“Passion” plays well

Two years ago, Mel Gibson said he was going to make a movie about the suffering and death of Christ. The dialogue would be in ancient languages, spoken by obscure actors. People started snickering, saying this was an art-house movie nobody would want to see.
Next, they said people would want to see it, but they’d immediately start bombing synagogues and beating up Jews. The result? None of the major film studios wanted to bankroll the movie, and all the major film distributors rejected it.
On the first day of its release, “The Passion of the Christ” earned back nearly all of its production costs. By Friday, it will start turning a profit. And there are six more Sundays in Lent.
In a serious case of wishful thinking, the New York Times says, “New Film May Harm Gibson’s Career.” Riiiiight. Not with God and Mammon on his side.

5 comments

  1. That article you cite in the NYT could as easily have been headlined: “Will an intolerant Hollywood culture refuse to hire Mel again.”
    All the Mel-haters in that article were essentially unforgiving, intolerant folks who refuse to give Gibson the professional courtesy and artistic license to live and let live vis-a-vis his work on creating, producing, and directing “The Passion of the Christ”

  2. Bill O’Reilly said it first, but it flashed accross my mind about the same time: It looks like Hollywood finally found a blacklist that it approves of.

  3. Ha! That’s a good line, Dennis.
    Come on, Ken — you’re not so naive as to think that “artistic freedom” means freedom for religious believers? Did you notice that almost all of the gutless execs didn’t want their names printed? That’s so they can eat their words in private later.

  4. I think when this film has finished it’s theatrical run, no anti-Semitic riots have occurred, an increased number of people have turned back to God in a meaningful way, and Mel is sitting on top of a mountain of cash, there is going to be a lot of people who will either be eating crow, zipping their lips, or continuing to tow their critical line and end up looking (more)like hysterical morons.
    By the way, kudos to Kevin Costner for proudly speaking out publicly in favor of “The Passion”. I’m surprised that some of the other right-leaning personalities in Hollywood (not that there are very many) like Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger haven’t spoken up in favor of it as well.
    As far as Gibson’s career being over, I think not. Hollywood would hire Satan himself to star in a film if it would make them a profit. It’s all about the money for them, not the morals.

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