Posted on 12/21/2004 8:54:44 AM PST by Kerry Crusher
In what has to be the most absurd slap in the face to Mel Gibson and his moving picture The Passion of The Christ,” The American Film Institute named the film “a moment of significance.”
The “events”, announced Monday, were those judged to have had the biggest impact on the world of the moving image during the past year as judged by two 13-person juries that also selected the film and TV awards.
But the backhanded slap could not be more obvious than in this insulting justification for naming The Passion (as well as Fahrenheit 911) a “moment”:
"Both filmmakers tossed Hollywood convention out the window, attracting masses to the movies that would normally not purchase a ticket to an ultraviolent subtitled film or a documentary. Ultimately, both films shone a bright light on the political and religious polarization in the United States in 2004."
”Ultraviolent subtitled film”? That’s how they sum up Gibson’s masterpiece? This is the same organization that honored the murderous travelogue Collateral and the drug-smuggling epic Maria Full of Grace with their “Movies if the Year” selection.
It goes without saying that the AFI did not choose to honor The Passion as a “movie of the year.”
But by equating this powerful picture with the factually corrupt Michael Moore mock-umetary, the Hollywood elites have demonstrated yet again the depth to which they simply don’t get it. The Passion is an artistic recreation of something we know happened 2,000 years ago that has had a more profound impact on humanity than any other, ahem, moment in human history. Fahrenheit 911 on the other hand is a demonstrably false account of the first four years of the recently voter-approved Bush administration, which Michael Moore himself has likened to an “Op-Ed.”
The AFI’s gutless annunciation that The Passion is merely a “Moment of Significance” is itself a moment in the out-of-touchness of the Hollywood elites.
The AFI awards are amongst the most insignificant in the film industry. If there were still "Cable Ace Awards" they would be more significant than AFI.
They are just trying to generate some controversy so they can get some publicity. Don't give it a second thought.
Ditto that. The AFI's list of '100 Best American Movies' a few years back was one of the most vacuous thought-free results to come out of such endeavours.
Religion, especially Christianity, makes these people feel "uncomfortable."
It's supposed to make them feel that way.
I never cared about these awards in the first place - this just reinforces my apathy in this area.
I think Mel doesn't give a shi*.
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