I know it's small, but it's a handshake.
Posted on 08/18/2004 6:33:52 PM PDT by brigada
http://www.tvguide.com/tv/coverstory/
(Excerpt) Read more at tvguide.com ...
You could call it an apparition. High in the hills above Los Angeles, standing in the doorway of a Spanish-style chapel, Mel Gibson looks distinguished in a silky green suit, his face sporting a salt-and-pepper beard. He roams the outside terrace of the chapel, bending down to put cushioned kneelers in front of some of the older parishioners' chairs and stooping to gently soothe a crying child.
The sun streams through the chapel doors. Inside, it's quiet except for an altar boy ringing a set of golden bells; even infants — and there are many — sit still. The men are neatly dressed.
The women wear veils. Gibson kneels, puts his hands together in prayer and joins in the celebration of the ancient Latin mass, the kind still embraced by traditionalist Catholics, a devout group that has rejected the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Gibson approaches the altar to receive Communion.
After Benediction, he vanishes. This disappearing act is similar to the one Gibson has been perfecting ever since the release of The Passion of the Christ, the controversial film that he wrote and produced with $25 million of his own money, and that stunned Hollywood by grossing more than $600 million worldwide. With its release on DVD on August 31, the film seems likely to break even more records. In an unprecedented move, Fox Home Entertainment sent hundreds of thousands of flyers to churches inviting them to buy special packs of 50 DVDs at bulk discounts. With presales already 20 percent higher than predicted, it looks as if the DVD could rival the sales of the juggernaut known as Harry Potter.
Now that The Passion of the Christ has entered the pantheon of Hollywood blockbusters, Gibson should be a happy man. According to those who know him, however, he's not exactly singing hosannas.
Friends say Gibson was stunned by the extremity of the adverse reaction to his film. Critics from different denominations denounced it as anti-Semitic, some while it was still in production. The charges of anti-Semitism "affected him incredibly," says Father William J. Fulco, a Jesuit who translated the script of The Passion from English to Latin and Aramaic, and who spent many long hours on the film's set in Italy. Gibson, Fulco says, was also reeling from the publicity surrounding his father Hutton's claim in a New York Times Magazine interview that the Holocaust was exaggerated. "[Hutton] is an old man with strange views," says Fulco. "He didn't know the press was trying to manipulate him." This made Gibson angry. "He would phone me sometimes and say, 'Help me to pray through this.' It just devastated him."
I'm a traditionalist Catholic and can't see how this story is a "SLAM". It seems pretty innocuous to me.
With its release on DVD on August 31, the film seems likely to break even more records.
What's the slam?
The slam is in the magazine on the rack. This is the online story. In the magazine is where they have the comments about him being "weird".
I don't see a 'slam' in this.
Perhaps Mary Murphy (sounds like an Irish Catholic name to me) may have inserted some of her own speculation in saying Mel Gibson should be singing 'hosannas' for the money his movie made - but otherwise, it paints a picture of a devoutly Christian man.
In fact, I thought it was quite nice.
Have you bought the magazine?
Perhaps you could paraphrase the content? Without changing the context, of course.
Like what?
I think it is possible that he is a little weird... or - more affectionately... "eccentric".
You posted that it was a slam piece, and I don't see it in what you posted.
As I said, you haven't read the magazine version!!! Trust me, if you like and respect Mel, you WON'T be saying that after you read it!
I am furious. They make him sound like a weirdo!!!
I like Mel's film, but he is not Catholic, he is part of tiny splinter group.
One of the fundamentals of Catholicism is that we don't leave over differences, we work them out or live with them, believing that god guides his church and that our perspective as creatures doesn't trump the the church.
So you want us to get pissed off about something we haven't read, don't have immediate access to, and something which you haven't alluded to further?
Ummmm...yeah, ok, right.
Now, ye see, I think THAT is weird.
This is just ridiculous. You post one article, but make comments about a different article, and at first pretend that your comments are about this article. Now you seem annoyed with other FReepers for not seeing in this article what you saw in a different article, which you haven't (and probably won't) share with us. Get a grip!
All right, I will give you some direct quotes and comments.
The article talks about how has become a reclulse, and is basically hiding out in his house. Nobody has seen him, it isn't that he is tired after the movie, and wants to spend time with his family, it is that he is "in hiding".
From a "close friend" that they quoted, since The Passion, Mel is "post partum, or post traumatic, definitley post something".
After bringing up the same old stuff about the violence in the movie, they went on to talk about his next movie project being the Maccabees, and Mary Murphy questions "Why would he be making a movie about a subject like that"? After giving two possibilities, she goes on to say, "Or has Mel Gibson just become plain weird"?
Yes, I consider this a slam piece.
I'll reserve judgment until I read the piece.
I guess, I'd like to read the piece fully.
Perhaps in Hollywood, seclusion after a 'hit' movie is 'weird'?
Does she try to lessen the message in the movie? Or suggest that Gibsons faith is moribund?
I know it's small, but it's a handshake.
Right back at you BykrBayb
God bless,
Annette
Well, you may be technically correct, but I believe the Church in Rome has the right to make the final decision. ;)
For all intents and purposes, the term "Catholic" only applies to one branch of Christianity. Which brings up an interesting question - what's the genesis of the term? I mean as it applies to the Holy Church. Was it something they created after the Reformation to distinguish themselves from all the other churches calling themselves Christians, or was Catholic a label they wore from the start? I'm genuinely ignorant on this point, and am very curious.
As for this article, brigada, either give us access to an unedited version (not "quotes and comments") or retract your accusation of a "SLAM." I see nothing in here that isn't at least respectful, and your having made the charge means that the onus is on you to prove that the newsstand edition is substantially different in content and tone.
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