{"id":12573,"date":"2003-07-30T08:00:51","date_gmt":"2003-07-30T15:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=12573"},"modified":"2014-01-18T09:40:52","modified_gmt":"2014-01-18T17:40:52","slug":"comment-mel-gibsons-jesus-movie-sparks-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2003\/07\/comment-mel-gibsons-jesus-movie-sparks-controversy.html","title":{"rendered":"Comment: Mel Gibson’s Jesus movie sparks controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>THE PASSION<\/a><\/i>, Mel Gibson<\/a>\u2019s much-hyped movie about the events leading to the death of Christ, won\u2019t be coming to theatres near us for nearly a year; Gibson plans to release it in time for Easter 2004. But the controversy over his film is already under way \u2014 and people are taking sides in the debate even though no one has yet seen the finished film.<\/p>\n

Paula Fredriksen<\/a>, a historian and a member of the ad hoc group of mostly Catholic and Jewish scholars who analyzed the film\u2019s screenplay, writes in the latest issue of The New Republic<\/a><\/i> that Gibson\u2019s film, which is said to be the goriest Jesus movie ever made, takes some of its more \u201clurid\u201d elements from the visions of an 18th-century nun. Fredriksen warns these elements could promote anti-semitism, whether they are meant to or not.<\/p>\n

Four of Fredriksen\u2019s colleagues, who are all members of the Catholic church\u2019s advisory committee on Jewish-Catholic relations, have also posted their concerns<\/a> regarding the screenplay on the website of Boston College, a Jesuit institution.<\/p>\n

Others have lined up to defend the film, a rough cut<\/a> of which Gibson has shown to conservative politicians, pundits and religious leaders like Rush Limbaugh, David Horowitz<\/a> and Matt Drudge<\/a>. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, told the Colorado Springs Gazette<\/a><\/i> the film depicted Jesus \u201cmore accurately than any other film,\u201d and Focus on the Family president Don Hodel called the film \u201chistorically and theologically accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, Gibson has said his film will be the most accurate depiction of the death of Christ ever made \u2014 he told one reporter that watching it would be like \u201ctravelling back in time and watching the events unfold exactly as they occurred.\u201d He has even claimed a measure of divine inspiration for his film, telling his audience in Colorado Springs, \u201cThe Holy Ghost was working through me on this film, and I was just directing traffic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who should we believe? Everyone who has seen the film or read the script has had to sign a confidentiality agreement, so very few specific details have leaked out. And of course, the editing of the film is not yet complete.<\/p>\n

But now that the trailer<\/a> for The Passion<\/i> has been released on the internet, we know that the film is not quite as authentic as many people have said it is. In some ways, it\u2019s a step backwards for Jesus<\/a> films<\/a>, many of which, over the past three decades, have gone out of their way to get as many of the details historically accurate as possible.<\/p>\n

In 1977, Franco Zeffirelli\u2019s mini-series Jesus of Nazareth<\/a><\/i> depicted Jesus carrying a crossbeam, and not the entire cross<\/a>, through the streets of Jerusalem. In 1979, Campus Crusade\u2019s Jesus<\/a><\/i> had the nails go through his wrists, not the palms of his hands. And in 1988, Martin Scorsese\u2019s The Last Temptation of Christ<\/a><\/i> showed how the Romans crucified their victims naked<\/a> \u2014 a fact that was recognized by the early church, even if later religious art tended to cover it up. (St. Cyril of Jerusalem<\/a> said early Christians were baptized in the nude partly in imitation of Christ\u2019s death.)<\/p>\n

But in Gibson\u2019s film, Jesus carries the whole cross and is crucified with a cloth around his loins and nails through his palms. In addition, the film\u2019s Pontius Pilate pronounces his Latin<\/a> as though he were a modern Catholic and not an ancient Roman \u2014 and never mind that the historical Pilate almost certainly would have spoken to the Jews in Greek.<\/p>\n

What does come through in the trailer is that Gibson\u2019s film will be very violent, but that is to be expected from an actor and director whose career, from the Lethal Weapon<\/i> franchise to the Oscar-winning Braveheart<\/i>, has tended to dwell on scenes of pain and torture more than most. Gibson, who belongs to a traditionalist Catholic sect that rejects the authority of the Pope and practises its liturgy in Latin, seems to be interested not so much in historical accuracy, but in making the bloodiest medieval passion play of all time.<\/p>\n

We will have to wait to see how Gibson makes use of this violence in his film. Still, just as some critics have expressed concern over the fetishization of explicit violence in increasingly gory war movies like Saving Private Ryan<\/a><\/i>, Black Hawk Down<\/a><\/i> and Gibson\u2019s own We Were Soldiers<\/a><\/i>, we too should be cautious about praising a Jesus film just because it gives us more blood and guts.<\/p>\n

Already I have heard someone say that, based on the trailer, The Passion<\/i> is not grisly enough, and no doubt some other director will try to out-do it some day. If Gibson\u2019s film is to be any good \u2014 and I do hope it is \u2014 it will have to be more than simply the goriest Jesus ever made . . . so far.<\/p>\n

\u2014 A version of this article was first published in <\/i>BC Christian News<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE PASSION, Mel Gibson\u2019s much-hyped movie about the events leading to the death of Christ, won\u2019t be coming to theatres near us for nearly a year; Gibson plans to release it in time for Easter 2004. But the controversy over his film is already under way \u2014 and people are taking sides in the debate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[968,345,424,189,1765,1766],"class_list":["post-12573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bcchristiannews","tag-crucifixion","tag-jesus","tag-mel-gibson","tag-passion-of-the-christ","tag-paula-fredriksen","tag-ted-haggard"],"yoast_head":"\nComment: Mel Gibson's Jesus movie sparks controversy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"THE PASSION, Mel Gibson\u2019s much-hyped movie about the events leading to the death of Christ, won't be coming to theatres near us for nearly a year; Gibson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2003\/07\/comment-mel-gibsons-jesus-movie-sparks-controversy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Comment: Mel Gibson's Jesus movie sparks controversy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"THE PASSION, Mel Gibson\u2019s much-hyped movie about the events leading to the death of Christ, won't be coming to theatres near us for nearly a year; Gibson\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2003\/07\/comment-mel-gibsons-jesus-movie-sparks-controversy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2003-07-30T15:00:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-01-18T17:40:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/files\/2014\/01\/passion-gibson-caviezel-300x180.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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