CHRIST COMPLEX - Interview with actor Jim Caviezel

Globe and Mail | December 27, 2002 | Gayle MacDonald

[Fred Mertz]

How will I know what they're saying if they won't use subtitles?

[SuziQ]

I first saw him with Dennis Quaid in "Frequency". It was such a good movie; we took the younger two when they were 10 and 13 and they enjoyed it as well. We had to explain the Yahoo thing to them, and they thought that was a hoot!

I have no problem with it being in Ancient languages. Those who go to see it will know the story anyway, right?

[Maximilian]

I opened my eyes to find that the executioners had failed to stop the cross upright, and found myself rushing face first toward the stage, lashed to the cross.

Thanks for the good laugh.

[SW6906]

I was in Matera in September. It is a beautiful city. Incredibly beautiful. Gibson chose it specifically, because as a World Heritage Site, it must remain looking like it currently does. That is, it will remain looking like it has for 2000+ years.

Locals told us that ten years ago you could get property (buildings) there for a song. Then, the elite and the famous "discovered" it, started converting the insides of the ancient homes into modern apartments, and now it is one of the more expensive places in Italy. Now, the locals are being driven out.

It is in the far South of Italy, the poorest part of Italy. When we were down there in the arch of the boot, we were treated like royalty because they never get Americans down there. People would ask us why we were there because no Americans ever vacation there.

Lovely people, lovely part of the world.

[Libertina]

The actors will speak only the ancient languages of Hebrew, Latin and Aramaic. There will be no subtitles. (Hollywood is agog.)
I am too.

[.45MAN]

Thanks for the bump. This movie sounds like a keeper.

[.45MAN]

You will know.

[Conservative til I die]

Southern Italy is not cold. From what I read, it had something to do with the wind conditions caused by the surroundings.

[Conservative til I die]

Just as an aside: The Mass offered at Mr. Gibson's private chapel is the Tridentine, in Latin.

Question about Mel's beliefs. I've read conflicting reports, one that he's a schismatic Traditionalist type, thinks Vatican II is illegitimate and the Pope illegitimate as well, the other, that he's just a more Traditional, yet orthodox Catholic. This article seems to support the latter view, since he consulted the Vatican on the film. Anyone know?

[bootless]

Gbson and Caviezel BUMP! Jim C was great in Frequency, one of my favorites (also starring Dennis Quaid, who's there with Andy Garcia, Sean Connery and Harrison Ford as my favorite actors). Such heart.

I can't wait to see this. What an extraordinary project, made from love.

[ELS]

Thank you for posting this article. I was recently discussing this film project with a priest from the FSSP. I'm sure he will find this article very interesting. I noticed there is no link to the source. Did you type it in?

[Goetz_von_Berlichingen]

From what I can recall, it is Mel's father that you are describing. I believe the father actually published a (quasi?-)schismatic newsletter (perhaps the inspiration for Conspiracy Theory?). As far as I know, the actor is a Traditionalist in communion with Rome.

[ELS]

Did you type it in?

Never mind. I found it, but it was published on December 21, 2002.

[NYer]

Sorry for not posting the link. I used the Print Version to post the article. That comes up in a window with no link. For anyone else who might be interested, here is the link to the story.

http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/GIS.Servlets.HTMLTemplate?current_row=1&tf=tgam/search/tgam/SearchFullStory.html&cf=tgam/search/tgam/SearchFullStory.cfg&configFileLoc=tgam/config&encoded_keywords=jim+caviezel&option=&start_row=1&start_row_offset1=&num_rows=1&search_results_start=1&query=jim+caviezel

[ELS]

Perhaps I was too subtle in reply #53. Below is the link to the article:

Christ complex

[potlatch]

I love Mel Gibson and he usually picks good movies.

[Saint Athanasius]

I will let you decide if Mel is a schismatic or not... I found this article... it doesn't look good...

