The New Citizen April 2004 Page 7 FILM REVIEW ’s “The Passion of the Christ” LaRouche on Mel Gibson n his keynote address to a town the —what does that say to to Jeanne d’Arc—a very compara- Imeeting in Los Angeles spon- the Roman Empire? Kill him! And ble case, in terms of the principle sored by his Presidential cam- kill him, in a way which is a les- of the thing—are they dead? No, paign, Lyndon LaRouche had the son, to be taught to the rest of the they’re not dead: What they have following remarks on Gibson’s population of this territory. “That’s done, in their contribution to hu- film, “The Passion of the Christ”. what we do to all of similar type.’’ manity, is immortal. And, when we As Nero did to St. Peter. And was reflect upon them, and what they For example, just take the thing done to St. Paul, by the Roman gave us, with their sacrifice, with from a New Testament standpoint: Empire. their courage, they are part of us. What is the reality of the Crucifix- Now, if you want to portray the They live within us. They are ion of Christ? The reality is, that reality of the Passion and Cruci- positive, they inspire us. They Jesus Christ made a parade into the fixion of Christ, you obviously don’t depress us. They don’t fright- city of Jerusalem, like our youth start with not less, than Christ’s en us. We say, “Yes, he died. Yes, group, going into the main part of entry into Jerusalem. You don’t he suffered. But, look at the gift he Los Angeles, and fighting against paste on the end, a little scene in gave us, in the process of suffer- the Schwarzenegger beast. And the Gethsemane, a fantastic scene of ing. And the price he paid, for our people in the community cheered. Christ’s reappearance. You don’t benefit, is our cause of rejoicing: They cheered for Christ coming do that. Because, the essence of That he loved us enough, to do that through the streets of Jerusalem. Christianity, as we know it histori- for us. He lives forever.” The Roman Empire was not cally, from the whole history of So, what the film does, it turns— pleased. Christianity, especially from the and this film is promoted by, guess Tiberius, a real monster, a real Apostles, was the great transforma- who? That great, loving, mankind- Satanic figure, was sitting in his tion in European civilisation, lover: John Ashcroft, the racist. Mel Gibson, cultist. Photo:AP Photo/Ric Francis villa beside the cliffs of the Isle of which Christianity represented…. Ashcroft’s crowd are the biggest greatest wave of anti-Semitism, tion. Capri. And his son-in-law, his le- So, the lesson here, is a lesson of pushers of this film. The group that and similar kinds of phenomena, And when you look around you, gal son-in-law, Pontius Pilate, that you can imagine at this time. and you see the people that are whom he’d gotten out of the way “This [film] … threatens the greatest And it’s being done, as part of an impressed by this propaganda, the for sexual reasons, and assigned election ploy, for the re-election people who admire and defend the him to become the Procurator of wave of anti-Semitism, and similar of George Bush, although George film: Ah! You’re getting a smell of Judaea, acted in Roman style. kinds of phenomena, that you can Bush himself may not be part of it. the rot! You’re getting a smell of Now, there’s only one authority in But, that faction that wants to imagine at this time.” — Lyndon LaRouche the things that caused the crisis of occupied Judaea, who could order control the United States, by con- Troy, as reported in the Iliad; the a crucifixion: the Roman Emper- trolling the re-election of George crisis of ancient Athens, as reflect- or. The Roman Emperor’s repre- Bush, is the faction behind this, ed in the Peloponnesian War; the sentative Pontius Pilate. A cruci- optimism! Not pessimism. But op- Mel Gibson is associated with, is a that has pushed this thing. And crisis of civilisation under Rome; fixion was done by Rome, by im- timism. This is not somebody be- known fascist group, radical fas- they pushed this thing as a Satan- the crisis of Hitler and what he rep- perial Rome, not by the Jews! Who ing killed: This is Martin Luther cist group, of the Francisco Fran- ic effort, to brainwash the