Posted on 02/10/2005 7:02:09 AM PST by malakhi
This week's nominations for the film industry's Oscars for the best movies of the year 2004 provided a sigh of relief to some, as it stoked the conspiracy theories harbored by others.
Nearly a year after Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" launched 1,000 commentaries, the 77th Academy Awards ceremony closes the parenthesis on this remarkable cultural phenomenon.
As much as critics blasted it -- while others condemned it for incitement of anti-Semitism -- "The Passion" turned into the surprise blockbuster of the year. As such, its popularity was widely considered a slap in the face to the liberal media/culture establishment.
So while some feared that an Oscar for Gibson or the film would revive the controversy, the unsurprising refusal of the same Hollywood elite that despised the film to honor it will cause the argument to be revisited anyway.
Let us waste no more ink debating the merits of this thoroughly bad film. But I am still interested in the way this story pushes buttons and illustrates the way some Jews look at the world.
Case in point is the way two people have hung on to the controversy and done their best to keep it alive.
They are the Anti-Defamation League's national director, Abe Foxman, and Rabbi Daniel Lapin, a Seattle-based talk-radio host and the head of a small conservative group called Toward Tradition.
Foxman led the charge against the film and its seeming reaffirmation of the myth that placed the responsibility for the death of the Christian messiah on the Jews. He also took the lion's share of blame from those who believed that Gibson used critics to hype a small film into a mega-hit.
Foxman's still smarting from that charge.
He responded in a recent Jerusalem Post opinion piece that restated his reasons for protest and his fears that those who see it in the future will be exposed to "the film's vile notions of Jews."
Blame it on Barbra
On the other end of the spectrum is Lapin, a marginal figure among Jews but someone who enjoys some notoriety among evangelicals who flocked to see the movie. At the time that most other Jews were following Foxman's lead, Lapin was part of Gibson's cheering section.
But rather than merely gloat about Foxman's discomfort, Lapin is attempting to use the "Passion" anniversary to refloat one of his own ideas. He doesn't think the real cause for anti-Semitism lies in the age-old canards that Foxman and others have sought to debunk. For the South African-born rabbi, the cause of hatred for the Jews can be found in the behavior of actors Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand.
What has this famous Jewish duo done?
The answer is that they made a movie that the right-wing rabbi considered far worse than Gibson's.
For Lapin, the Streisand-Hoffman appearance in the regrettable "Meet the Fockers" wasn't merely an exercise in bad taste. For him, it was a defamation of American Jewry.
In the film -- the sequel to the extremely popular "Meet the Parents" -- Streisand and Hoffman portray the oversexed and eccentric Jewish parents of a character played by actor Ben Stiller, a dorky Jewish male nurse who's marrying a gentile goddess. The conceit of the piece lies in a visit by the girl's uptight parents to Miami, home of their Jewish hippy in-laws. Comic complications ensue, some of which deal with the stereotyped connections of the Jewish couple to Judaism.
But rather than dismiss this as cinematic nonsense, Lapin, in a piece widely distributed by his organization, considers it a prime example of how Jews are destroying American morals.
"You'd have to be a recent immigrant from Outer Mongolia not to know of the role that people with Jewish names play in the coarsening of our culture," fulminates Lapin. "Almost every American knows this. It is just that most gentiles are too polite to mention it."
Was Hitler right?
Acknowledging that any ordinary reader would be shocked at such a statement, Lapin remains undaunted, and goes even further with a quote from Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf. Lapin observes that "that evil megalomaniac roused his nation" not through use of the deicide myth, but by noting the Jewish influence in German cultural life.
"It does not excuse Hitler or his Nazi thugs for us to acknowledge that this maniacal, master propagandist focused on a reality that resonated with the educated, and cultured Germans of his day," writes Lapin.
In other words, according to Lapin, avant-garde Jewish artists "linked Jews and deviant sexuality" in the German imagination, and so set the stage for the Shoah. He sees American Jews as similarly responsible for our country's "cultural decline" -- something that "angers more Americans than the crucifixion."
Lapin is right that some Jews on the left have been all too quick to wrongly stigmatize Christian conservatives as anti-Semites when, in fact, many are ardent supporters of Israel.
He's also right when he condemns the decline of public morality. But who but an anti-Semite or a Jew who hates liberals more than he despises Jew-haters would place the blame for this solely on the Jews?
