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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

The Passion: Mel Goes Bonkers

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19:19 / 23.09.02

Ain't it Cool News

”Mel Gibson is set to direct a movie about Christ's last 12 hours played out entirely in two ancient tongues - Latin and Aramaic - with no subtitles.

The formula hardly sounds like the recipe for a hit movie but Gibson thinks language should be no barrier for the film, titled THE PASSION.

’For me that's more real and hopefully I'll be able to transcend language barriers with filmic storytelling,’ Gibson said.”

Lunacy or bravery? You decide....

20:15 / 23.09.02

High-profile as Mel may be, it won't get a big enough release.

And do we know what spoken Latin sounded like anyhow? We have a rough idea, from Italian (or at least that's what I know)... but that all sounds shaky.

It sounds a bit wank. It sounds very vanity project. Mel's not the director to do this; I'm not sure if anyone is, but he's not. Shit - 12 hours. It sounds really fucking bad.

21:07 / 23.09.02

Latin is not that dead - sure, there will be a hell of a lot of confusion where classical latin and scientific latin come into conflict - but if they did make good with Klingon, hell, they'll be able to figure out Latin pronunciation in a way that even Mel Gibson can pronounce correctly.

What's much more interesting about this project is the fact that Mel is apparently set upon ignoring _everything_ that was done on the subject _but_ Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini's take on the passion of Christ.
Considering Pasolini's track record (and Gibson's!), we are certainly in for Something Completely Different.

07:29 / 24.09.02

Sorry; my bad on the twelve hours thing. But I don't really want to see two hours of this. I think Mel's not the man for it - it's just too big, especially when you add the directing-in-another-language barrier - because I don't think Mel's going to take Aramaic 101 somehow.

I think the bit that really worires me is this: "transcend language barriers with filmic storytelling". Just... the phrasing of it. Erk.

The Return Of Rothkoid

10:58 / 24.09.02

Serendipitously, this came up at work.

Paleface; I think the important thing to remember about this project is the fact that Gibson is as rabid a fundamentalist Christian as the Travoltas are Scientologists. He's got amazing pull at the box-office, and could just have set it up so that his next contract with a major studio hinges on him being able to put out the film the way he wants it. I reckon it's how it's getting made in the first place. And let's face it; every catholic school will end up buying a copy; even if it goes straight to video, he'll still probably break even. Fuck, how many godawful (npi) flicks based on religious tales (and featuring glue-on beards) did I have to sit through at school? Yeesh.

I'm sure he'll do a fine job, in that sort of Braveheart lax-historian kind of way. Set hip up with a good DP and it'll be gold all the way. However, I do share people's thoughts on him just ignoring what's gone before in the sort of "but I *know!* kind of way.

I haven't clicked the link, but I remember reading in the story we got off the wire at work that he was fairly cagey about having the nod from the Vatican about it. Which intereste me; being as hardcore about his faith as he is, I can't imagine him *not* running it by the Holy See... maybe some of the Cardinals have told him that they want bit parts?

Our Lady of The Two Towers

12:38 / 24.09.02

This sounds like the ideal project for Kiether Sutherland...

"Priests in the Jewish church are trying to have me killed and some of my own apostles may be involved. My name is Jesus Christ, and these are the longest twelve hours in my life."

13:30 / 24.09.02

People said Mel was crazy when he said he was doing Hamlet, but I loved his version. I thought it was brilliant, especially the mad Hamlet bits...

15:56 / 24.09.02

Yeah, cos Ain’t It Cool News is always so accurate…

DBC

17:10 / 24.09.02

I am a little disappointed that it's another blue-eyed Jesus, though... for fuck's sake...

17:14 / 24.09.02

Lada: "Priests in the Jewish church are trying to have me killed and some of my own apostles may be involved. My name is Jesus Christ, and these are the longest twelve hours in my life."

I think this could be fucking BRILLIANT.

18:06 / 24.09.02

No subtitles? They better make up for it with explosions and car chases, dammit.

18:14 / 24.09.02

Here's a theory: he's doing it in "unspoken" languages to avoid having the fundies ban him.

Besides, (or, on the other hand), everyone knows the story already, right?

18:25 / 24.09.02

Latin? Aramaic? pah! It should all be in Polari. I'd park bona metzas to vada that...

