"Passion" Changes Everything

National Review Online ^ | Feb. 25, 2004 | Ralph Winter & Mark Joseph

[eastsider]

"Passion" will win no awards from Hollywood.

I have a hunch it will win best foreign language film.

[ClearCase_guy]

I'd love to see a good movie about the Jewish revolt of 66 a.d.

If Gibson made such a movie, Abe Foxman would criticize it as mentioning Josephus too much, and portraying him as disloyal to Judaism. It would therefore be an anti-Semitic movie by default.

[CIB-173RDABN]

But I just wonder if this guy is overstating things just a bit.

---

I think you are missing the main point.

I enjoy movies, but I have not been inside a theater since Roger Rabbit.

I do however buy movies in DVD format. Most of the movies I buy are from the early 60s, the 50s and before.

Back when a story was told, you knew who the good guys were and the bad guys failed in the end.

Also, the language was such I would not be ashamed to play the moview with my Mother in the same room.

Some of today's movies sound interesting, but for some reason the people who make these movies seems to think the characters must talk like longshoreman on the docks.

And as for sex, some of the sexiest movies ever made were made in the 30s and 40s where they had to get creative to imply what was going on. Do we really need a biological lesson during a movie.

Yes I am old, but I do have some disposalble income, and would be willing to spend some if the product was any good.

I think the point of this article (which is the same one that Medvid has been pushing) they will make more money by making movies for middle America rather then their friends in New York or San Francisco.

[LS]

Very good. :)

[BreitbartSentMe]

And the Oscar goes to... I really wonder how the elitists in Hollywood are going to 'handle' "Passion." Artistically, Mel Gibson has created a masterful work. Will it receive its due at nomination time? I doubt it.

The American people will take care of that. I'm sure "Passion' will win best picture at the People's Choice Awards. They have given Mel a couple of Best Actor awards when the Oscars didn't even nominate him. I have never voted for the People's Choice Awards before, I just didn't care about it. I will vote this year, for sure!

[SolutionsOnly]

I'm not ready to form a conclusion on this movie's popularity in foreign countries yet. Scandinavia has never been strongly releigious, so I agree that it may not be be big there. But France, Italy, and Spain, and the Phillippines have always been strongly Catholic. We may discover that religion is stronger in those countries than the media has led us to believe. I suspect that in travelling the French countryside, the people are far more like us than the diplomats we see at the UN.

[Agnes Heep]

If Gibson made such a movie, Abe Foxman would criticize it as mentioning Josephus too much, and portraying him as disloyal to Judaism. It would therefore be an anti-Semitic movie by default.

What's wrong with that? He's entitled to his opinion.

[Zevonismymuse]

However, outside of the United States, I expect that it won't have as big of a draw.

Who knows? But I suspect it will be a big hit in Italy, and I think it will do well in other European countries as well. I think it will lead to a huge resurgence in the popularity of Jesus throughout the world. I am not a Christian but I love Jesus and have long been fascinated by the historic Jesus.

[wardaddy]

They were not always INCAPABLE.

[jonboy]

Ah for the good old days of Moses, and Ben Hur, as well as others of their ilk. Who knows, maybe we can force the leftists out of Hollywood! We can only dream.

[reformedcrat]

"And at the same time snidely insuinating that Mel Gibson did it only for the money."

This is not what he wrote or what he meant. I know this because I've known Ralph winter for...let's see...33 years. He's a fine Christian, and a fine man. He also produced Left Behind, the movie.

--Marty

[Dr._Joseph_Warren]

The irony of this is striking - the market, pursuit of profits, love of money, or whatever you want to call it may actually revive morality in Hollywood.

It may create a veneer, or an appearance of morality, but Hollywood will never be a moral place.

[LiteKeeper]

SPOTREP - THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST

[wardaddy]

I find all this providential myself.

[Hurricane]

My wife and I haven't been to the movies in 15 years. We have tickets to see Passion this afternoon

[oyez]

I wonder if there was a big outcry when the "Ten Commandments" or "The Greatest Story ever Told" was released. I was rather of a pup back then so I don't remember.

[Clemenza]

But France, Italy, and Spain, and the Phillippines have always been strongly Catholic

Don't know the last time you were there, but France is among the lowest in church attendence in the world. Many churches are nothing more than museaums there. Spain and Italy are only stronlgly religious in certain regions (for example, the Basque Country is strongly religious, the city of Madrid is not). The movie will be highly successful in the Phillipines, perhaps the most devoutly Catholic nation on earth.

[SolutionsOnly]

I have to agree - Hollywood will never be a moral place, but I'll take whatever I can get in terms of putting more positive messages and better role models in front of audiences.

[Cicero]

I don't know for sure that Mel will make another movie. But when he was questioned about why there wasn't more about the Resurrection in this movie, I gather from one of the articles I read he replied that this movie is about the Passion. And there was some implication that perhaps there might be another movie to cover things that were left out of this one.

I imagine Mel has had enough to do finishing this one and bringing it to the theater to want to think or say much about his next movie. But it certainly wouldn't surprise me to see another movie or two. Not "Passion: The Sequel," but some other angle on Christ or the Bible.

[Cicero]

No. Everyone pretty much assumed that Ben Hur, The Ten Commandments, or all those Bing Crosby-type Christian movies were more or less normal. Magazines like Time reviewed them favorably. Only in the 60s did the media openly start acting as they do now. They might push for more sex in the name of "freedom of artistic expression," but they didn't push for less religion.