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So, I caught “The Passion of the Christ”. Mel Gibson's version of the New Testament looks like Alex's from “A Clockwork Orange”…so much gore and violence and so little positive--other than a brief flashback to The Sermon on the Mount. And there are almost none of Jesus' teachings. There may have been more violent and bloody films made, but never one so utterly humorless. I've never seen a movie in more dire need of Charlton Heston than this one. Anti-Semitic…maybe, I don't know. This film is misanthropic more than anything. The Roman soldiers seem as bloodthirsty as the Jewish priests, really relishing the torture of Jesus. Homophobic perhaps also...Satan is shown as an androgynous figure overseeing everything that happens. Given what I know about Gibson as a homophobe, having read an interview in a respected men's magazine (ahem...Playboy) a few years back, I think it's reasonable to read into this that Gibson is equating homosexuality with demons. Yuck. No one should sit through this. Which I guess brings us to gay marriage. I think Bush is cutting his own throat pushing the amendment. I have no faith that the American people are ready to accept gay marriage, but I sense that they are uneasy with making a change to the Constitution that would actually DENY one set of people their rights. Churches will still be free to decide whom they do or don't want to marry, but that is their prerogative and one that I don't think the state shares. I'm sure Mel Gibson doesn't support gay marriage. Wonder what he thought about Janet Jackson's tit? I actually thought the whole Super Bowl halftime was inappropriate for the circumstances. (Am I the only one who thought Nelly's lyrics about 'shooting his seed' made an odd soundtrack for a football game?) Honestly, this is why I tuned it out until the second half began, as everyone else that didn't like it should have done. But, like most of us, they didn't notice Michael's sister's boob until it was shown over and over again. (People said they thought she was trying to pump sales of her new CD, I think she was trying to take some heat off her bro). Anyway, whatever--it was no more provocative than the succession of ads for Viagra, Bud and all the other aphrodisiacs pimped during the telecast. But at least the game was good. The rap on family values-based censorship has always been that sex is bad but violence is somehow OK. Janet's unholy boob glimpsed between tow halves of NFL gladiators followed by the phenomenon of Mel's sadistic “Passion” really puts this into sharp relief. Well, what can I say? They're all a bunch of boobs, as are we for listening to them. |
