{"id":78,"date":"2004-03-09T01:28:33","date_gmt":"2004-03-09T07:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/2004\/03\/09\/the-passion-of-the-gimmick\/"},"modified":"2006-02-16T02:03:04","modified_gmt":"2006-02-16T08:03:04","slug":"the-passion-of-the-gimmick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/03\/the-passion-of-the-gimmick\/","title":{"rendered":"The Passion of the Gimmick"},"content":{"rendered":"
Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock<\/font><\/h6>\n

Tuesday, March 9, 2004.<\/b> "The Passion of the Christ." I have not seen the movie, though it’s been out a couple of weeks. I am not curious about it, the way I have been about other movies about Christianity, and so may not see it anytime soon. It’s not the old ultra-violence, nor this one’s particular selectiveness on which parts of which narratives to include. It’s a matter of, will I learn anything or be inspired.<\/font><\/p>\n

All art is entertainment, high-, low-, middle- or non-brow. But when art inspires to instruct or, oh well, inspire, then it raises its own stakes. Not we consumers, the artists are responsible.<\/font><\/p>\n

A religious movie serves no one but the devil (in whatever form that takes) if it moves people away from lovingkindness. Whether "Passion" or "Jesus Christ Superstar" (and no one who enjoys its tunes in church now should forget the claims of sacrilege hurled at it in the early 1970s) persuades people to become Christians is immaterial if it does not also move people toward the Golden Rule.<\/font><\/p>\n

Two earlier controversial movies about Christianity serve the cause of peace better. One believe it or not is Monty Python’s "Life of Brian." Jews and more traditional Christians (Catholics and Anglicans (because I don’t want to spell Episcopalian)) know laughter can be instructive. "Life of Brian" points out human nature foils most good intentions. Fortunately, its purpose is not to instruct so relax. Yet in its late-1970s day, Jews as well as Christians protested it. A campus rabbi told us, however, the Jewish infighting embarrassingly depicted did happen; it’s why no revolt against the Romans was successful.<\/font><\/p>\n

The second flick I recommend is Martin Scorsese’s "The Last Temptation of Christ." This considers the Passion but more importantly it recalls what Jesus taught and the times these people lived in for context and perspective. The soundtrack’s cool, too.<\/font><\/p>\n

"The Passion." Two points: Jews should not call wolf in America. Real hate is coming, and we will need the loving support of other groups at that time. Let’s not waste ammunition. In a better world, people and especially the media would understand contemporary Jews have neither leaders nor spokesmen so those who claim that would be automatically suspect. (2) Christians who claim the controversy comes from anti-Christian sentiment are idiots or liars. In America, Christians are not persecuted in any honest sense.<\/font><\/p>\n

That controversy is good for box office should be obvious; there’s centuries of evidence. If I had a movie in subtitles and wanted it to do well in every American market. … But marketing is not wrong, it’s American capitalism. Mel Gibson seems like a good guy, always has. Thus, everything about his "The Passion of the Christ" deserves all benefits of all doubts. Where its furor eventually leads will tell us if it’s a Christian movie leading us to greater peace. -30-<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Tuesday, March 9, 2004. "The Passion of the Christ." I have not seen the movie, though it’s been out a couple of weeks. I am not curious about it, the way I have been about other movies about Christianity, and so may not see it anytime soon. It’s not the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-culture"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5556,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2017\/02\/hoofers-passion-ambition-success-love\/","url_meta":{"origin":78,"position":0},"title":"The Hoofers’ Guide to Passion, Ambition, Success and Love","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 26, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"It wasn't work-of-genius\u00a0good. In fact\u00a0La La Land\u00a0shouldn't be rated on a four-star system because three and a half stars is ambiguous, but the movie was definitely four stars out of five ****o. Other write-ups say, often flatteringly, that the stars' dancing was good, very good even, but not great. That's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Poster of La La Land movie","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/la_la_land-810x1200-203x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":42,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/01\/decisions\/","url_meta":{"origin":78,"position":1},"title":"Decisions","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 13, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2004. The old chestnut of a philosophical construct: If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, what would you do today? Ideally, you'd spend lots of time in the park, barefoot (the sun would be warm and shining of course), using\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life Lessons"","block_context":{"text":"Life Lessons","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/life-lessons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":80,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/06\/14-people\/","url_meta":{"origin":78,"position":2},"title":"14 people","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 9, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Thursday 9 June 2004. A terrific quote I've recently found and logged in my Commonplace Book (filed on the home and work computers) is: \"Art is not art if only 14 people know about it,\" said by Joni Mitchell, quoted by Jacquelyn Mitchard. (Mitchard is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technical Difficulties"","block_context":{"text":"Technical Difficulties","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/briefs\/technical-difficulties\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":59,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/11\/cutting-myself\/","url_meta":{"origin":78,"position":3},"title":"Cutting myself","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 8, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Monday, Nov. 8, 2004: I may see a trend in this Brick business, a hierarchy. When I work for pay, or at least print publication, I not only think hard about clarity of thought in the writing but how to frame the published writing to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technical Difficulties"","block_context":{"text":"Technical Difficulties","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/briefs\/technical-difficulties\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":88,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/07\/nyuk-nyuk-nyuk-palahniuk\/","url_meta":{"origin":78,"position":4},"title":"Nyuk nyuk nyuk Palahniuk","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 6, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock July 5-6, 2004 July 6, 2004. Addendum to the 7\/5 Brick below: I downloaded the Palahniuk interview and listened to it twice. The NPR reporter did open her piece with a warning that the writer spoke provocatively and that some comments were edited out. Sorry\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":76,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/03\/china-cups\/","url_meta":{"origin":78,"position":5},"title":"China cups","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"March 13, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock \u00a0 Saturday, March 13, 2004. Green tea from red China. Nice, but no one says \"red China\" anymore. -30-","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}