"The Passion of the Christ," starring Jim Caviezel and directed by Mel Gibson, earned more than $370 million.
Posted on 02/09/2005 4:44:26 PM PST by Liz
"The Passion of the Christ," starring Jim Caviezel and directed by Mel Gibson, earned more than $370 million.
(CNN) -- Internet Christian soldiers are admitting defeat in their battle to win a best picture Oscar nomination for "The Passion of the Christ" -- but their campaign to influence Hollywood goes on.
Web sites supporting Mel Gibson's movie about Jesus' final hours -- the eighth-highest grossing American film of all time -- failed to convince enough Oscar voters that it deserved a best picture nomination.
The movie did, however, garner nomination nods for musical score, makeup and cinematography.
"Hollywood has spoken. 'Don't mess with us,' is what they're saying," said Jennifer Giroux of seethepassion.com. " 'Don't mess with us because we will not consider your talent if you do anything that is Christian,' is the message that's coming out."
Giroux, 42, is a married mother of nine. From her home computer in Cincinnati, Ohio, she -- and thousands of activists across the nation -- pressured theaters to show the film. Then, they worked to get the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to nominate it for best picture. Some 22,000 people posted comments on Giroux's Web site.
Patrick Hynes, a married, 32-year-old father and advertising copywriter, collected 25,000 signatures on a petition on his Web site, passionforfairness.com. He sent it to the academy -- but received no response.
Disappointed by the announcement of Oscar nominees on Tuesday, the groups briefly considered boycotting movie theaters and targeting companies that will advertise on the ABC Oscar broadcast on February 27 in hopes of demonstrating some economic muscle.
"I briefly floated the idea of a boycott of Hollywood --- and certainly the Oscars -- but in the end I don't think that would be productive, so I decided against it," said Hynes, who is based in Washington.
Subject to criticism Both Giroux and Hynes accuse the academy of snubbing "Passion" simply because of its Christian theme. But Oscar scholar Tom O'Neil, host of awards handicapping site Goldderby.com, said Christianity had nothing to do with it.
"The faulty premise here among the disciples of 'Passion' is that the movie was worthy," O'Neil said. "The vast consensus of American film critics said it was not worthy -- beginning with The New York Times, which called the movie a 'serious artistic failure.' " (See critics' takes.)
"A movie that got far, far better reviews and made even more money as the seventh-ranking movie of all time -- 'Shrek 2' -- wasn't nominated for best picture either and nobody's outraged about that," he said.
In fact, O'Neil said, "Christian movies historically have done very, very well at the Oscars, going back to best picture winners, 'Going My Way' and 'Ben-Hur.' In recent years, a top Oscar went to somebody portraying a nun in a respectful way -- Susan Sarandon in 'Dead Man Walking.' "
Even before it was released in February 2004, commentators began to criticize "Passion," accusing it of anti-Semitism in its portrayal of the story's Jewish leaders.
"We were troubled ... that it portrayed the Jews, the Jewish community, in a manner that we have experienced historically. Seeing passion plays used to incite not only a passion of love in terms of Christianity, but at the same time, to instill and incite a hatred of the Jews because of deicide," Anti-Defamation League Executive Director Abraham Foxman told CNN at the time.
Some Roman Catholic officials were troubled by the film's graphic nature. "There's so much violence that was part of the script, I mean, the suffering of Jesus is -- I have to say, in my reading of the script, to me, there was a fixation on the suffering, the torture, the brutality done to Jesus," said Sister Mary C. Boys of the Union Theological Seminary.
Gibson -- who directed the film -- denied it was anti-Semitic. He intended the film "to inspire, not offend," he said.
Gibson is deeply religious. He is a member of the Traditionalist Catholics -- a Roman Catholic splinter movement whose followers believe in celebrating Mass in Latin and rejecting the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
'The politics in Hollywood' Hynes and Giroux -- who are both Roman Catholics -- will still wield their computer mice to promote Christian film fare in Hollywood.
Giroux said that during her recent tiff with Oscar, she learned something along the way.
"I'm just naive in thinking that Hollywood's fair," Giroux said. "That was what I found to be the most disturbing and the most telltale is that obviously the Oscars are about the politics in Hollywood, not about the artistic quality and talent of those that are making the movie."
