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The Weblog at The View from the Core - Sun. 02/29/04 06:53:08 PM
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Self-Described Liberal Skewers Hollywood's Hypocrisies Concerning Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, by Richard Corliss at Time, Feb. 27: .... Somebody, and I guess it’s me, has to remind movie-studio bosses that Gibson is one of the world’s top stars, whose last 10 major-studio films (since his Oscar-winning “Braveheart”) have grossed a cumulative $1.27 billion at the North American box office and a similar amount abroad. He is also the guy who made what could well prove to be the biggest independent, foreign-language hit in American movie history. Could, perhaps, the moguls be a tad annoyed with themselves that they turned down a sleeper hit they could have nabbed for peanuts last summer? Decades ago, Hollywood regularly produced religious films: “The Song of Bernadette,” “the Bells of St. Mary’s,” “The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima.” The bosses who financed these pictures may not have liked them or shared the beliefs expressed in them, but they had their reasons for greenlighting them. One is that they often made money. Another is that the mood of the country was more pious. Today, a fervent Christian conviction — so often aligned with belligerent conservatism — is, to many in the media, a threat or a joke. They don’t understand religious devotion, at least in what Hitchens would define as “the less attractive sense” of the term. They are much more comfortable producing anti-religious entertainment (all the comedies that make mock of God, Jesus and the clergy) than some sweet sappy “Nun’s Story.” The attitude goes beyond religion. For better or worse, the current tone is skeptical, derisive and gross. Years ago, “American Pie” replaced American piety. A lot of movie people don’t respect Gibson’s obsession with his “Passion” project; they are offended by it; fear it. And I’ll bet, since the movie could earn huge profits for Gibson and his distribution partners, they resent it.... Lane Core Jr. CIW P Sun. 02/29/04 06:53:08 PM |
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