[arthur003]

The question is why Gibson, why now?

[Lost Highway]

The Christ-killing story has always been an excuse for anti-Semitism, not a cause of it.

Really? I have been in Christian churches all of my 34 years. I have never heard one person express any resentment toward Jewish people because the Jewish leaders orchestrated Christ's execution, let alone advocate any actual reprisal.

[billbears]

The Catholic Church officially exonerated the Jews of the crime in 1965.

Well not to disagree with the Catholic Church, but who do they say did the actual crucifixion then?

[ultima ratio]

The problem with Goldberg's contention that a truthful depiction of the Crucifixion must necessarily be anti-Semitic is that such a statement perceives the death of Jesus from the wrong end of the telescope. This film is not about Jews, it's about Christian belief. Since Goldberg perceives the issue from outside that faith, he can't appreciate what the Crucifixion means or why it should be depicted at all. To him it seems anti-Jewish because the Gospels state Jewish elders and chief priests engineered the death of Jesus. To Christians these are historical facts which only affirm that Christ was put to death by humanity itself. The only alternative would be to suppress the truth of a central fact of Christian faith--which is what those who have waded in on this would propose. This is preposterous. It would be as if Germans were to insist that the Holocaust not ever be depicted because some Germans might be offended. Or as if some Italians were to insist The Godfather not be made because some Italians might be offended.

Gibson, by the way, is not "quasi-heretical." The notion itself is oxymoronic. It is not heretical to think Vatican II was a bad idea and that it was a failure. Nor did Vatican II declare any doctrines that compelled religious belief. Not only is it not heretical to be a traditional Catholic, but there is actually less probability Gibson is a heretic precisely because of his traditionalist outlook. To think because Gibson is a traditionalist Catholic he is therefore a bigoted anti-Semite, is itself an expression of the sheerest bigotry. It is dead wrong. Were some Catholics before Vatican II anti-Semitic?--sure. But this had nothing to do with their Catholicism.

[RightOnline]

I usually like Mr. Goldberg's writings.........but find this vapid; downright stupid.

[LibKill]

The only conceivable problem is a lack of subtitles.

My latin is minimal, my amaraic non-existant.

So, I guess I'll wait for the DVD, most good ones have a subtitle option.

[Alouette]

Why can't a movie be controversial and still be an excellent film? "Birth of a Nation" and "Triumph of the Will" are considered cinematic masterpieces, even though they exalt despicable philosophies. I'm sure that Mel's movie will be much superior to these.

As for the ADL's fear that mobs of fanatics are going to swarm out of the cineplexes after viewing this film and beat up the first Jew they find, well, that's a hallucination that ain't gonna happen. At the very worst, some mouth-breathing numbskulls might slap around some Amish guy (the same way some idiot thugs murdered a Sikh after 9-11 imagining that he was a Muslim)