Jesus Christ! I just saw "The Passion" . . .

. . . and yes, it's very bloody, although only about as much as could have been 
expected for a dramatization of a Roman scourging and crucifixion. 

It is also about as anti-Semitic as the Gospel of John, which is to say, it is 
anti-Semitic in that way that only the very ur-text of anti-Semitism can be. 
Every despicable trope of classic Jew-hatred is here, including a sensitive 
Pontius Pilate who "washes his hands" of the crucifixion after being egged on 
by the Jewish mob; a Christ who tells the Roman procurator that he has only 
that power that "comes from above" and that those who delivered him to the 
Romans have "the greater sin"; and yes, contrary to what some reviewers have 
written, there is even the line delivered by the high priest Caiaphas where he 
says that Jesus's blood will be "on our heads and the heads of all our 
children." Peculiarly or not, this line is simply not given a subtitle, though 
those who are familiar with the sequence of the story will be able to tell when 
it occurs even if they don't speak Arimaic.

Historically, we know that this is all bunk. We know, for example, that Pilate 
was a notoriously cruel governor even by Roman standards, who would never have 
recoiled from executing anyone if he felt it necessary. We know that there 
would have been no crowds following and jeering the condemned, no matter how 
much he was despised by the people -- crucifixion really is arguably the most 
hideous form of execution ever devised, and it was a tool that the Romans used 
to intimidate subject peoples. Places of crucifixion were places of dread, and 
no Jew or other subject person would have cheered on the Romans in public like 
that.

We know, in fact, that the author of the Gospel of John was a person of some 
classic Greek education (Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy in particular) 
whose book is both an embellished "history" and a political/theological polemic 
against Jews. The Romans were a religiously tolerant people by ancient 
standards, and they granted Jews a special dispensation from observing Roman 
rituals, since it was well-known since time immemorial that the Jews were 
uniquely monotheistic. "John's" polemic is an argument that this dispensation 
should be revoked from the Jews and given to the Christians as the real 
continuation of Jewish tradition -- and to make his argument, the author came 
up with the story of a Jesus who was deferential to Roman authority 
(divinely-granted authority, he even tells Pilate) but condemned because of the 
fanaticism of the Jews. "John" in particular stands as refutation of
  the notion that early Christians were somehow "revolutionary" and subversive 
of Roman order; whoever wrote "John" was in fact trying to ingratiate himself 
and curry favor with Roman authority at the expense of Jews. To be fair, this 
pseudonymous second-century author could not have known that he was writing the 
most enduring and pernicious "libel on a whole people" ever devised.

However, all of this strikes me as beside the point, since Gibson clearly set 
out to make not a historically accurate movie but one based on the fictional 
account found in the Gospels and in Church tradition. In this he has succeeded 
fairly well, producing a dramatization of well-known fairy-tale at least as 
good as Lord of the Rings. Certainly there have been plenty of instances 
throughout history of people with awful reactionary politics who have produced 
great art based on myths and legend, including myths and legend with morally 
questionable themes (think Wagnerian opera). Not that "The Passion of the 
Christ" qualifies as great art, but it is at least "pretty good."

It's especially intriguing that fundamentalist Protestants are attracted to 
this movie, since it is Catholic through-and-through, though in exactly the 
pre-Vatican II sort of way that we would expect from reading about Gibson's own 
belief system. Protestants have no tradition of Passion Plays or of the 
Stations of the Cross ("Jesus is whipped," "Jesus falls," "Simon helps Jesus," 
"Jesus falls again," "Veronica helps Jesus" [a story which is not in the 
Bible], and so on), which is why they're unlikely to fully grasp the 
many-textured and rigorously Catholic worldview of the film, for Gibson's 
Catholicism is at most one step removed from the religion's pagan influences 
and roots. In classic Catholic fashion, it is the figure of the Blessed Mother 
who emerges as the most compelling character in the movie, even moreso than 
Christ himself (Himself? -- no, I'm not going to give you that), a to
 uching universalist tribute to mothers everywhere who are made to bear the 
suffering of their children. 

And on top of that, there's the ever-present immanence of the spirit world, 
particularly the denizens of hell, who Gibson places in this world with all the 
terrifying, literal presence that can be found in the darkest medieval 
superstition: the flesh-eating satanic children who torment Judas Iscariot; 
disgusting creatures including maggots, snakes, flies, and dead carcasses 
seemingly ready to rise up and overwhelm the world; the carrion-fed crow that 
pecks out the eye of the unrepentant thief at Golgotha. Occasionally this gets 
a little ridiculous, particularly at one point where the hairless, pale, 
androgynous Lucifer grips a pallid, loathsome infant to its breast in mockery 
of Madonna-and-child imagery -- or perhaps this would have been a more 
disturbing scene, if I had been able to help myself from asking, "Hey, isn't 
that Dr. Evil and Mini-Me?" And the final scene where -- I hope I'm
  not spoiling the surprise for you -- Christ rises from the dead is just a 
little too reminiscent of Hollywood schlock where the supposedly dead are not 
really dead, to the point that you wonder, "Hey, when's the sequel?"

All in all, though, dramatizations of beloved epics seem to be in these days, 
and this is a pretty good one.



- - - - -
John Lacny

People of the US, unite and defeat the Bush regime and all its running dogs!


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