The Passion of The Christ continues to draw hysterical criticism. Actor Steve Martin has written a satirical article criticizing the movie as “money-making showbusiness”.
This demonstrates just how out of touch Hollywood is. Prior to the film’s release, Mel Gibson was identified purely as a anti-Semitic traditional Catholic zealot. Now that the film has grossed over $200 Million he is money grubbing.
Where has Hollywood been for the past 40 years? Aren’t they supposed to be in business? If this was such a sure bet from Hollywood’s perspective, a studio would have made this movie years ago. Mel Gibson put up his own money for a film no one else wanted to touch and made an incalcuable risk in using foreign languages for all the dialogue. That’s as far from a sure thing as I’ve ever heard. Now he is called money-grubbing.
Christian groups have been begging for Christian movies for years. When a good one finally comes, they attend in unprecedented numbers. Twelve days after its release, it already ranks as 47th highest grossing movie of all time (I expect another huge bump in sales around Easter). It looks to be in line for the most profitable movie ever released.
This isn’t a demonstration of Mel Gibson’s greed. It’s a lesson in how foolish Hollywood is.