Posted on 03/03/2004 10:33:51 AM PST by Caleb1411
On March 8, within two weeks of the release of The Passion of the Christ, ABC will air Judas, a made-for-TV movie about the disciple who betrayed Jesus. The latter film will not be served by its proximity to Mel Gibson's work. The effect is tempering: Those who hope the success of The Passion will produce more Hollywood movies examining the life of Christ should have second thoughts after watching the embarrassing Judas. Or, better yet, take the advice of WORLD and don't watch it.
If nothing else, Judas reveals Mel Gibson to be an artistic genius. The two films are a study in contrasts, but it's not worth dwelling on the comparison. Judas employs nearly every cliché that has become synonymous with bad biblical epics (and that Mr. Gibson sought to avoid), from bad hair to bad sets to really, really bad dialogue.
The movie purports to tell the back story of Judas, identified by ABC as "perhaps the most complex character in the Gospels." To do this, the script makes Judas central to almost every event in Christ's adult life. Judas wants an earthly king to overthrow the Romans, becoming a foil for Jesus, who has a more spiritual mission in mind.
Judas begins by stating that "the following film is an interpretative dramatization of Judas's relationship with Jesus." What exactly the film is interpreting is not clear, since it is most certainly not working from the Bible or accepted historic documents, except in rough outline.
Most of the dialogue hovers between the painfully funny and just plain painful. Judas first meets the Messiah after witnessing Jesus clearing the Temple of merchants. Judas, to Jesus, over a cup of wine: "You know, I have to tell you, I was very impressed with what you did at the Temple today." Jesus replies, somewhat chagrined and regretful, "Well, don't be. You know, I was trying to make a point and lost my temper. You can't change a man's heart by yelling at him, by humiliating him, by taking away his livelihood."
Later, Jesus asks Judas to handle His money, saying, "I'm no good with money. Whatever I have, I tend to lose." In another scene, Herod refers to John the Baptist as "a pain in the ass." It's enough to make one long for Aramaic.
The one interesting aspect of the production is that it works overtime to avoid the perceived anti-Semitism of a literal reading of the Gospels, creating a bizarre conspiracy scenario in which Pontius Pilate (Tim Matheson of Animal House fame) orchestrates the events leading up to the crucifixion in order to pin the blame for Christ's death on the Jews.
That is why it will be hard for me to see Matheson in this role. Perhaps you won't have that problem.
In Plan A they tried flinging charges of anti-Semitism to discredit Mel and demean Christian beliefs. When that backfired they started hurling scare words----WashPo Richard Cohen went paranoid and said Mel's film was "fascism." Then the Little Frummer boy (neocon David Frum) followed up using the old reliable " Holacaust-denier."
That didn't work either. Christians were still on their feet. Something had to be done. So they decided Biblical rewrites were in order and ABC happened to have this thing in the hopper. So ABC (Anybody But Christians) was tasked to do a number on Christians with the Judas job.
Stay tuned for Plan D. Should be a pip.
The intentions may have been noble, but if the best Fontana could do is come up with an angst-ridden, second-guessing, apologetic, mistake-prone, and ultimately sin-guilty counterfeit of the Gospels' sinless Son of God, then Judas's "Jesus" is kin to undeified "Jesus" invented by the Jesus Seminar.
[. . .What exactly the film is interpreting is not clear, since it is most certainly not working from the Bible or accepted historic documents, except in rough outline. . . Jesus replies, somewhat chagrined and regretful, "Well, don't be. You know, I was trying to make a point and lost my temper. You can't change a man's heart by yelling at him, by humiliating him, by taking away his livelihood."Later, Jesus asks Judas to handle His money, saying, "I'm no good with money. Whatever I have, I tend to lose."]
The Crucifixion (as depicted by Mel Gibson) is today a religious belief. In Roman times it was a civil punishment. The true story is that Jesus infuriated high priest Caiphas by throwing the moneychangers out of the temple. This was Caiphas' reasoning for bringing Jesus before the chief priests of the temple....and the fact that Jesus was preaching and had a following....things that Caiphas considered a challenge to his own power.
The chief priests had no power to get rid of Jesus. They needed Pilate --and Roman law that prevailed---to do that for them.
But Pilate as a Roman leader had no say over Jewish (religious) transgressions and had in fact said he thought Jesus was innocent. Pilate was also sensitive to his wife begging him to save Jesus.
So Caiphas cleverly changed the charge made against Jesus, and instead made Jesus' crime look to be, not a religious issue, but sedition against Rome: Caiphas told Pilate that Jesus said he was King of the Jews---an affront against Rome---which helped Caiphas turn Pilate against Jesus, and command the Crucifixion.
The Romans mocked Jesus by attaching the legend used by Caiphas to indict him at the top of the cross.....Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.
Stay tuned for Plan D. Should be a pip.
Stay tuned for Plan J: "I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." (You know the author of that quote.)
Thanks to Mel Gibson, there will be more people than ever in that church.
Ha.
HA HA.
HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHA!
The two oddball films
below are about Judas.
They are vampire films
built around the old
European legend that
Judas was the source
of vampirism
since he was "condemned to life"
until he will ask
Jesus to forgive
him. They are not great films, but
they're interesting.
(The first contains more
religious references than
the second. The third
will conclude the tale
on DVD sometime soon.
Judas as monster . . .)
I thought that was John Vernon as Dean Wormer...
Well, if the lines and plot described in this article are really in the script, it's hard to escape the conclusion that this movie is terrible.
1 Strip Search (2004) (TV) (pre-production) (written by)
2 Judas (2004) (TV) (written by)
3 America: A Tribute to Heroes (2001) (TV)
4 "Beat, The" (2000) TV Series
5 Homicide: The Movie (2000) (TV)
6 Firehouse (1997) (TV)
7 "Oz" (1997) TV Series (creator) (writer)
8 Prosecutors, The (1996) (TV)
9 "Homicide: Life on the Street" (1993) TV Series (writer)
... aka "Homicide" (1993) (USA: informal short title)
10 "Tattingers" (1989) TV Series (writer)
... aka "Nick & Hillary" (1989) (new title)
11 Fourth Wise Man, The (1985) (TV)
12 "St. Elsewhere" (1982) TV Series (writer)
The Romans track down
Jesus in the Garden when
Judas supplies them
with the phone number
of Jesus' cell phone, then
calls when he's alone...
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