Let me throw something out here just to stir the waters a bit.
I went to a play last night that was presented in a manner like those espoused by Bertolt Brecht. Brecht wanted to keep the audience from identifying with the characters in the play and so devised various techniques to to this, such as using placards held by people in the play.
All of these things that people are objecting to in Gibson's film -- the grim flogging scene, the sexually ambiguous Satan, Herod's lasciviousness, etc., may (inadvertently?) function like this. In the end, viewers won't identify with anyone, even Jesus, because the way the story is presented keeps the viewer from identifying with the characters.
I certainly don't think that this was Gibson's intention, but it may be the ultimate effect that the film has on a lot of viewers. The exception will be Lefebreites like Gibson and the Fundies, who have such a load of guilt that this is the only way they can imagine the events having taken place ... assuming that they took place at all as recorded in the Gospels, of course.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
Another point of view
Date: 2004-03-07 03:05 pm (UTC)I went to a play last night that was presented in a manner like those espoused by Bertolt Brecht. Brecht wanted to keep the audience from identifying with the characters in the play and so devised various techniques to to this, such as using placards held by people in the play.
All of these things that people are objecting to in Gibson's film -- the grim flogging scene, the sexually ambiguous Satan, Herod's lasciviousness, etc., may (inadvertently?) function like this. In the end, viewers won't identify with anyone, even Jesus, because the way the story is presented keeps the viewer from identifying with the characters.
I certainly don't think that this was Gibson's intention, but it may be the ultimate effect that the film has on a lot of viewers. The exception will be Lefebreites like Gibson and the Fundies, who have such a load of guilt that this is the only way they can imagine the events having taken place ... assuming that they took place at all as recorded in the Gospels, of course.