Week of real hatred: film critic suffers backlash to 'Passion' review

New York Daily News ^ | 2/29/04 | Jami Bernard

[Brian Mosely]

In 18 years as a professional movie critic, I've never gotten the response that I had this week to my one-star review of "The Passion of the Christ."

I knew the reaction would be hostile - movie critics routinely get hate mail, even one time for a review of "Bambi."

But, as they would say in an action movie of the kind Mel Gibson formerly made, this time, it's personal.

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

I agree she may not be the prettiest woman alive nor attractive to some but her face has nothing to do with the convoluted way she thinks .

Content of character is what matters not looks or color of skin.

I find Anne Coulter to be bordering on anorexic and not really a beauty queen but her mind i find to be a fantastic realm in which true thought comes from a love of country and freedom !

[GROOVY]

Empire Strikes Back got 4 stars from both Siskel and Ebert.

Let me quote from the review:

"The Empire Strikes Back" is not a truly terrible movie. It's a nice movie. It's not, by any means, as nice as "Star Wars." It's not as fresh and funny and surprising and witty, but it is nice and inoffensive and, in a way that no one associated with it need be ashamed of, it's also silly. "

Thats hardly comparable to the criticism of the Passion. I have to go now, but I will check back later tou see if you found one.

[Enterprise]

What an outstanding, thoughtful, and well-written post. Thank you!

[Leroy S. Mort]

Are the comments on this thread about the woman's personal appearance any different than the attacks on Katherine Harris's personal appearance.

Have we become 'them' all in the name of Jesus Christ?

Not me, chief. I made no comments about the woman's unfortunate appearance.

[al_possum39]

"No child should see this movie. Even adults are at risk. Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" is the most virulently anti-Semitic movie made since the German propaganda films of World War II.....Is it historically accurate? Of course not....."

If anybody ever makes another movie about the old south that portrays southerners as slave-owners, I’m going to yell that they are anti-southern and historically inaccurate and that it’s the worst portrayal of southerners since reconstruction.

[proust]

"As I said, it's easier to trash someone's appearance than to make substantive comments about their writings."

Her writing was barely worth commenting on. But if your looking for substantive comments on it, here goes: It's sloppy writing that must have come from a sloppy mind and more importantly, her review was race baiting. Her "unstuff" remark is a lame attempt at shifting the blame from the writer to the readers, when it is her fault alone that she can't write succinctly, even after 18 years of considering herself a professional movie critic.

[don-o]

my link don't work. hold on

[nightdriver]

"My main objection to "The Passion" is that Gibson has used the tools at his disposal to disguise sadism as piety."

It isn't sadism. The author is hampered by lack of semantic knowledge.

The horrendous physical torture described in the Bible is actually much worse than depicted in the movie. The actual literal rendering says that He was no longer recognizable as a man!

The unbelieving liberal (redundancy) will always trip over the physical horror of the Cross, but what we couldn't see was God's transaction with Christ that was even worse than the physical because God saw and judged Jesus as though he was the sinner that you and I are.

I'm glad the movie was made.

[Leroy S. Mort]

I have seen both, and this film (Last Temptation) is a secular, anti-Christian piece of garbage that was made to inflame and offend any true believers.

If you really believe that, I have a hard time believing you actually watched the film. You didn't describe anything like what I saw in it.

[don-o]

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1084971/posts

Don't know what's up. I used the same html as always.

[equus]

Geez, you have diarrhea of the keyboard, and you sure use the word hate a lot. Get a hold of yourself.

[Enterprise]

"The unbelieving liberal (redundancy) will always trip over the physical horror of the Cross"

Like vampires? Coincidence? I think NOT!

[Maigrey]

Sounds like she had her mind made up on her viewpoint of the movie before she walked in.

Disappointing.

I wonder how she votes. Probably not with her brain.

[equus]

Well, being a writer myself, I can suggest to you that what happened is she showed all the responses to her editor, and they thought, hey there's more of a story here than we thought, why don't you write about it. And that editor is right. A voluminous response, much of it hate mail, is interesting from a journalistic point of view--it's a story in itself.

[Cboldt]

That's the general tone taken by the movies' fans. Love the film or you are Satan. Even if you are a Christian.

One is apt to find that which one is predisposed to seek.

My impression of the writings of those who view "The Passion of the Christ" in a positive light (and many of them have been moved), is that they want nothing but good for mankind. At the same time, they express an awareness that Satan is at work, today, in the world. But yours is the first post I have seen making the accusation, "Love the film or you are Satan."

I don't think you meant that literally. And if you undertake an honest reflection, the impression left on you by defenders of the movie will soften.

[TalBlack]

This feedback provided a clear indication that "The Passion" is attracting two kinds of ticket-buyers — true Christians who look to the movie as a spiritual experience, and nut cases who need little excuse to spill their bile.

Uhhh, Jamie, sweetheart, you forgot to give us the PROPORTION of vile to not vile in the mail you recieved.

It's pretty sneaky, hon, to cast ALL of those who didn't like your review into the same basket, you know, calling you "fat" or "ho" etc.

Most people in your position who are trying to make the point that they have just dicovered a certain group of people is less civil GIVE THE PROPORTION in the e-mails that DEMONSTRATES this truth.

Get back to me, will you dear?

[equus]

Agreed. On some thread here I read the interesting point that the only quote we have about Jesus' appearance is that he was NOT comely.

[alnick]

I believe Ms. Benard did, in fact, receive tons of protest emails regarding her review. I do NOT believe that most of these are unprintable. Why are they unprintable? Because they disagree with her highness?

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who do resort to sending hate mails filled with unprintable sentiment in response to dreck like the author's review of "The Passion."

They do this to vent their emotions, but in the process they give ammunition to these liberals to say, "Look at these conservatives. They're hateful and cannot argue the points I made in my article; therefore, they're wrong and I'm right."

They do more harm to conservatism than the author who wrote the original piece to which they objected.

That isn't to say that this author didn't downplay the probably large amount of thoughtful criticism she received.

[Stewart_B]

That was excellent. The woman evidently never saw the film or is a blatant liar.

When you break down her critiques one by one and answer them with facts ( as you did ) she is shown to be at the very least inept as a film critic and at worst a liar with an agenda.

Thanks.