Rick's Cafe Americain

This weekend, I saw the most expensive snuff film ever made.

I was kind of hoping that your review would rhyme. Oh well.

The Word of God He said to heed,
but Mel just wants us to watch him bleed.
Here was the bread of life, the Lamb,
reduced to watching fingers in a doorjamb.
Watch Jesus bleed and cry and falter—
I’m surprised Mary wasn’t wearing a halter!
A symphony of pain, played largo, lento,
I’d have expected this from Dario Argento
But from a self-professed Catholic,
I’d thought the film’d be more bucolic,
self-reflective, thoughtful, even proselytizing --
but that doesn’t explain the merchandising.
No, my friends, I hate to be cynical,
but the film was less anti-rabbinical
than it was simply pro-mutilation:
Five parts violence,
Ten parts blood,
No parts salvation.

Better?

Bravo.

Gibson had his choice of villains.  He made his choice, You can sum up his choice as “We all killed Jesus.  But those dirty Jews made us do it.”

This would be a problem if they did, but is an even bigger problem since we didn’t.

Must end with a joke . . .

BTW, how sick is it that Gibson’s production company is shilling little nails?

Please, please let me be the lawyer that gets the case when some kid crucifies himself with the nails Rick references above so I can then “nail” Gibson to the wall.

Rick, what is your religious upbringing...? Just wondering…

For most of my childhood I was an observant Jew.  Now I am a fairly oblivious Jew.

Thanks for clearing that up.

Also, the end is crap. I don’t recall ever reading that when Jesus finally died, the earth shook, and the Temple was cracked in two (I think Mel got that from an Indiana Jones film). That may also have been a touch anti-semitic, now that I think about it.

In the gospels there is a passage that states when Christ died (at 3pm on Good Friday), there was an earthquake which caused the temple to split in two. Darkness also fell on the earth.

I did not know that.

This guy really pegged The Passion for what it is.  Thanks for the pointer, TMFTML.

Great review.  Lehmann notes that his ticket stub said “PASSION CHRIST”.  Mine said “THE PASSION OF CHRIS”. I remember remarking to my friend as we walked into the theater, “Sounds like a porno to me.”

An interesting (and scary at times) article on the $$$ of the Passion.