Mel Gibson's highly controversial film on the last 12 hours of the life of Jesus opens today, Ash Wednesday. Reaction to the film is about as varied and passionate as such things get - we have reviews, news and thoughts collected here:…
"A sinister cabal of superior writers."
Article comments
26 - sheri
Eric, I'm not exactly sure what your point is there. Is being a "jew defender" a good thing or a bad thing? Is that what I am?
27 - sheri
No...they are not Tiny in power. But, hey...might is right, go get some if you think you're hard enough. Besides, the Jews "Gods chosen people" ...if you dont like that, go have a word with the Big Man upstairs.
28 - Eric Olsen
As far as I'm concered it's a good thing, but it's also a joke from another post - I think this one, but I have a headache and don't feel like looking at the moment.
29 - sheri
Ok, ty Eric, and I apologize for becoming so defensive.
I finally saw the movie last night and I want to know...WHATS UP with that weird baby Satan is carrying???
30 - Eric Olsen
No prob Sheri, haven't seen it, don't know about the baby.
Sandra, Sandra, Sandra, Who are you Mel Gibson? There are not "many communities" with the "horrific past" of the Jews, who have been persecuted for 4000 years for their religion, and who just 60 years ago had half of their kind systematically eliminated in state-sponsored genocide. There have been other genocides, to be sure, but not on that scale and with the express purpose of eliminating them from the face of the earth.
31 - Sandra Smallson
Eric, I am not trying to take away anything from the suffering of the Jews. I am simply saying and will still say, since I think its a fair point, that suffering is not exclusive to the jews. We can go on and on and try and quantify or qualify the extent of grief suffered but that leads us nowhere.
Your point seems to imply that you think their suffering is greater than any ever suffered by any set of people ever. Thats arguable. However, I respectfully disagree that even if it were so, Gibson was therefore wrong to portray them as he did in his picture . Suffering is suffering to me. You don't tell a mother who has lost her 7 year old child that she should stop crying. Afterall, her neighbour just lost her husband and two toddlers. What has happened is a loss for both women and the gravity of one loss in comparison to the other does not give the mother with the seemingly graver loss sole possession of immense grief or sympathy from others.
The Jews have every right to feel as they do but that does not mean that Mel Gibson or anybody else for that matter should pussy foot round subject matter so as to appease them. It is what it is. His source is the Bible. The Bible says the Jews killed Jesus Christ. There is no reason for them to get so worked up. If Schindlers list did not send the new generation of Jews on a mass murder mission to Germany, the Passion of Christ will not send the new generation of Christians on a mass murder attempt to israel. Lets all try and maintain some calm amidst all this flurry of political correctness.
32 - shaun
Sorry gotta chime in about an above comment.
"Besides, the Jews "Gods chosen people" ...if you dont like that, go have a word with the Big Man upstairs"
Yeah chosen to suck my dick.
Don't ya think, eric, that a group of people have to do something very wrong in order for an entire COUNTRY to desire them to be wiped off the face of the earth?
And as for the holochaust, i am not one of those dumb fucks who try to say it never happened, but i do think the number jews killed is greatly exaggerated. If the amount of jews that they say were killed, then their would be no need for a jewish state. Their wouldn't be enough left, which i don't think i would cry over
33 - sheri
Shaun, you got one part right.Your first word was an apology.
34 - shaun
Nope, not really. You should join the "Jew Defenders". Ask eric olsen if ya don't know who they are
35 - Eric Olsen
#32 is the winner! Yes, you with the wretched spelling, debased vocabulary, and hate-filled heart, the time has come to go the way of the cheese. No one can say I wasn't as patient as Job.
36 - shaun
haha, are you gonna kick me off blogcritics?
Don't have much humor do you?
Haven't you figures out i have a fucked uptwisted sense of humor. I just like getting a rise out of you guys
37 - shaun
(trumpets blaring) the jew defender has arrived
38 - Al Barger
I'm not necessarily calling for any action, but I note with interest that just about every man jack here was united in hysterical outrage over the supposed horrible evil of David Yeagley, who had to be not just shunned but condemned in the absolute strongest words and banned. Yet this Shaun has been talking like this with impunity, and maybe marginal criticism for how long?
Nor has Mr. Larkin gotten any criticism for talking about 'pissing on some rabbis' and such in the thread of RJ's review of the movie. Of course, he was just making an ironic criticism of Mel Gibson's supposed anti-Semitism, so that doesn't count. Of course.
On the other hand, if some evil Injun made a similar "joke" about urinating on a black man or a Muslim imam, much less the some of Shaun's stuff...
