"With the success of The Passion, Gibson has come as close to trademarking the crucifix itself as one can hope to get just now. Will Icon license crucifixes with James Caviezel dolls on them? And how far will the penumbra of this right to exploit spread - to any bloody Jesus who vaguely resembles James Caviezel (which most do)? As Spielberg managed to prevail in a trademark infringement lawsuit against a theme-park operator who used the word 'Jurassic' in the name of an attraction ('Jurassic Jungle') - drawing a rather elusive remainder of the almost wholly vanished commons into the rule of the master race of corporations - Gibson's film looks like an effort to draw some of the potentially profitable ephemeralities and imagery of Christianity into the portfolio of Icon's assets. The success of the film, whose underlying material is in the vanishing public domain, heralds a flood of copyright infringement lawsuits, for it will not be easy for any future creator of cultural product based on this same source material to avoid all detectable resemblance to the blockbuster. "
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6 comments:
thanks for the link!
Rabbit, I do not share Le Colonel's motives for the dismissal of this film fully. As a parody of Catholic guilt trips, the film is viscerally powerful and impactful. Where the problem starts is with the parallel montages of all the events surrounding the torture, where you get the standard corporate shit and Bible Thumping political correctness which ultimately ends up legitimizing both the violence and righteous Christian indignation. But without these Halliwud additions, the film would have been a really stunning depiction of Christian sadism. I also like the closing shot, where it appears that even in Heaven, Christ will carry the holes from the cross (and so violence and torture will never end).
thanks Dejan!
I haven't seen Passion of the Christ but my understanding of it was that it wasn't meant to be a parody
"I also like the closing shot, where it appears that even in Heaven, Christ will carry the holes from the cross"
I don't know if this is theologically orthodox fim-making from Mel Gibson - maybe he's had orthodontic work done and he's concerned it will revert back at the time of the last judgement
I haven't seen Passion of the Christ but my understanding of it was that it wasn't meant to be a parody
well in its extreme and straightforward depiction of violence it accomplishes a black kind of humor (at least in my parodic eyes)...
"it accomplishes a black kind of humor"
it's possible that art historians in the future will judge that this film was a parody - but really, it isn't meant to be
..It's hard to judge if this by Velazquez, for instance, is meant to be a parody or not
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