18:52 / 24.09.02

’For me that's more real and hopefully I'll be able to transcend language barriers with filmic storytelling,’ Gibson said.”

Much like Shatner's Esperanto movie, no doubt.

19:05 / 24.09.02

Biz, you make a bonaroo palaver! Polari it is....

The Return Of Rothkoid

22:52 / 24.09.02

DBC: read the links. It's official; I've seen pix from the press-conference where he announced it.

00:04 / 25.09.02

Stuff Polari. My vote goes to all the dialogue being in Unwinese. Deep joy.

08:36 / 25.09.02

It's oh-so confirmed; it made the cover of yesterday's Daily Telegraph.

The Natural Way

10:11 / 25.09.02

DBC: if you know where to look and which "spies" are on the money, AICN can be very accurate indeed. Just gotta sort the wheat from the chaff.

12:18 / 26.09.02

Which is what I mean : some of AICN is probably accurate. But so much of it is not, that I instinctively question its validity as a news source.
I’m sure some of what Jeffrey Archer says is true, as well, but I’m not going to spend time sorting out which bits.
Though fair comment that I should have paid more attention to the links; saw the source, hackles went up, probably posted without due care and attention. Apologies for that.

DBC

Jack The Bodiless

21:34 / 01.10.02

Umm... I don't think he's actually directing it, just producing it. From what I've heard recently, anyway.

And calling him a rabid Christian fundamentalist is a little misleading, Rothkoid - he's a Catholic, that's all. If he were a rabid Christian fundamentalist, he'd never have made 90% of the movies he's had a hand in. Or shown his arse so many times on camera. Or swear so much.

If he's just using his influence to get the thing done, it might not stink. If he's 'artistically' involved... donkey clag.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

01:26 / 02.10.02

this is such an obvious next step for mel
War Is Mel!!

05:01 / 16.01.03

Passion-ately Paranoid?

Mel Gibson under attack for Jesus film?
Actor-director believes enemies are trying to discredit him

January 14, 2003

Actor-director Mel Gibson said tonight he's under attack for making a realistic movie about the suffering, sacrificial death of Jesus.

On Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor," Gibson said a reporter was dispatched by a "reputable" but unnamed publication to "dig up dirt" on him.

"Whenever you take up a subject like this it does bring out a lot of enemies," he said. His private life, his banking records, charities he supports, friends, business associates and family members have all undergone scrutiny in this investigation, he said.

Asked if he believed there was a direct correlation between this investigation and his work on "The Passion," a film he is making in Aramaic and Latin for authenticity, Gibson said: "I think there is."

"I'm a big boy," said Gibson. "I can take care of myself, but when you start messing around with my 85-year-old father, watch out."

Even though Gibson was angry about what he considers harassment of his friends and family and prying into his personal life, he said he has already forgiven the reporter and those behind him.

"This is a movie about love, faith, hope and forgiveness," Gibson said. "He died for all mankind. He (Jesus) suffered for all of us. It's time to get back to that basic message. The world has gone nuts. We could all use a little more love, faith, hope and forgiveness."

Our Lady of The Two Towers

12:33 / 17.01.03

Yet ironically he's pissed off about people going after his Dad? Where's your love and forgiveness now huh Mel?

20:59 / 17.01.03

Even though Gibson was angry about what he considers harassment of his friends and family and prying into his personal life, he said he has already forgiven the reporter and those behind him.

I guess it would be there, Flowers.

09:52 / 30.10.03

Interesting footnote by David Adam in Short Cuts column (second feature, after the bit about the "Bell End" controversy at the Man City Ground) in the Guardian's G2 supplement.

Lightning may not strike twice, but what about acts of God? The actor Jim Caviezel has been struck in Italy while playing Jesus in Mel Gibson's controversial film The Passion of Christ - the second time he has been hit during filming. The second bolt also hit assistant director Jan Michelini. What are the chances of this rather unholy trinity happening?

...Assuming, using totally unscientific terms, that the inclement weather in Italy raises the possibility of a strike threefold, then the chances of Caviezel being hit at all are one in a million. Argue that the correlation factor makes his second strike 1,000 times more likely and we get one in 1,000,000,000, rising to one in 100,000,000,000 for the hat trick if we assume that the odds against the second strike also jumping to Michelini are a very generous hundred to one. One in a hundred thousand million?

