Posted on 02/13/2004 4:55:18 AM PST by missyme
If you live on the west side of Manhattan, on most of western Long Island, or in Beverly Hills and you want to see Mel Gibson's controversial new movie "The Passion of the Christ," you will be out of luck.
When the film — which some critics are calling anti-Semitic and inflammatory — opens on February 25, it will be in very select theatres only.
Even though the makers of "The Passion of the Christ" are touting its 2000 screen premiere, the movie's website and another website, moviefone.com, tell a very different story.
For example, in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, the film will play in a handful of out-of-the-way-theatres — one in Times Square, two in fringe areas of the East Side, one second-run theatre at Broadway and 100th St. and one in Harlem. There will be one screen below 34th St, and none from 42nd St. to 96th St. on the West Side. This excludes all prestige venues like the Ziegfeld, the Paris, the Beekman, and Sony Lincoln Square.
Theatre-goers will also be hard-pressed to find "The Passion of the Christ" in Nassau County, Long Island on either the south or north shore, or in affluent Westchester County, New York.
The pattern, for the most part, highlights black neighborhoods and poor neighborhoods. For example, all the Magic Johnson theatres in the country will show the movie, as will multiplexes in urban centers.
Gibson obviously thinks there's a potential problem in Chicago, where "Passion" will be on only two screens. Otherwise, Chicagoans will have to go to the suburbs.
The same goes for the wealthier and trendier parts of Los Angeles such as Beverly Hills and Century City. Those who are curious will have to seek their "Passion" in odd places, in out-of-the-way cineplexes. You won't be able to see it at the Beverly Center, for example. But four theatres in economically less desirable San Jose, California will show the film.
All of this seems designed to keep "The Passion of the Christ" out of neighborhoods that are considered Jewish, upscale, or liberal.
On the other hand, Tennessee is targeted for "The Passion of the Christ" with eight locations in Memphis and four each in Nashville and Knoxville. The number of theaters in many more states like Florida, Kentucky, Alabama, and Oklahoma is high, especially in rural areas. In Florida, for example, Jacksonville and Tampa — more northern and central cities — will have "Passion" on four or more screens, while typically Jewish areas like Boca Raton will have it one screen if at all.
In Miami, where there's a huge Catholic-Cuban population, "The Passion of the Christ" will play in ten theatres. In Houston and the Dallas-Fort Worth areas of Texas, there are the same number of theatres or more. Texas, in fact, will offer the most opportunities in the country to see the film.
Newmarket Films, which is distributing the movie, seems to have picked a pattern that concentrates heavily on the south and the Midwest, focusing on the Bible Belt and locations where "The Passion of the Christ" will meet with the least resistance. West Virginia will have about three times as many theaters as Rhode Island, for example. Vermonters have three theatres while their more conservative next-door neighbors in New Hampshire, a state equal in size, will have twelve.
Calls to Newmarket and to its public relations firm were not returned to this column yesterday. But in the positioning of "The Passion of the Christ," Gibson has consciously created a divisive atmosphere for the presentation of his film. For example, he has screened the movie widely for groups on the religious right while avoiding all mainstream groups, as well as film critics for fear of poor advance word.
"The Passion of the Christ" has come under intense criticism for being anti-Semitic from many groups Jewish and otherwise as well as journalists who've seen advance prints. In the current issue of Newsweek, reporter Jon Meacham also accuses director Gibson of completely changing historical references to suit his own agenda in an article called "Who Killed Jesus?"
Meacham writes: "To take the film's account of the 'Passion' literally will give most audiences a misleading picture of what probably happened in those epochal hours so long ago. The Jewish priests and their followers are the villains, demanding the death of Jesus again and again; Pilate is a malleable governor forced into handing down the death sentence."
The battle over "The Passion of the Christ" is coming quickly now, and I for one am sorry that Gibson and Newmarket chose to keep it out of places where they though the reception would be less than positive. Everyone should have the chance to this film and decide for themselves if Gibson has done the right or wrong thing with his $25 million.
What will be interesting is seeing how the annual Oscar party given by Gibson's agent, Ed Limato, at his palatial Beverly Hills home will be received two days after the movie's premiere. And then there are the Oscars, where Billy Crystal is no doubt thinking of clever ways to spoof the movie.
Well Pilate WAS pressured to cave, and caved. 'Tis in the bible.
since when is Times square "out of the way?...last time I was in NYC, it was in a busy area of Manhatten...
Um, yeah, they'll have to go all the way to Hollywood to see it...all 15 mins from the Beverly Center (in the nicest theater in all of greater Los Angeles).
That's pretty much the way the gospels relate events. The point is not that the Jewish people are responsible for the death of Jesus: the high priests and their followers were.
I don't know why liberals can't get it straight. I suppose the true Jesus intereferes too much with the liberal lifestyle? Jesus intereferes with most lifestyles since we are all sinners, but I suppose conservatives can take the criticism and liberals can't.
Thank heaven I live in an ignorant part of the country. The movie is playing in my neighborhood "screenplex", a short drive away.
Praise God for the sacrifice of Jesus. Thank God for people like Mel Gibson.
Fascinating.
Uh, The Passion has come under fire from Jewish flim-flam artists like the ADL and the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Perhaps they are angry that Gibson didn't grease their palms in order to get "permission" to make this film.
For example, in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, the film will play in a handful of out-of-the-way-theatres — one in Times Square, two in fringe areas of the East Side, one second-run theatre at Broadway and 100th St. and one in Harlem. There will be one screen below 34th St, and none from 42nd St. to 96th St. on the West Side. This excludes all prestige venues like the Ziegfeld, the Paris, the Beekman, and Sony Lincoln Square.
Mr. Friedman was really sloppy here.
In Manhattan, moviefone.com has a competitor which is provides tickets to some theaters to which moviefone.com does not provide ticket. In other words, go to fandango.com and you will see that "The Passion" is in fact playing on the heavily liberal and Jewish Upper West Side, at the Loews at 84th St. (I know because I bought a ticket for Opening Night there.)
He also fails to note that, in terms of "prestige venues like the Ziegfeld, the Paris," those theaters show exactly one movie at a time each. (And the Paris almost always shows a movie not found at more mainstream cineplexes.)
By the way, are there even any big cineplexes in Beverly Hills? Century City? (Is Century City even a place where a lot of people live, as opposed to work/stay in hotels?)
If this were in fact the case, it would be ironic and appropriate. Those would be the kinds of places Jesus would be (is) active in today since that is where his word is most needed. In our area it's scheduled to be playing in all the large multiplexes, and those are not located in "poor" neighborhoods.
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