I remember a few years ago that when the British actress Vanessa Redgrave was picked to play a Jewish Holocaust victim in a big movie, there were organized protests against her choice; because she was and is extremely pro-Palestinian. In fact, she did what everyone agreed was an excellent job.

Me:

Ah, yes. I remember. One of those who objected was Fania Fenelon, the woman whose real-life story was being portrayed by Vanessa Redgrave. When Fenelon protested the casting of the pro-Palestinian Redgrave to play her, the producers kicked into freedom-of-expression mode and charged ahead. I don’t know what Fenelon thought of the end result, or even if she saw the film.

I remember a few years ago that when the British actress Vanessa Redgrave was picked to play a Jewish Holocaust victim in a big movie, there were organized protests against her choice; because she was and is extremely pro-Palestinian. In fact, she did what everyone agreed was an excellent job.

Maybe that’s what will happen here.

I have read you a long time – but – I have just removed you and your blog from Bloglines. Your Jewish/Zionist supremacy is just too much. Many of us lowly white gentiles just can’t quite do anything as well as you and your fellow Jewish supremacists, huh? Well, I don’t have to hear it all the time on the major networks, major film studios, major newspaper chains and the blogosphere as well.

Good luck.

Doesn’t the recent African genocides mean anything?

It’s time to move on. The holocaust is bad, but other genocides should get equal treatment or perhaps more because they happened in modern times. Yet I truly think Liberal distain with President Bush makes the prevention of such genocide impractical due to the lack of military commitment.

Also, the digust of Mel Gibson is completely wrongheaded. I shouldn’t have to explain why, but it is obvious that Mel doesn’t shall his father’s beliefs.

Clearly you have some animosity to Mel Gibson. However, I was surprised that you stooped to the level of holding him responsible for his father’s views. What does that have to do with anyting? That was a shameless guilt by association charge. I’m actually surprised and very disappointed you actually wrote something like that, because your views are generally very considered. Would you be comfortable posting all of your father’s views on every major issue, so that we can judge you in a similar fashion?

I also question your comments regarding the Holocaust. I’m not Jewish, so perhaps my point of view isn’t as “real” as yours, but why is this particular episode in history off limits? It was a modern horror, but I’m certain we can find other episodes in human history of ghastly exterminations – the sack of Jerusalem by the crusaders perhaps? My point is not to compare atrocities. I just don’t think anything should be off limits. Why can’t drama tell the story of the holocaust?

I agree wholeheartedly that Quinn Taylor’s comments were cynical and disgusting. Certainly a television drama has boundless potential for trivializing the holocaust. But shouldn’t we wait to see it before we condemn it?

Tim

Perhaps ABC can find some people who deny that Columbine occurred or that the tsunami actually killed people or that the little girl in Florida wasn’t really killed by being buried alive — three more mini-series with “attention-getting value” once the “controversy” is taped and put into 60-second spots.

With this approach to human tragedy, the greater the calamity, the greater the “controversy” associated with its denial and the greater the publicity. I pray I never have a job that encourages this level of cynicism

I can hardly believe this callousness toward the memory of those who perished and the pain of those families that survive. It is painful.

“I won’t even get into the way in which Conservative Christians uses Jews for their own machinations.” Why not Jimmy? Because you can’t?

If the Narnia film is made right, nobody’s going to complain that the studio suits didn’t set the ball rolling for altruistic purposes. So far, audiences who care about Narnia are reporting that they were faithful to the themes that mattered.

What should be more worrisome, actually, is that Mel may be making the movie simply to prove something he shouldn’t have to prove.

That remark is just too silly to even comment on. I won’t even get into the way in which Conservative Christians uses Jews for their own machinations.

Second, while I was no fan of Gibson’s Passion movie it wasn’t because of the violence or any sort of anti-Semitism. It was the way in which he marketed the film with a trumped up controversy about anti-Christian Hollywood, used the sensible concerns of ADL to fan the flames of that controversy, and how churches became little more than moneychangers in the Temple to market the film.

Third, I disagree with your assertion that “…we must not exploit the emotions of the Holocaust for the sake of drama or think that drama can adequately tell the story.” Granted, it should be respectful, but some of the finest films about the Holocaust, including Schindler’s List, were upfront and honest about the horrors of the Holocaust. We have to confront the disgusting nature of the Holocaust in order to fully understand what was allowed to happen. Now, I have concerns about a man whose own father questions the validity of the Holocaust and believes Jews are the world’s scourge making this film. However, the mistake made by the ADL is that they condemned The Passion of the Christ before it was ever seen. We have to see what Gibson makes before we can judge it in any way. Gibson, by the way, disavows his father’s beliefs.

The actual disgusting shame is that only Mel is willing to do (even some) of what’s necessary…