Curious, no?

13:27 / 30.10.03

Everybody knows Jesus spoke Klingon.

13:36 / 30.10.03

I haven't seen any factual basis for any accusations that accuse this film of taking an "the Jews killed Jesus, you bastards!" approach. Yes, sure, historically, a bunch of Jews killed Jesus, but no one with a brain looks at it in those terms. The society at that time, the government, the status quo, killed Jesus. Unless the film out-and-out says "We should hate all Jews because they killed Jesus", anyone looking for an anti-Semetic meaning in the story of Jesus is just looking for a fight, I think.

13:58 / 30.10.03

Also, the Roman government and many others had a major hand in killing Jesus. It's not about the social or ethnic groups who killed Jesus, it's about the society rejecting Jesus' message and killing him as a result.

Those lighting bolts --- WEEEEIRDDD, man. I read those stories too - the odds are astronomically against such a thing happening. But if it's a good, faithful, reverent retelling of the Gospel story, why would the Big G send down the lightning? Why would the Big G want to punish Mel for telling His story? Strange...

Oh, and there were many battles about whether the movie should have subtitles or not -- I think it's still up in the air. Mel was very conflicted about this - but he felt it would be a cool effect without subtitles; sort of like watching a film in another (i.e. not your) language and figuring out the jist of what's going on through facial expressions, tone, etc. And hey, it's not like we don't know the broad strokes of the Jesus story.

14:50 / 30.10.03

From what I've read, the anti-semitic hoopla seems to be partly because he wouldn't let Jewish leaders see a pre-release screening, and also because the church he's a part of (or founded?) refuses to recognise the Second Vatican Council which decided (amongst many other things) that the Jews weren't collectively guilty for killing Jésus.... which doesn't automatically mean that the Gibsons do believe that the Jews are collectively guilty....

14:53 / 30.10.03

Good point, Hunterwolf. If we just watch the events then nobody will be arguing about the exact translation and were those the words actually spoken anyway, after two centuries of translating them back and forward, inevitable errors having crept in, contradictions in the accounts that were made long afterwards in any case by fallible human beings.

Artistically, it could work well. I don't think I paid much attention to the subtitles in Pasolini's Gospel of St Matthew (nor Derek Jarman's more profane Sebastiane, come to that.) Could be series of stunning tableaux vivants.

From the point of view of the much vaunted historical authenticity, it should be interesting. The precise story of the Passion, I have always regarded as allegorical in any case but most of the audience will be Believers. Gibson might well get critical acclaim from the film world but he might have seen nothing yet in the way of backlash from the fundamentalists.

The lighting strikes are weird though, if they're not just apocryphal or publicity machine product. I thought some of America's wilder religious fringe might have interpeted it as Divine Intervention by now though.

14:54 / 30.10.03

Movie sets get "hit" by lightening all the time, because they drag lots and lots of electrical equipment around in small areas. It's a large-scale version of getting a shock everytime you touch the doorknob of the server closet.

And wouldn't Jehovah's wrath destroy the set? I might buy it if it was earthquakes and blood-filled croussants at the craft services table, but nobody was hurt. It's more likely the Big Guy is protecting them... from Jove, who's pissed that they're filming on his turf. Jesus never went to Rome.

15:56 / 30.10.03

he's a Catholic, that's all

but

the church he's a part of...refuses to recognise the Second Vatican Council which decided (amongst many other things) that the Jews weren't collectively guilty for killing Jésus

thats pretty nutso christian in my book.
homophobia and antisemitism? can i get a witness?

wouldn't Jehovah's wrath destroy the set?

well, in the olden times it would be all gone in clouds of flying insects and pillars of fiery salt, but nowadays that ole belief-battery aint as charged as it used to be.
most folks think lightning strikes and floods when they think of god, i reckon. maybe he's saving the flood for the sequel?

16:05 / 30.10.03

God will speak through the box office returns.

17:27 / 30.10.03

>> wouldn't Jehovah's wrath destroy the set?

You're thinking of the 'set' where all the Germans are filming the opening of the Ark of the Covenant at the end of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.

THAT set got good and demolished, all the lights, cameras, soldiers, P.A.s, kaput!

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