I saw an interesting debate on CNN between a Christian chap and a Rabbi. The Rabbi feels Mel Gibson's film portray's Jews very badly and will bring a return to the old medieval "Christ-killer" stereotype.
The Christian chap was, I think, just grateful that somebody had made the movie and effectively dismissed the claim saying it would make people more pro-Jewish.
As a complete aside he also claimed that this had been the observed effect from a Christian network film on Jesus which has been seen by 5 billion people. At this point I thought he had simply got his numbers wrong, but he then said only 1 billion have still to see it, clearly showing he was talking about the world population. ???? Quite how they got all 2 billion Chinese to watch it, the 1 billion Indian Hindus and the 1 billion Moslems is quite quite beyond me. I have never seen said movie (whose title I unfortunately can't remember). However, I suspect as a piece of empirical evidence to support his argument that the Mel Gibson movie will not adversely affect the Jews is, at the very least, disingenuous.
I have only seen clips of the movie, but it looks true Mel Gibson, lots of colour and atmosphere. Any views out there?
A previous controversial movie on the Passion (which I really liked) The Last Temptation, did not, as I recall, have an adverse effect on peoples attitude to the Jews. The Jewish characters in that movie were real people, I believe the Rabbi's claim is that all the Jewish characters in Mel Gibson's movie are dark caricatures of the worst kind.
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