For his part, Hynes will be watching the film industry -- and using his Web-based platform to spread his message.
"I think, given the success of 'The Passion of the Christ,' other people will start generating some faith-based films," Hynes said. "And we're going to watch to see if those continue to get snubbed and ridiculed and receive the same kind of enmity that Hollywood ladled on Mel Gibson and 'The Passion.' And if they are, we're going to speak out against them."
FReepers will be tuning out the Academy awards show. Hollyweirdos need to get the message loud and clear that they have been tolerated in the past only through the good will and forebearance of conservative Christians Those days are over. Hollywarped is in for a rude awakening. Let 'em ponder this.
Christianity is part of the Common, or Natural Law. Therefore it is Christianity that is the basis of our government. Religion of any other type is not synonymous with the American experience of Liberty! Justice James Wilson signer of the Declaration, the Constitution, Original Justice on the U. S. Supreme Court, and the father of the first organized legal training in America.
It is the duty as well as the privilege and interest for our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians to be their representatives, as this is a Christian republic. Justice John Jay Supreme Court Justice
It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was not founded by religionists, but by Christians, not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here. Patrick Henry
If Sister Helen Prejean had made a career protesting against abortion instead of capital punishment, any film about her would have depicted her as a flaming lunatic. And the part would NOT have been portrayed by the ever-so-PC Susan Sarandon.
Excellent point. I can't imagine the Follywood pro-abort savages glorifying a pro-life Catholic nun.
You beat me to the punch. "Dead Man Walking" is about as Christian a film as "Farenheit 911."
On Oscar night, all of the (gag) stars will have to parade by these posters.
The Hollywood puss-faces depicted on the posters look like candidates for a police lineup of serial child molesters. Whoppi SlimFast ex-spokesthing (ach).
Hollywood is the 'beauty' of the 'beast' system!
Christians are evil.
Women are to be valued only for their cleavage.
The traditional family is archaic, constricting, with no redeeming value.
Parents that try to guide their children's choices are restrictive. Kids need to be "free".
Extreme movie violence and explicit sex for the thrill of it is good because it is profitable.
Sex between a man and a woman is old-fashioned: threesomes, bestiality, necrophilia, homosexuality are news ways to get a thrill.
Hollywood firmly believes that 24/7 of the sexually salacious and violent TV, movies and music we produce are not harming kids and the culture.
OTOH, we also believe----with the religious fervor of Tammy Faye Baker---- that a single 15-sec commercial will compel tens of millions of Americans into thousands of stores to buy billions of dollars worth of soap, soup, breakfast cereal and cars.
Damned Commies...we oughtta whup the arses of each and every one of them anti-American THUGS!!
FReegards...MUD
That's telling 'em. Leftie loonies make you wanna barf.
LOL...MUD
The following quotes represent some of the most unfair statements on Mel Gibson and his film, "The Passion of the Christ." The selections in each category are in reverse chronological order.
"In a church whose highest leadership has prayed for God's forgiveness for exactly those sins over the past millennium and whose teachings repudiate such practices, the answer can only be no. The new wine of post-Vatican II teaching cannot be contained in the old wineskins of the pre-Vatican II Passion play that is the film 'The Passion of the Christ.'"
Sun-Sentinel (FL), March 22, 2004; Sister Mary C. Boys:
Catholic Ping - Come home for Easter and experience God’s merciful love. Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
Well, I won't watch it. Wish more people do the same.
Brilliant moviemaking.....production values were outstanding......the tear dropping from heaven was inspired, as one memorable example.
Mel had a very difficult subject matter that was known and loved by by millions upon millions of Christians and had to overcome aspects of tranferring the story to the big screen---no easy task.
Mel mastered all the nuances of the original story and mounted a visual, technical and and literate masterpiece.
Yeah, sure like the NYT is unbiased. Or did Jayson Blair write that review sitting in his apartment?
Oh yes, I forgot...........Sue Thomas FBEye
Oh yes, I forgot...........Sue Thomas FBEye
Good move ridding yourself of cable........most of the stuff on TV is garbage.
There's FoxNews, the History and Discovery Channels, AMC and EWTN....but that's about it.
Thanks for the ping!
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