Mel Gibson is Making a Movie About Jesus–Truth!
Summary of eRumor:
The eRumor cites an interview with Mel Gibson on Fox News with Bill O’Reilly and talks about the drama in Mel Gibson’s own life over the making of his new film “The Passion.”. It says that he’s taking a lot of heat for it, primarily because Hollywood might not like a film about Jesus. It also says that a reporter is working hard to dig up dirt on Mel Gibson.
The Truth:
Mel Gibson has a passion for “The Passion.”
It’s a $25 million movie about the last 12 hours of the life of Christ as well as his resurrection as described in the books of the Bible known as The Gospels.
Opposition to the film, however, has not been only because it’s about Jesus.
Religious themes including films based on the life of Jesus have come out of Hollywood before.
Most of the controversy over the film has been based on concerns of critics who say it is anti-Semitic and is based on some of the unique perspectives of the traditionalist views of Gibson’s brand of Catholicism.
Gibson says he has no agenda for the film except to be as faithful to the Gospel accounts as possible and that includes the role of some of the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ time who called for his execution.
During his interview with Bill O’Reilly, Gibson said the film was not meant to offend Jews.
Some Jews fear a backlash from the graphic portrayal of the First Century leaders.
Supporters of the film say it’s not anti-Semitic because it doesn’t dismiss Jews collectively, but only the mentality of the leaders who were threatened by Jesus and wanted him killed.
The positive characters in the film are also Jews including Jesus himself.
A lot of the controversy over the film was launched in March, 2003, by an article published in the New York Times magazine written by free-lancer Christopher Noxon.
He was the one referred to in the O’Reilly interview as writing a “hit piece.”
In the article, he examines Gibson’s Catholicism and calls it “splinter group of conspiracy-minded Catholics, mystics, monarchists and disaffected conservatives.”
The article also talks about Mel Gibson’s 84-year-old father, Hutton Gibson, who has been a prolific author on religious themes including his opposition to changes in the Catholic church since Vatican II in the 1960’s.
Noxon says the elder Gibson told him in an interview that the Holocaust didn’t really happen although he concedes that he doesn’t know that those views are shared by Mel Gibson.
Mel Gibson has been preparing for an intended March, 2004 release of the film by showing it to various religious leaders around the U.S.
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