NEWS FEATURE: Gibson DVD Hits Stores Without the Spring Passion

c. 2004 Religion News Service LOS ANGELES _ Looking back to those highly charged weeks in February and March, Rabbi Marvin Hier would have changed nothing because nothing has changed about his analysis of filmmaker Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” which makes its DVD debut Tuesday (Aug. 31). “If you’re asking me if […]

c. 2004 Religion News Service

LOS ANGELES _ Looking back to those highly charged weeks in February and March, Rabbi Marvin Hier would have changed nothing because nothing has changed about his analysis of filmmaker Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” which makes its DVD debut Tuesday (Aug. 31).

“If you’re asking me if we have changed our positions, absolutely not,” said Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Museum of Tolerance.


Like other critics reflecting on past protests, Hier has no regrets. He said he still feels “The Passion” depicted “in a very negative manner” those ancient Jews who did not become first-century Christians.

Compared to the film’s release, the DVD release of “The Passion” by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is a subdued event. There have been few of the sizzling interfaith debates, frenzied news reports and talk radio discussion fests that surrounded the film’s Ash Wednesday arrival earlier this year.

Back then, midnight screenings of “The Passion” found Christians leaving movie theaters in tears, while longtime Jewish-Christian alliances were strained. On Oscar night, Academy Awards host Billy Crystal joked that the awards were being simulcast in Aramaic.

Gibson, nearly omnipresent back then, is not doing interviews. The $29.98 DVD (the video sells for $24.98) is just a bare bones copy of the film _ with no director’s commentary, behind-the-scenes features, CD-ROM treats or other add-ons that would typically accompany a DVD of a film that enjoyed a $375 million U.S. box office. Fox’s press release covers under two pages and contains no quotes from critics or executives.

Nonetheless, the “Passion” DVD is expected to sell well, especially among devout Christians who are hungry for serious spiritual themes as an alternative to Hollywood’s typical R-rated fare. The Family Christian Stores chain, with 300 outlets, is discounting the DVD to $19.95 while offering the free DVD documentary “Jesus: Fact or Fiction.”

In Hollywood, films are being repackaged as DVDs to jump on “The Passion’s” spiritual bandwagon. They include “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “The Greatest Story Ever Told” and ABC, NBC, BBC and PBS documentaries on Pope John Paul II, Christ and early Christians. Paramount’s “South Park” comedy series plans to mock the spiritual bandwagon with a series of three episodes sold under the banner “The Passion of the Jew.”

But left still is the sting of the “Passion” film controversy as Jews and Christians repeatedly said they saw vastly different stories on screen. In Houston, about 100 Jews and Christians continued to meet for about six months after “The Passion” hit theaters last February, having all seen the movie together at a special screening with Gibson. Some Houston synagogues offered courses on first-century Jews and Christians.


“We saw different films,” said Linda Burger, executive director of the Houston office of the American Jewish Committee. “I think there were real reasons to be concerned, but real thoughtful people in this country learned from each other. The film became an opportunity to talk to one another at a deeper level than just sharing a holiday together.”

The film last February prompted the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to issue a collection of Catholic documents about Jews and Christ’s death. While some bishops commented publicly on the film, the bishops collectively did not issue prominent statements or hold national press conferences to warn against possible anti-Semitism or tell millions of non-practicing Catholics that “The Passion” should not cause people to blame the Jews for the death of Christ.

“Not every bishop felt it was necessary to issue a public statement,” said Eugene J. Fisher, associate director of the USCCB’s Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs. “There are resources and materials aplenty. The system worked to deliver the teaching to the Catholic community. The good thing that came out of this was it brought a lot of Jews and Christians into dialogue.”

Jewish leaders, including Hier, understood that the bishops were getting mixed signals from the Vatican about whether or not the pope liked the movie.

“Absolutely, more could have been done,” Hier said. “When there were the confused signals of what the pope said, I think Catholic cardinals and bishops were confused as to what the pope did think.”

Anti-Defamation League national director Abraham Foxman spoke out exhaustively against “Passion” portraits of Jews for months before the film opened. The DVD release will not be cause for new comment because, Foxman said, “The issue plays once. DVD is not the event the film was.”


MO/PH END FINNIGAN

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