Passion

I am going to get a bit retroactive here. All this Mel Gibson stuff has me thinking about the “Passion Of The Christ” phenomenon.

I recall hearing these things about the film before seeing it.

1. Mel Gibson spent $20 million of his own money making it.
2. It was going to cause controversy; some would perceive it as anti-Semitic, some as too violent.
3. It was in Aramaic and had subtitles.
4. There were strange occurrences on the set.
5. It was not going to be released.
6. It was going to be released.

That’s a lot for me to know about a movie before release. If I am hearing about an upcoming release of anything that much it is the work of publicists.

Publicists are a different breed. Their job is to make a product newsworthy. Many publicists have told me that in order to promote a product it has to have a story. In a way, it can be like a defense lawyer. You don’t have to believe the story, you do have to be able to present it effectively.

The publicists that I have encountered in the music field seem to be honorable people. The ones that I know would not take on a project that they do not believe in. The movie business is different from the music biz. The movie business tips more than the music business makes. I do not have any Hollywood connections so all I can do from the woods is observe.

One thing seems apparent, if you can convince the public that your project is polarizing you will hit a home run. If the preconception of half of the people is “I am going to love this” and the other half says, “I am going to hate this”, then all of them will look. That is the perfect storm of publicity.

In the case of “Passion”, I started hearing about the film many months ahead of the release. I even heard that there was $10 million spent on promotion on top of the production cost. I do not recall seeing a lot of traditional advertising so I surmise that most of that figure (which seems low) went to publicists.

Weeks after the release the publicity seemed to snowball. I knew several folks who had seen it and their opinions varied greatly. Some said it was powerful, inspiring, incredibly accurate, and even life changing. Some said it was anti-Jewish or overly violent.

My stepson, who was fourteen at the time, was scheduled to see the movie with a church group. I told him I would like to see it with him before he went with the group, so we went as a family.

If you felt passionate about this movie, if you loved it or hated it, you will probably disagree with my opinion.

I thought it was bigger than life, in a bad way. I thought everything about it was overdone. As far as accuracy, life does not look or sound that way, it never did. Every sickening blow amplified in surround sound. Blood doesn’t look shiny after hours in the sun. The Aramaic seemed superfluous. It was as much of an overblown Hollywood production as the next action blockbuster. As a piece of art, I cannot take it seriously. I can’t take it serious enough to like it or hate it.

I walked out of the theater wondering what came first, the script or the publicists’ story. It seems like Mel and the publicity department contrived some goofy movie stew recipe. Three parts Christianity, two parts violence, one part anti-Semitism to rattle some cages, subtitles to occupy the viewer when it drags, a villain and a distraught mother.

The huge box office did not surprise me either. To me it that seemed to be the primary objective from beginning to end, rather than one ma’ns noble pursuit.

As for Mr. Gibson’s recent trouble, I have sympathy for him. As an alcoholic, I have had relapses that led to some dark territory. I don’t adhere to the philosophy that a person’s true self comes out while intoxicated. I have said and done things very out of character while drunk. However, it does appear that on some level he is still trying to rattle some cages.

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