Athanasius

World News



September 13, 2002

Mel Gibson launches scathing attack on the Vatican
From Richard Owen in Rome



MEL GIBSON, a Roman Catholic who is to play Christ in a new film, has attacked the Vatican, saying that he does not believe in the Church as an institution.
The actor, who says that he is an “old fashioned Catholic” who rigorously supports the Latin Mass, is shooting Passion in Rome and in the southern Italian town of Matera. He says that he is happy that his only daughter has decided to become a nun.

Gibson, 46, had a Catholic upbringing and attended a Catholic boys’ school in Australia. He is scathing about the Church’s hierarchy, saying that the Vatican was “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”.

“I believe in God,” he told the newspaper Il Giornale.

“My love for religion was transmitted to me by my father. But I do not believe in the Church as an institution”. Gibson has a private chapel at his home in Malibu, California, at which the service is conducted every Sunday in Latin.

The abolition of the Latin Mass was one of the key reforms adopted in the 1960s by the Second Vatican Council, which sought to bring the liturgy closer to the people by ordering clergy to say Mass in the vernacular.

Vatican II allowed for local bishops to apply for “exceptions”, however, and Mass continues to be said in Latin in about 20 churches in Italy. These include the church of Gesù and Maria in Rome, where it has become fashionable for high-society Catholics to hold weddings and baptisms to the sound of Gregorian chant.

Church officials say that there is a growing movement for the restoration of Latin, which Vatican officials regard as dangerous and potentially schismatic.

In private the Pope continues to say Mass in Latin but permission for local dioceses is granted grudgingly.

A seminary near Florence that still trains priests in the Latin liturgy claims that its conservatism has “growing appeal”.

Gibson, whose latest film, Signs, is released today, is said by friends to have become more conservative in his religious views in middle age.

He has been married to his wife, Robyn, for more than 20 years, unusually long by Hollywood standards, and says that his faith enabled him to survive as a family man despite the drinking binges and infidelities that accompanied his early success.

He protects the privacy of his seven children (six of them sons) fiercely, but he said that his “adventuresome” daughter Hannah wanted to be a nun, and he was very happy about it. She was “healthy, smart and well travelled” and he did not have to worry about her.

Gibson, who is renowned for his swashbuckling heroics in action films such as Braveheart, Mad Max and Lethal Weapon, said that portraying Christ during his final earthly hours would be the most difficult role of his life.

He said that what attracted him to the story of Christ’s last hours before the Crucifixion was that it was “the drama of a man torn between his divine spirit and his earthly weakness”.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, on the road to Calvary and at Golgotha, Jesus was usually described as resigning himself to death without a tremor of fear, whereas “my Jesus will be shaken by his human suffering. Real blood will flow from the wound in his side, and the screams of his Crucifixion will be real as well.”

He said that he had chosen Matera, noted for its palaeolithic caves, or “Sassi”, because it had formed the backdrop to Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Gospel According to St Matthew (1964), which he greatly admired. He would not need any special effects because Matera provided a “photocopy of the landscape you travel through as a Christian pilgrim in Israel”.

Catholic sources said that Gibson, who sought the advice of theologians and prelates in Rome for his film, had strong views on divorce, abortion and contraception that would appeal to Vatican conservatives.

It remains to be seen whether Passion will join the list of Vatican-approved films on the life of Christ, which include Nicholas Ray’s King of Kings (1961) and Franco Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth (1977) starring Robert Powell.

[Zviadist]

It's amazing that they're doing this. Hats off to Gibson. What a remarkable person.

[Mamzelle]

re: Gibson has a private chapel at his home in Malibu, California, at which the service is conducted every Sunday in Latin. )))

Hmmm...does he have subtitles?

[montag813]

This is a very disturbing report. I'm really disappointed in Mel Gibson, who is the producer. Couldn't he have found a warmer climate for Caviezel to do his difficult outdoor scenes in? Mel Gibson loses several points for this. I hope I never forget how poorly he treats his fellow actors.

Do you think the portrayal would have been enhanced by shooting on an L.A. soundstage, with the cast sipping lattes? Give me a break. Jim understands that by suffering himself he is brought closer, though by no means close, to the suffering endured by Jesus before and on the cross. He does not complain, as do you. Stop being silly.