In a message dated 2/4/2004 7:22:59 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
So IYO no one can ever make a movie about the life of Jesus -- where for
Christians the main point of the life of Jesus is His death and
resurrection and its meaning for us today -- because some people use the
fact that some Jews who lived at the time were involved in his death to
justify hatred of and violence against all Jews today? If that is not what
you are saying, what do you think would be an acceptable way of portraying
the account given in the Gospels while staying true to that account?
So without seeing the movie it is really impossible to tell how this will
play out. It will depend how the jews are portrayed (evil or indifferent, hard or
cruel). it will depend on how they are dressed. The thing that first raised
concerns was the choice of the basic text Gibbson said he was using as the
basis of the movie ( I believe a 17th century work that was particularly virulent
in its anti-semitism). Remember that most of the passion plays in europe used
horrific steriotypes of jews (long noses big pointy hats). Gibbson went on the
attack as soon as there was any questioning of his intent (much of which came
from within catholocism). He would not allow jews to see the movie when he
first screened and has portrayed himself as the victim of persecution (it will
be interesting to see what he does on 20/20 tomorrow with Diane Sawyer). I
think this will be another puff job. So it is possible to do a story where jews
are seen as favoring or even instigating his death wihtout implicating all jews
(show that the romans wanted to happen as well, show that there were jews who
were against his death, show the jews as real people not stereotypes).
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