theMediaman.com

Just a warning. I really rant in this entry. I mean REALLY rant. I’m just trying to figure something out and have found that writing in my Blog sometimes helps. Read parts or all of it, but I hope you get something out of my progressive thoughts-on-digital-paper:

Without even seeing “The Passion Of The Christ”, I’ve always found something was unsettling about it.

At first I thought it might have been because of the critics. They have been talking all about its senseless violence and lack of modern, political undertones. The natural comparisons to films like Jesus Christ Superstar and The Last Temptation of Christ were inevitable, but I think Mel Gibson was trying to do something different with Jesus’ story.

I was also concerned about how it portrays Jews in such a negative light. After being so welcomed into a Jewish household like I have been with Simone’s family, I’m hesitant to challenge my emotions with a telling of that story which - allegedly - places most or all of the blame on the Hebrews. The counter-argument is that it reproduces what can already be found in The Good Book. But that’s a simple argument. The point is, I still didn’t know what was making me uneasy about that movie.

Then once again - a show that is historically chastised for being crude and immoral itself - comes along and manages to state the problem completely and concisely. South Park.

Stan and Kenny go to see the Road Warrior himself in order to get their money back from the movie. When they meet with him, this is the conversation that happens (WAV file here)

Mel Gibson: You CAN’T say my movie sucked, or else your saying Christianity SUCKS!

Stan: No, dude! If you want to be Christian, that’s cool but, you should follow what Jesus taught instead of how he got killed. Focusing on how he got killed is what what people did in the Dark Ages and it ends up with really bad results.

The dumbing-down of society has eaten this up. We’re talking about a movie that’ll top $500 million domestically after it’s been re-released in December (and don’t kid yourself… it WILL be re-released before Christmas). So why is this so appealing to the TV and MTV generations?

Could it be the Reality TV craze that’s created a want for this kind of bare-bones telling of the Greatest Story Ever Told? I believe that it’s a hypothesis with legs. After all, this is the same group of people who created a demand for The Simple Life First Season DVD.

Somehow - and in an unrelated situation - the phrase “The Masses are Asses” entered my mind this afternoon. It reminded me to remain humble when making assumptions about the vast majority of modern society being able to make intelligent, informed decisions. All marketing is designed to simplify and homogenize our thought patterns. The better that job done, the more people will have a built-in need/want for McDonald’s and The GAP.

By reducing our ability to grasp larger concepts, we risk following a technological Renaissance with a tragic Dark Ages… effectively reversing the work of humanity’s intellectual giants like Michelangelo and Shakespeare.

So is this what concerns me about seeing The Passion? Perhaps. The simplicity of the movie’s story is uncomforting. It needs to be talked about - and I have heard many people say that - you need to talk about it. As long as people use this film to expand on their understanding of Jesus, then that’s what I want. Using it as an opportunity to let everyone know what you think is what I fear.

We live in a generation when buying an Acura or staying at the Holiday Inn Express tells us that we’re “smart enough”. Once we leave school, there’s little effort pushing us to continuously re-interpret the world around us, and what we believe in our hearts and our heads.

Perhaps that’s a new warning tag that should go on the posters, right beside Mature Theme and Brutal Violence… Discuss This Movie.