14 comments for “Another Reason not to see The Passion

  1. I should make it clear that I’m just kidding with the title–this is just for fun, and is not an attempt to influence anyone’s viewing decisions!

  2. Kristine, I was all ready to eat you alive with a title like that. But your disclaimer changes things a bit, and my comment should be much less controversial. But we both know you’re experimenting with titles that attract comments like mad. So here’s my response:

    Good movie, but not for everyone. But for those who haven’t seen it, please don’t assume there is something intrinsically bad about a non-Mormon making a movie about Christ.

    P.S. Kristine, your second link doesn’t work (at least for me).

  3. From what I’ve seen, Kristine can sometimes have the uncanny ability of avoiding certain things that may give us too much indirect insight into why she thinks the way she does. Nate’s another classic example of this. But, of course, Kristine differs from Nate in that after reading a comment like this, she’d probably tell me why she isn’t going to see the Passion just to prove me wrong on my other point.

    As far as the Passion goes, Nate gave us the excuse “not enough time” in a previous thread. Yeah, like anyone buys that. I wanted to know the REAL reason. I tried to push the issue, but Nate would have none of it.

  4. Bob: I have a job (sort of — I work for the federal gov’t). I have a wife. I have a two year old. I have a puppy. I have two manuscripts that must be in publishable form by August. I have two blogs. I have a calling. I have about five to ten pounds to lose.

    I don’t have time. Besides my wife — aka SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED — doesn’t want to see the movie. Maybe I will get it on DVD and watch it when she is at her book group some day.

  5. Bob: I have a job (sort of — I work for the federal gov’t). I have a wife. I have a two year old. I have a puppy. I have two manuscripts that must be in publishable form by August. I have two blogs. I have a calling. I have about five to ten pounds to lose.

    I don’t have time. Besides my wife — aka SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED — doesn’t want to see the movie. Maybe I will get it on DVD and watch it when she is at her book group some day.

  6. OK, Bob, I’ll tell you why. But just to remain enigmatic, I’ll give it to you in the form of a poem by Stevie Smith:

    The Airy Christ (After reading Dr. Rieu’s translation of St. Mark’s Gospel)

    Who is this that comes in splendour, coming from the blazing East?
    This is he we had not thought of, this is he the airy Christ.

    Airy, in an airy manner in an airy parkland walking,
    Others take him by the hand, lead him, do the talking.

    But the Form, the airy One, frowns an airy frown,
    What they say he knows must be, but he looks aloofly down,

    Looks aloofly at his feet, looks aloofly at his hands,
    Knows they must, as prophets say, nailed be to wooden bands.

    As he knows the words he sings, that he sings so happily
    Must be changed to working laws, yet sings he ceaselessly.

    Those who truly hear the voice, the words, the happy song,
    Never shall need working laws to keep from doing wrong.

    Deaf men will pretend sometimes they hear the song, the words,
    And make excuse to sin extremely; this will be absurd.

    Heed it not. Whatever foolish men may do the song is cried
    For those who hear, and the sweet singer does not care that he was crucified.

    For he does not wish that men should love him more than anything
    Because he died; he only wishes they would hear him sing.

  7. “Besides my wife — aka SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED — doesn’t want to see the movie.”

    Nate, this is your real reason, thanks. Your whole first paragraph and your original reason, however, would imply that you are never going to see another movie due to lack of time, which I highly doubt.

    Kristine, thanks.

  8. “Your whole first paragraph and your original reason, however, would imply that you are never going to see another movie due to lack of time, which I highly doubt.”

    Bob: actually I almost never do go to see movies. Heather and I saw “Return of the King” and I saw “Master and Commander” with a friend while Heather and Jacob were out of town, but other than that, I don’t think that I have been to see a movie in a theatre in the last year. It really is a huge hassle, and I generally don’t do it unless there is a special reason (or a random opprotunity). “The Passion” is no “Return of the King” in my book.

  9. On a (somewhat) related note, I just read an interview with Kevin Smith (of “Clerks”) fame in the NYT that talked briefly about “The Passion”:

    CURTIS: You made a controversial movie about Catholicism, “Dogma.” What did you think about “The Passion of the Christ”?

    SMITH: I haven’t seen it yet. I think it’s funny, though, that people bring it up and ask me, “What do you think of the controversy?” I’m like, “What controversy?” The dude made a movie about Jesus in a country that’s largely Christian — a very traditional movie — and it’s made over $200 million in two weeks. There ain’t no controversy, people. That’s a hit. They took one or two Jewish leaders in the beginning and said, “This may be construed as anti-Semitic,” and then spun it into a must-see movie for hard-core Christians. You’ve got to go see it if you love Jesus. I wish to God I had thought to do that when I was making “Dogma”

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