39 - Eric Olsen
Action yes, I agree that the criticism has not been equal, although I have done my part across three or four different posts. I can't help it if fewer have jumped in to correctly vilify, although certainly no one here has defended it.
The point, however, remains that one example of hateful bigotry does not somehow mitigate another or render it less so.
My guess is that the cheese appeared more threatening because of his veneer of erudition whereas poor Shaun just sounds like a run-of-the-mill dyslexic shit-for-brains.
Nonetheless, even those who attempt to communicate via misfiring synapses their ill-formed sputterings of vitriol must be countered, which I have done on an ongoing basis and just now have finally chosen to mercy-kill as nothing has been achieved, no one has been edified, and I have better things to do.
40 - Al Barger
No, Eric, YOU personally (and Dawn) were specifically actively critical of this Shaun, so you're outside of at least THAT part of it. Nor did I mean this as justification for any sin of Yeagley's. It's just that the group here as a whole has some seemingly imbalanced priorities for their outrage. I'm just saying...
41 - shaun
I only started posting the harsh comments after i was attacked. I saw all these posts that eric and dawn did that critisize other bloggers respectfully, and I thought they would treat me the same way. Nope, you guys started in quite quickly with the personal attacks. I looked at my old blogs and i know they were written very poor, but i told you the reason why. I rushed my responses, so you chose to label me a "run-of-the-mill dyslexic shit-for-brains". Ok eric. Most of my later comments were mainly posted to get a rise out of you. And when we finally started to have a controlled discussion, Dawn must have felt it was time for her to chime in and start the bitching again. When she did that you jumped back on the bitching bandwagon. After all the shit you blabed at me, i am not phased because you and dawn obviously have no desire to be respectful, so why should I?
42 - Al Barger
Personally, my issue isn't you talking trash to the Olsens, it's the nonsense about "fuck Israeli Jews." Correct me if I'm misquoting you.
These people are getting massacred every couple of days by Palestinian dirtbags, and I tend to lose my usually very good sense of humor rapidly with crap like comment 32- which actually wouldn't be funny even if I ignored the disrespect for our besieged and massacred brethren.
You think you're Richard Pryor? You ain't. You're not funny. You're not clever. It doesn't take a great wit to do a bit of cheap Jew baiting anonymously over the computer.
43 - shaun
"These people are getting massacred every couple of days by Palestinian dirtbags"
really... that is why the isreali's are mudering the palestinians at a rate of 2 palestinians to 1 jew.
yo got your comment backwards.
"the passion appeals to the unwary"
go to this blog if you want to join a bigger discussion on the topic.
44 - Al Barger
You are making a really inappropriate comparison there, and you have to KNOW better. Palestinians are purposely massacring civilians, women and children, and they're not really even doing it to gain anything. The Israelis then respond by hunting down the specific dirtbags responsible. That's not even VAGUELY morally equivalent. And if your evil Palestinian heroes hide behind their children, and behind their women's skirts and get them killed too, well that's on THEIR heads.
This stuff is all basic. I'm sure you know this.
Your Palestinian brethren know that the Israelis are among the finest people in the world- certainly far morally superior to themselves. That's why they calculate that they can get away with their wickedness.
The forbearance of the Jews has been amazing. If they tried a couple or three of these little massacres against America, I'll guarantee that there wouldn't BE a West Bank left for them to want.
45 - shaun
if that is what you are going to come to the table with, i am not even gonna respond. You made no educated or true statments
46 - carolyn morrow
my husband took me to see the passion of the christ, over the weekend and i would recamain anyone to see this movie it really touched my heart to see this man being beat to death and still ask god to forgive the ones doing this to him Jesus was a brave man that took all our sins with him he washed us clean and to see Mary have to see her son do this had to be hard i can't imagen having to see one of my sons go thou what he did for us .this movie isn't to say hey go to chruch it to say hey he died for us and we need to believe in him and follow his rules of life .also i think Mel gibson had to have a reason to write this film maybe he had something happen to him and he felt he needed to share it with the world all i know is I believe and i always will
carolyn 3 15 04
47 - cathy moore
to carolyn i agree completely with you. i also feel that this was a gory movie, and glad that it was. poeple have to see what jesus really went through to understand what there beliefes are. i am not a religouse person, but man this movie had my me cringing in my seat knowing that this really happened to jesus. it saddens me to see that poeple from the prev. comments are putting each other down. we need to respect each others beliefs, and understand that we are all different with differnt backgrounds. i feel mel gibson didn't put anyone as far as jews, or christians, or whoever at blame. he just told the truth from waht he and many others understand of the bible. this is comming from someone who has come from both christain, and jewish backgrounds.