Blaming liberals for anti-Semitism is as vile as blaming it on Jewish actors.
When Lapin claims that actors who spoof Jewish secularism are practicing anti-Semitism while at the same time rationalizing those who would single out "the Jews" as the destroyers of American decency, the rabbi has crossed the boundary from irresponsible commentary to fomenting hatred of his own people.
Out of all the loopy things that have been said and written about Gibson's film, Lapin's article qualifies as the low point of the discussion. In his zeal to condemn his foes, the talking rabbi has proven that self-hatred isn't a virus that can be solely linked to the Jewish left.
Say what you will about Foxman's dogged attempt to justify his role as Gibson's unwitting foil in last year's cultural follies. But Daniel Lapin represents an example of how "The Passion" helped motivate a cultural conservative to turn on his own people. Viewed in that context, it turns out to be a far scarier movie than anyone may have dreamed.
He may. Internet multiple personality disorder is a common affliction.
WOW!
Please refer to my first post. There is no need to resort to making offensive posts about my "fragile ego".
Most people in Britain feel the smae way as me as Gibson has targetted the British in films and in interviews.
We are America's greatest ally. We are standing side by side with you in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I do not know why you have to be so rude in your posts.
I do not know why a small minority of people have to be brithaters.
My complaints was about him in general as well as his films.
Here is one link:
How Mel Gibson helped to turn us into Nazis
http://www.jonathanforeman.com/movies/patriot_guardian.html
Nobody is a "brithater".
If you would like to post links proving that Mel Gibson does not have issues against the British people I would be happy to look at them.
Oh, come on... There was one guy in The Patriot who was, essentially, the bad guy, and he got what was coming to him. Of the rest of the characters who played Brits and/or Tories, they acted in a manner that was honorable and decent. I just don't see what the big deal is...
Hell, I'm an American Indian (Mohawks - allies of the British years ago) and I can say with all honesty that over the years there have been movies, books, and other forms of media that didn't exactly paint us in the best light... but ya know what? I just point out the specific areas of contention, state what the actual facts are, and move on...
Do I hate the Brits? Hell no. I had a blast when I visited the British Isles, and met many truely fine and wonderful people... But, I'll always point out
If you would like to post links proving that Mel Gibson does have issues against the British people I would be happy to look at them.
I just point out the specific areas of contention, state what the actual facts are, and move on...
..........................................................
I made one statement that Gibsondid not blame the Brits for a change and it has been turned into a two page diatribe.
I was quite happy to leave it at that. Others are not.
I already have.
As I stated, I don't hate the brits... They are, as you say, one of our best allies, and the friendship between our nations has a long and great history... however, one also has to understand that there was a time when that wasn't true - and the movie The Patriot fell within that time period. The Patriot was just an entertaining look at a family spat. Nothing more.
That's not what I'm looking for
............................................................
If you will not read links I bother then what point is there to continue. Gibson's brit-hating is widely documented. If you do not believe me then I would like to introduce you to a site called google.
You posted links to The Guardian and Salon. That's not what I consider proof of anything.
Besides - I want to know what YOU think, not what THEY think. And unless you correct me, I don't think you actually saw "The Patriot".
Didn't Blame the Brits for what? The Death of Christ?
Well gee, I'm glad you mentioned that, because the whole time I was watching The Passion, I was looking for some Anti-British Red Meat to bite on...
This film ahs been singled out on this thread and not by me. Brave heart is a good example of his brithating. It has been universally panned by Brits and Scots alike. It is about the only thing we have ever agreed on.
His statements in interviews have shown his personal bias against the brits.
Yes I did. It was on Channel 5 here a few years ago. I watched about half of it then changed channel. The Brits were made to look as awful scum and the Americans as the greatest people that ever lived.
While I like Americans and America I do not like when people set Brits against the US.
Who cares how accurate Braveheart was? So what? Anyone who actually is able to exercise their brain knows well enough that you don't look to Hollyweird for Historical Accuracy...
Hell, when I saw Braveheart, it inspired me to go take a look at the real facts about that era, and I learned a lot... It was a fun exercise.
Now, do you have any actual sourced quotes from Mel, in interviews, where he says how he hates Brits and otherwise acknowledges his biases? I'd LOVE to see them...
My first post was a humorous comment which anyone in England would ahve gotten straight away. It was not intended to be taken seriously although I am sure that Gibson would have blamed the Brits if he could.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.