockbuster 2004 movie, “The Passion of the Christ,” and his admission he is working on a sequel with Randall Wallace that will be about Jesus’ resurrection.
First, last Friday Glenn Beck, former Fox News political pundit, posted on his website that he interviewed Mel Gibson for 90 minutes a few days ago while they were attending the Venice Film Festival. (Gibson got a 10-minute standing ovation for his new film “Hacksaw Ridge.”) Beck said on his website that Gibson said, “Jews stole my Jesus film,” and his life has been miserable ever since. He means some Jewish leaders saw the film before its theatrical release and started criticizing it publicly. Just think of Mel Gibson in “Conspiracy.” I think that film portrays some of the real Mel. He is liable to say things without details that can cause a misunderstanding. And BTW, Beck removed the piece from his website later that day, claiming it was a private conversation that should stay that way.
Abraham Foxman, former executive director of the Anti-Defamation League, probably tells the story right to The Daily Beast. It says, “Foxman, for one, disputed Gibson’s alleged account of a stolen movie, saying instead that a Jewish religious adviser to The Passion sent a screenplay to the Anti-Defamation League and that a team of both Jewish and Christian biblical scholars prepared a detailed critique. When the document was sent to Gibson, ‘He went berserk and threatened to sue us, so we returned the script,’ Foxman said.”
Second, is Gibson an anti-Semite? Well, he reportedly has made anti-Semitic remarks since “The Passion.” For instance, a police officer made a traffic stop in which Gibson reportedly said, “The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world,” which is absurd. While Mel should be held responsible for this remark if it is true, so that he should apologize for it, he has been reeling from all the criticism he has gotten for The Passion film, much of it having come from the Jewish community. Furthermore, he has admitted in recent years that he is bipolar and was an alcoholic back then, but has been sober now for ten years. Good for him. As for The Passion, I do not think it is anti-Semitic. But nowadays, you can be so judged even if you think Jews were more responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus than Romans were. See my next post on this.
Finally, Randall Wallace recently admitted to The Hollywood Reporter that he and Gibson are working on a script on Jesus’ resurrection as a sequel to The Passion. Gibson appeared recently at Liberty University, and admitted it also when asked. Yet not long after The Passion film came out, Gibson had said privately to Benedict Fitzgerald, his script writer for the film, “I’ll never make another Jesus’ flick.” He said that because of all the criticism he got for it.
I’m sure Evangelicals will be rooting for Gibson and Wallace to come through with a super sequel to The Passion. As Wallace admitted recently to the Hollywood Reporter (6/9/16), “The evangelical community considers The Passion the biggest movie ever out of Hollywood, and they kept telling us that they think a sequel will be even bigger.” I think he means a sequel that will be mostly about Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances as recorded in the New Testament gospels. I wrote a screenplay on this and have been saying this all along.
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