Zeffirelli Brands Gibson's Passion Anti-Semitic; Calls Him "Bloodthirsty"

[kskiska]

Franco Zeffirelli, the last person before Mel Gibson (news) to direct a major feature film on the life of Christ and someone who has himself directed the actor as Hamlet, has lambasted Gibson's controversial film The Passion as anti-Semitic.

"They tell me that in America, despite the ban on minors, that mothers absolutely want their children to see the film, in order to understand the suffering Jesus underwent to save us,” Zeffirelli wrote in Thursday’s edition of Corriere della Sera, Milan’s leading daily newspaper, continuing, “I am of a completely different opinion: what conclusion can one reach (from the film), in particular young people, other than that his blood was shed because of the Jews?"

Zeffirelli, who directed Gibson in his 1991 version of Hamlet, adds that "once I knew that Gibson had decided to make a film on the Passion of Christ I began to get worried. I knew well that the family culture in which he was raised…

The veteran Italian director also recounts his own curious experiences of working with Gibson, recalling one scene in Hamlet where Gibson intervened on the set when British actor Ian Holm (news), playing Polonius, acted out his character's death with his eyes closed.

Zeffirelli recalls Gibson saying: "A wounded animal about to die does not stay with a fixed look, but rolls its eyes in the final spasms, first together, then in the opposite direction, like a cross eyed person. It's almost funny."

"And how would you know?" responded Holm, according to Zeffirelli.

"I've seen plenty die,” replied Gibson, Zeffirelli claims. “When I can, to relax, I go to my farm and kill a lot of calves on the days when they are slaughtered."

more…
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/fwd/20040226/en_fashion_fwd/zeffirelli_1

[Fenris]

1. Whoa

:wow:

[lastknowngood]

2. He's a repug what did you think he did in his spare time

help the poor.

[THUNDER HANDS]

3. uhhh

that's disgusting.

[reprehensor]

4. Nitpick.

"Franco Zeffirelli, the last person before Mel Gibson (news) to direct a major feature film on the life of Christ.."

Forgetting Martin Scorcese's 'Last Temptation of Christ'. Major feature film, lots o controversy too.

I was personally blessed while waiting in line to see the film.

"Forgive them, they know not what they do..."

[loudnclear]

5. Over use to thwart disagreement with Israeli policy make 'anti-Semitism'

an empty and almost meaningless term. If the term 'anti-Christian' were used in similar cases that the word term 'anti-Semitism' is us we would hardly be able to hold an intelligent conversation with anyone.

[Darranar]

11. What exactly does that have to do with the topic at hand?

What does Mel Gibson's film have to do with Israeli policy and criticism of it?

[hyphenate]

6. Well,

I have just lost all respect for Mel Gibson. I think that Passion is a vanity thing for him, and that people who are acting like "sheep" to see the film are the ones with the empty heads and lack of common sense.

I won't be seeing the movie for a variety of reasons, but mostly because I don't want to see a passion play played out as they have done it in this film. The thought of so much violence is also repugnant, and I can see where a lot of repugs will like it, because it's violent and plays to their supposed "moral superiority." They are probably the last ones to be talking about morals and "superiority."

[soleft]

7. I wonder what Shane Black thinks of the Passion

Shane Black wrote Lethal Weapon and the Long Kiss Goodbye, I remember attending a screenwriting conference where Black was talking - and he defended his use of ultra violence in movies, saying the more you saw a character suffer, the more you cared about them and rooted for them to overcome.

[Jade Fox]

8. Its official...

Mel Gibson is nuts.

[Lorien]

9. What a vile, disgusting sadist

he loves torture, killing and dealing out death. This is one scarey dude. I saw on a program recently that he insisted that HIS hands be the ones shown driving the nails into Jesus' palms. :scared:

You know what any cop or shrink would say; a guy who kills or tortures animals to "relax" is very likely a future serial killer! It's stomach turning to imagine that Mel got off on watching the torture scenes in his own film, but with a statement like that....!!

[UTUSN]

10. It Just Might Turn Out to Be a Cult Movie for S&M

*******QUOTE*******

".... suspected already that rather than the divine message of Christ, what pushed Mel into this difficult project was (an obsession) with strips of flesh, his own torments and blood." ....

The Italian director further stresses that, unlike Gibson's life of Christ, his own 1977 film "Jesus of Nazareth" was written by the famed English author Anthony Burgess with Suso Cecchi D'Amico taking into account the principles laid down by the Second Vatican Council, "To render justice to Jews and unburden them of the accusation of Diocide.” Zeffirelli finished his article with a question: “And now where have we gone back to?"

********UNQUOTE*******

[schultzee]

12. Mel is an embarrassment to some people who used to be

Catholic. He is more like a "washed in the bloody blood" fundamentlist and should consider joining up with some back roads bible belt church. Why is he concentrating on this? And not on the way Jesus wanted people to live? He seems to be antisemitic to me.

[UTUSN]

13. Acting is Strange, Mel Is Stranger

What little I've seen of live actors, they snap into a "zone" when they do a character. Countless times, when they're selling their jams and jellies in interviews, they say that spending months, or even a year or two on some project in character (weird character) can be maddening. So GIBSON spent years developing and filming this, dwelling on every gory detail. Sure sounds like an obsession. Saw only a minute or two of the Diane SAWYER interview and the whole O'REILLY interview. There were some mighty odd mannerisms, body language, and interaction, even with a kindred O'REILLY where he might be somewhat off guard. Just saying/implying, not knowing.

[MasonJar]

14. The calf story does it for me. I will never give Mel a dime of my

money again. He relaxes by killing calves and watching them die.

[Voltaire99]

15. Gibson's a contemporary monster...

Would his racist two-hour snuff film have been possible in a more tolerant era, say, even as recently as ten years ago?

However ancient the tradition of the blood libel, Gibson seems very much of the moment - he is the cultural wing of the death machine that we know as Bushism.

And speaking of machines...remember the Daytona 500 that Bush attended with such pomp?