[little jeremiah]

Maybe they'll start making decent movies that have meaning to them. Maybe they'll quit making sick, twisteder-than-the-one-before crap that is more poisonous than rat poison.

Maybe the Hollyweird crowd will disappear and go away.

About the same odds.

[Texasforever]

I love it when a plan comes together.

[big'ol_freeper]

*ping*

[ECM]

I remember remarking to my brother about how this movie was being staggeringly under-estimated by the Hollywood 'elite' and stated, in all confidence, that the movie would top 200 million in US box office. Once again, however, it appears I was being quite conservative in my estimate...

[zarf]

I did a docudrama on the life of Nick Schwartz.

I never even came close to Mel's numbers.

[Caipirabob]

This is simply stunning if you consider that most parents would not consider allowing young children to see the film. For a "niche group", it's phenominal.

[AlbionGirl]

All you have to do is pay attention to the names of the movies listed following The Passion to understand just how intellectually vapid, stupefyingly boring and imagination free the executive producers, producers and writers in Hollywood really are. They don't have a veritable intellectual clue.

[William McKinley]

Once considered a niche film that would appeal mainly to conservative Christians,

Conservative Christians are a huge niche-- probably 1/4th to 1/5th of the country fits that category.

[NewJerseyJoe]

WAY TO GO, MEL! I hope he makes a billion dollars from this movie, so he can tell all the Hollywood liberals and pagans where to go.

Wouldn't it be fantastic to see this in a few years? --
VATICAN II -- A Mel Gibson Film

[Jonx6]

I'm suprised the Boston Globe ran this.

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

Since most films are no longer actually made in Hollywood, only three things keep it alive. Hollywood big film investment money is one. Another is the "star" system. The traditional view of Hollywood moguls is you have to have a "household name" star to make a financially successful film. Hollywood has controlled that system through insufferable agents and insider contacts.

The third thing is distribution to theaters.

Mel's success threatens all those pillars holding up the rotten whorehouse in Hollywood.

If theaters can make money without Hollywood completely controlling output, the selection of films should vastly improve.

[InvisibleChurch]

the left will accuse the right of "hate-movie viewing"

[TomB]

I wonder how much of a resurgence this will see Easter week?

What better way to "celebrate" Good Friday than to see this movie (after services, of course)?

[Moby Grape]

I wish I could recall which news service I saw this in, but, after the successful Wednesday opening, one of the wire services reported that;

"Movie analyst predict a considerable drop off this weekend and expect the movie to finish with reciepts of around $35 million."

I said at the time that you could just sense in those words that the HOPED it would flop....EAT CROW "EXPERTS".

[Ronin]

Heh, heh, heh....

Those numbers are sure going to take the buzz off that group masturbation extravaganza they call the Oscars.

Dis Mel, will they?

[Aquinasfan]

Once considered a niche film that would appeal mainly to conservative Christians...

LOL! Life is good. Thank you Jesus!

[ctonious]

Gibson's movie production company is to Hollywood, as talk radio is to lamestream media. May there be many more....

[TXBSAFH]

Amazing what happens when you make a true great movie that does not run down traditional values.

[joesnuffy]

Mel Gibson: Hollywood's 'Frankenstein's Monster'

Posted: March 1, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

"The fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man had
friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone"

– Frankenstein's monster, in Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly's "Frankenstein"

Step aside, big fella, because Hollywood has created it's own monster. He's also
going it alone, but, unlike Frankenstein's monster, not lamenting that fact.

The wealthy, talented beast that learned his craft and gained a vast fortune from
the Left Coast masters has turned on them, and his name is Mel Gibson. From
Tinseltown power brokers all the way down to the rank-and-file casting-couch
slimeballs, many cogs in Hollywood's "our way or the highway" bureaucracy
machine are furious at Gibson. He took the millions their industry has paid him
over the years, went off on his own, and made a movie about – gulp – Jesus
Christ. In a town that gave "Gigli" the green light, you'd think they'd have better
things to get their skivvies in a twist over.

With Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," Hollywood's rogue son has proven
that the usual industry magnates don't need to be "in the loop" to create a great
film, and now they're faced with the challenge of preventing others from following
Gibson's lead. This is why they've tried – and failed – to make an "example" of him.

Gibson worked for years at making financially successful films for major
Hollywood movie studios. He was well paid for his efforts – perhaps paid too well.
He ended up personally financing his "Passion" to the tune of $25 million, which is
approximately $25 million more than most actors are willing to sink into their
"passion."

Directly behind Hollywood's facade of "love of craft" and "giving something back"
lays a straight forward and thuggish union mentality bathing in fountains of
money, ready to verbally bash in skulls if any of their ilk display the slightest "scab"
tendencies. Like dealing with the mob, don't think for a second you're about to
take their money and then just walk away from "the family."

In Hollywood, in spite of what they will tell you, the controversy over "The
Passion of the Christ" has nothing to do with a fair representation of the final
hours of the Savior. An industry that has, in part, spent the last half of the 20th
century and most of the new millennium showing people getting their heads blown
off, fornicating, using drugs and bashing Christianity is now gravely concerned
about tarnishing the image of Jesus Christ? Either they're being reborn right before
our eyes, or somebody got the drop on them. You decide.

In Hollywood, people like Gibson, who run off on their own, are viewed no
differently than a Teamster-trained driver who abandoned his union affiliation and
ran off to start his own trucking company. That driver will once again be
encouraged to look for the union label, and emergency room doctors may help him
find it – lodged in his sphincter, along with a loafer and dues envelope.

The anger of mainstream Hollywood powerbrokers directed against "The Passion"
could also have a not-so-subliminal side effect on other independent filmmakers.

There are now more movie awards shows than there are movies – which makes
them woefully repetitive – but most of them traditionally take time to recognize
movies made by independent filmmakers. Hollywood does it as a charity of sorts,
since they know that more people viewed Jack Nicholson's latest colonoscopy than
saw "Liana Dognini."

With a few commercially successful exceptions, "recognition of independent films"
has traditionally been Hollywood's version of handicapped parking. Now, with
Gibson's independent film raking in the cash and garnering all the attention, soon
the Academy of Arts and Sciences and others may begin to feel that they're
offering spots closer to the door to people who are in better condition than they
are.

Many have panned "The Passion of the Christ," including those who run
Hollywood. They have called the film inaccurate and anti-Semitic, and Gibson's
been called a wacko and a kook. All the hateful names and false accusations are
attempts to put band-aids over the wounds that are the real reason for their
lament: insane jealousy.

If only they would emulate Gibson's accomplishment. Of course, that would require
more talent, courage of conviction and, most frighteningly of all, risking their own
money. The Hollywood left would much rather maintain a status quo of
culture-degrading movies laced with expletives, sex, drugs and violence than to
take a chance on something like Mel Gibson has done, and risk offending a
colleague.

[reagan_fanatic]

I've already seen the film once with my wife and two kids, and I plan on going again tonight with my Mother and two Sisters.

May God bless you for the courage to stick your neck out like you did, Mel. This is only the beginning. I believe this could be the start of a new awakening here in America and across the World.

And all thanks to you, Jesus, for your ultimate sacrifice 2000 years ago.