ONE MORE ON THE PASSION
Gibson's act of interreligious aggression

Generally, I hate the neo-conservative syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer: he is the very epitome of the arrogant, elitist, pro-corporate, pro-pentagon, establishment pundit goon. O'Reilly and Limbaugh simply make me angry. Krauthammer fills me with contempt--he's even lower than Dan Rather. Anyway, today, I like what he has to say.

From the Houston Chronicle:

The blood libel that this story had affixed upon the Jewish people had resulted in countless Christian massacres of Jews, and prepared Europe for the ultimate massacre -- 6 million Jews systematically murdered within six years -- in the heart, alas, of a Christian continent. It is no accident that Vatican II occurred just two decades after the Holocaust, indeed in its very shadow.

Which is what makes Mel Gibson's Passion such a singular act of interreligious aggression. He openly rejects the Vatican II teaching and, using every possible technique of cinematic exaggeration, gives us the pre-Vatican II story of the villainous Jews.

His Leni Riefenstahl defense -- I had other intentions -- does not wash. Of course he had other intentions: evangelical, devotional, commercial. But when you retell a story in which the role of the Jews is central, and take great care to give it the most invidious, pre-Vatican II treatment possible, you can hardly claim, "I didn't mean it."

Click here for the rest.

It's beginning to look like I really ought to watch this movie, if only from a film studies point of view. I mean, I watched Triumph of the Will, after all; I watched Birth of a Nation. Gibson's film has really turned into a pretty fascinating cultural controversy.

So, pass the Pepto Bismol; I'm off to see the mother of all slasher flicks.

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