Talk about the Passion

Remind me to pick up a copy of Bored of the Rings sometime, because I am. I'm looking forward to seeing Return of the King at some time, probably during the holidays, but it's more get-it-over-with than anything else.



So the big movie of 2003 is now upon us, and it looks like the big movie of 2004 will be The Passion, no, The Passion of Christ, no, The Passion of THE Christ. After a few screenings for various religious groups, it made a surprise appearance as the finale of Aint it Cool News's Butt-Numb-A-Thon. The crowd of movie geeks went wild for it, and by all accounts it eclipsed the Return of The King screening just hours earlier as THE pinnacle of the event. Even the pope took time out of his busy schedule writing checks to victims of abusive priests to see it, and gave it the thumbs up.



So I'm now intrigued by this movie I previously labeled fraught. If Mel Gibson's not actually in it, it's less likely to be a big strokefest like Braveheart was. But I'm also now convinced that the "controversy" over The Passion was planted by Gibson and his people. It all started with a group associated with the US Bishops Council denouncing a "probably stolen early draft" of the script as potentially anti-Semitic. How'd they get the script? I speculate that Team Passion leaked an early, or perhaps deliberately incendiary script, having learned from Last Temptation of Christ that any publicity is good publicity. Then with the film positioned as a political hot potato, the conservative press would take the ball and run, never seeing a Hollywood Is Bad story it didn't like.



So, props to Gibson for taking a page from William Castle's book. Maybe they can offer Rapture insurance policies as well.