- ROME -- Mel Gibson has reneged
on a promise to remove the infamous scriptural blood libel, in which the
Jews allegedly accepted responsibility for the crucifixion of Jesus, from
his film The Passion of the Christ, according to one of the world's foremost
scholars, who saw a preview showing yesterday.
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- Jewish groups pleaded with the director to remove the
line from Matthew 27 in which the Jews were said to have cried: "His
blood be on us and on our children" - words used across the ages to
justify anti-semitic persecution by Christians.
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- But it became clear at the film's first British screening
for journalists, theologians and clergy that although Gibson has removed
the English subtitle for the line, the words remain in the film, exclaimed
in Aramaic. Although few in the audience will understand it, the decision
to retain the line makes clear Gibson's reluctance to be swayed by the
fears of complainants.
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- Geza Vermes, a former professor of Jewish Studies at
Oxford and the author of five books on the life of Christ, writes of the
film in today's Guardian: "I have never seen anything so dreadful
and I hope I never will."
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- The blood-spattered two-hour film about the crucifixion
- in which all the dialogue is in contemporary languages with English subtitles
- has provoked complaints from Britain's Jewish organisations but a broad
welcome from evangelical Christians and Catholics.
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- Prof Vermes immediately picked holes in the film, criticising
its use of "Catholic church Latin" by the Roman soldiers instead
of the Greek they would have spoken, pointing out that Pilate is referred
to as the "governor" rather than the prefect of the province
and spotting that the wrong Aramaic word for God is used throughout.
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- The British Board of Deputies of British Jews said: "It
would have been better if this film had never been made. The glorification
of violence and bloodshed and the reinforcement of medieval stereotyping
of the Jewish people are extremely dangerous."
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- But Joel Edwards, general director of the Evangelical
Alliance, said: "[We] believe the film will provide a good opportunity
for Christians to talk to others about Jesus."
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- In Rome, the veteran Italian film director Franco Zeffirelli,
who himself made a controversial film about the life of Christ, said Gibson
was "sinisterly attracted to the most unrestrained violence".
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- In an article for the newspaper Corriere della Sera,
Zeffirelli wrote: "[In America] mothers want at all costs for their
children to see the film... What conclusion will children in particular
be able to draw from it other than that the Jews were to blame for all
that bloodshed? This way we set ourselves back centuries."
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- Gibson himself seemed ambivalent about the film's effect
on him. In one interview, quoted in the Daily Telegraph, he said of the
New York Times's film critic: "I want to kill him. I want his intestines
on a stick. I want to kill his dog."
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- But in an interview with members of the Hollywood Foreign
Press Association, he said: "In a way, it's been interesting because
it's forced me to come to grips with one of the basic virtue I'm supposed
to exercise here on earth, which is tolerance. I could have gotten nasty
and climbed into the gutter to get into a clawing match with some of these
guys. But that's not what I'm supposed to do."
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- The film goes on general release in the UK on March 26.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004
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- http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,12589,1157484,00.html
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