How the hinterland feels about The Passion

[scottxyz]

Interesting editorial from Jackson, Miss. arguing that Mel Gibson is a sort of "underdog" hero.

I can't argue with the editorial's main premise: corporate gatekeepers are bad at coming up with content people desire. (For a better version of this argument, see http://www.cluetrain.com)

But while there may be some validity to their depiction of Gibson as a kind of "underdog" or "individualist" for "running around" the studios, it's kind of hard to portray as an "underdog" a guy who can blow $30 million of his own money on a heavily promoted movie many see as perfectly-timed propaganda in an already heavily-funded culture war.

= = =

“I just can’t believe it!” said one movie mogul to the other Hollywood big shots assembled in his office for the crisis meeting. “I thought Mel Gibson was one of us. Didn’t you think so, too? Why, we feted him and put him on a pedestal and gave him every possible award. We made him! Then he goes out without our permission and creates this, uh, what’s the name? Oh, yeah, The Passion of the Christ movie. How could he do this to us?”

“I know what you mean,” said the studio owner. “He’s definitely off the plantation. What could Mel have been thinking? He was brought up through the system; he has to understand how it works. Surely after all these years in the business, Mel knows we’ve given ourselves the exclusive right to determine the moral standards for this country. He acts as if he doesn’t comprehend that we decide whether a movie gets made or not.”

“That’s the part that really gets me,” said the producer, “and besides that, he didn’t ask us for one penny to finance the movie -– like we would have given it to him anyway. He went out on a limb and spent $30 million of his own money. He’s got some nerve!”

“He even found an independent company to take the movie the final step into theaters,” said the big-time movie distributor. “He went around us! How are we supposed to control what Americans see in movies if we can’t even keep a religious movie like this one out of theaters?” he asked his soul mates.

= = =

http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/2004-03-04/news.html/1/index.html

[notbush]

1. I found it to be one of , if not the most,

touching films I have ever seen.
There does seem to be a lot of "blowdown" from people who have not seen it.
Some blowdown from people who have.
Jesus Christ......It's only a movie

[aquart]

3. Torture is "touching"?

That suggests a line of Hallmark cards I don't ever want to see.

[magnolia]

8. Although....

I left the Christian church decades ago because it no longer represented anything good to me. The story of Jesus...whether real or a myth...is symbolic (IMO). First..."Jesus" is a name..."Christ" actually means "the presense of God within". Jesus set an example of what we all are. The crucifiction represents the ultimate example in love and forgiveness...so...yes...it IS very touching. No less touching than when Gandhi said to the man who shot him "I forgive you" before dropping to the ground. The picture of these events would not be suitable Hallmark cards...but the message certainly would be.

[xxqqqzme]

2. one big

whoop!

MG started promoting this movie B4 he started shooting it, stirring the pot as he shot it, & whipped the masses N2 a frenzy while he was editing. I want 2 know who is his publicist!?!

[BurtWorm]

4. Off-topic: I loath the right-wing copping of the term "off the plantation"

which refers, of course, to slavery, one of the right wing's pet phenomena. "Off the plantation" is actually borrowed from the Black Liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s, when it meant "too uppity for white folk." In the 1990s, it began to be used by African-American reactionaries like Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams to refer to themselves in relation to the Democratic Party and mainstream African-American thought (i.e., "the plantation"). Soon the lilliest of lily white freepers were using the expression to show how down they were with their winger-brethren Sowell, Thomas and Williams.

Just wanted to get that off my chest.

[Lars39]

5. The "movie mogul" spiel is Southern Bapt progaganda.

Found it at their site today.

[BurtWorm]

6. It's code language for Jews, isn't it?

:eyes:

"Why do the 'movie studio owners' have a bug up their ass about simple entertainment?" the "cracker eater" asked "innocently."

[Lars39]

7. That was my impression.

I check out the SBC site every few days to try to keep a handle on what to expect out of the fundies I'm surrounded by.