The Passion of Mad Max Beyond Braveheart

[DrBB]

Best piece I've read on the topic of Mel's Opus so far. And everyone concerned about creeping fascism in the US should know about Orcinus.

Excerpt:

Everything you need to know about The Passion of the Christ is that in it, the Sermon on the Mount is reduced to a one-minute sound bite. Jesus' humanity is reduced to a handful of Hallmark-card-tinted flashbacks. It is all obliterated by squirting blood and ruthless sadism. This is not a film for converting new Christians.

It is, instead, a systematic two-hour program of calculated brutalization -- of the audience. It is clearly intended to shock, and shock, and shock viewers again. In this regard, it has more than a passing resemblance to the programs of humiliation and dislocation that are the hallmark of religious cults.

I've mentioned previously that Gibson's sectarian brand of Catholicism is not "traditionalist," it is radical in its rejection of the Vatican and Vatican II reforms. The shape and structure of The Passion of the Christ confirm that an agenda conforming with these beliefs deeply informs every aspect of the film. It is, in a sense, a recruitment film for this radically medievalist kind of Catholicism.

It is timed to be injected into a society still reeling from the 2001 terrorist attacks and the fear-mongering environment that has been fostered in the body politic since then. In such a milieu, rife with a host of personal and social dislocations, psychologists say, people are more prone to developing or harboring an extreme dualist worldview -- a stark, black-and-white division of everything into good vs. evil. This likewise makes them more susceptible to recruitment into extremist belief systems.

Much more--Mel's Crucifiction-as-action-pic is the overall theme--and very good stuff it is.

[TlalocW]

1. I thought

It was Beyond Thunderdome, not Beyond Braveheart.

Couldn't resist.

TlalocW

[underpants]

2. Gallipoli that was good

[soleft]

3. This is a great read

Thanks

[SpaceCatMeetsMars]

4. Funny, I was just posting in Will Pitt's thread

about an article in Harper's some months ago that talked about these type of revenge movies and about how the extreme right-wingers were using 9-11 as an excuse to go to Iraq -- comparing their thought process to these sort of movies.

This was in response to Solomon's post saying how this movie fits in with the way Bush portrays America as a victim -- sort of like right-wing fundamentalists would identify with Jesus in an "us against the world" scenario. His post reminded me of that article about those revenge movies.