Well by now everyone has
heard of the controversy surrounding Mel Gibson and his
Passion of the Christ movie. As of this morning the
movie had hit over 215 million dollars and is poised to
become the top grossing ‘R’ rated film of all time. I’ve
seen it. You won’t want to see it again. It will impact
your life.
I am somewhat surprised that the Hollywood mogul types
are so up in arms over a movie starting off with such a
bang. Isn’t this what happens to normal films most of
the time? Look at the hype surrounding ‘Hulk’ last year.
Weren’t we all tired of watching the previews night
after night? Wasn’t it a complete dud? Maybe it’s
because of the way Gibson’s movie was received. Maybe
those folks in Hollywood underestimated what a lot of us
want to see. Maybe it’s time they put some thought into
what they produce.
Not just gore and violence, but stories with a meaning.
The Passion is a violent movie, to be sure. But so are
most of the movies coming out each year and I don’t hear
the media types complaining over ‘Terminator Five’ or
“Freddy Kruger meets The Chainsaw massacre Man”…. do
you?
I think this whole thing has caught all of the Hollywood
and television producer folks completely off guard. I
think they don’t know what to think. We have cable
television at our house with about 400 channels. On any
given night there might be, might be, one or two
programs worth watching. First off the movies are mostly
repetitive, I can only watch so many reruns of “East of
Eden” or “The Quiet Man”…. seems like “In Harms Way” is
on every other night. What ever happened to all of those
old ‘B’ movies that got cranked out by the thousands
years ago? Not much in the way of plot, but then you
didn’t have to mute the sound every few minutes to
filter out the four letter words. Same thing for ‘Law
and Order”. It seems like we should have a twenty-four
hour channel just for them. I can’t think of a time slot
somewhere that you might look at where there isn’t an
episode being shown. I can hear their theme running in
my brain all of the time. I need to break this vicious
cycle and go back to cartoons. It’s bad when you time
your meals around the commercials. I need to get out of
this rut. It’s too depressing. Nobody on that program
ever laughs.
I think most of us would trade violence for a good
story. Look at how the country reacted to ‘Sea Biscuit’
and to the ‘Titanic” …couldn’t get in there for weeks.
These movies had a story. They were entertaining. Isn’t
that what we sit down in the theaters and in front of
the tube for…to be entertained?
Times change, just like humor changes. Look at some old
comedy show from the fifties; their humor is as dated as
vaudeville. It just doesn’t seem to be funny any longer
is it? Someone once told me…”There’s nothing new under
the Sun.”. I suppose there’s a lot of truth in that and
creating something that hasn’t been seen or read is
probably very difficult. I try to write these columns
each week and provide a fresh perspective on current
matters as often as I can. I try and point out things,
which might prompt you to think. I try to make you
laugh.
From time to time I like to make a comment on things I
see in our country that are changing before our very
eyes. I can’t blame the people making movies, after all,
they make them and we pay to go see them. The same goes
for television programming. I just happen to think that
we all deserve something more than car crash after car
crash or body parts exploding for hours on end. I think
we need some substance to our entertainment.
Regardless of how you view the Passion film, if it makes
those who produce our entertainment more aware of a
broader market, then Mr. Gibson has done us all a huge
favor. I cannot help but think that there are those who
originally thought the Passion would be a complete bust
are now rethinking their positions and trying to figure
out what to do next.
As for me…I’d go for some current Abbot and Costello
movies, but then I’m easily amused.