popula- resented: It’s the same thing, again. were the Jews? The Jews were noth- King, being assassinated by the co variety; of the Carlist variety. ing but the local quislings! They whim of J. Edgar Hoover. Is Martin They’re not Christians. They are, were the local neo-conservatives! Luther King dead? Not if I’m alive. as Helga [Zepp-LaRouche] de- They were not the typical Jews! [applause] scribed the situation, the Grand Is Jeanne d’Arc [Joan of Arc] Inquisitor, from The Brothers Kar- Mel Gibson: Sadist? The majority of the Jewish popu- n an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera dead? She made possible modern amazov of Dostoevsky: That’s lation of Judaea wanted to get rid on Feb. 26, 2004, movie director Franco Zeffirelli reported society. She made possible the es- what they are. I of the Romans! And there were var- how he witnessed Gibson acting and directing Shakespeare’s tablishment of the first modern They are the greatest danger to ious kinds of Jewish groups, who Hamlet, and how Gibson intervened on Ian Holm. Holm was nation-state, in the case of France. the United States, in this sense: were in a state of revolt, against playing Polonius at the moment Polonius dies, killed by Hamlet She was an integral part of the great This film, the way it’s being pro- the Roman occupation, which when stabbed behind a curtain. Renaissance, under which the best moted, among the people to whom continued all the way through, “An animal stabbed to death,” Gibson said, “does not keep his features of modern European soci- it’s being promoted, among crazy until the mass killing of Jews by eyes staring, but rolls them, first together, then in opposite direc- ety occurred. Are those who have right-wing Catholics, and crazy the Romans, at a later point. tions.” “How do you know?” asked Polonius-Holm. “I have seen suffered and died for the cause of right-wing Protestants of the worst Jesus Christ comes along, and to many of them dying.” Zeffirelli intervened: “You did not answer human freedom, in such a heroic type—this is the Ku Klux Klan the Romans, being hailed by the Ian, how do you know that?” Gibson answered: “When I can, to manner as that, who’ve done it, as I type. This is the marching song, of people of Jerusalem, from the relax, I go to my ranches and I kill many calves in the slaughter have compared Martin Luther King the Ku Klux Klan! Threatens the streets of Jerusalem, as the King of period.” “We were shocked”, said Zeffirelli. Mel continued, perfectly Synarchist Murdoch Glorifies “The Passion of the Christ” at ease: “But with a gun, those beasts die too quick. You under- stand better what happens to the calves through their eyes, when he entire front page of the Feb- The front-page splash was ac- ‘Passion’ becomes a kind of por- we cut their throats.” Truary 24, 2004 Murdoch- companied by three full pages of nographic catalog of Christ’s suf- owned New York Post was one gi- bloody scenes from the movie and fering... it’s initially powerful but ant promo for Mel Gibson’s ob- reviews by reviewers Lou Lumen- eventually becomes numbing... scene movie, “The Passion of the ick and Jonathan Foreman, both lacking any sense of the meaning Cardinal Mahony: Mel Gibson Not Christ,” replete with gushings from of whom address the violence of or reason for Christ’s sacrifice.” in Communion With Church moviegoers, such as “I will never the movie. Surprisingly, Foreman The same issue of the Post plays be the same again... Powerful, vis- says something useful. He calls the up the new concert tour by Ma- n an on-line chat of the Los Angeles Religious Educational Congress ceral experience... it was intense and film, “a product of a distinctly per- donna, entitled, “The Whore of I(www.RECongress.org) on February 20, 2004, when asked about Gib- emotional... profound, amazing.” verted sensibility.... Eventually, Babylon.” son’s movie, “The Passion of the Christ,” and the allegedly Cath- olic Church he belongs to in Malibu, California, Mahony said, “I know nothing about the Church in Malibu. It is certainly not in Mel’s Dad: Like Father, Like Son? communion with the universal nor the Archdio- cese of Los Angeles. I have never met Mr. Gibson, and he does not el says he’s “very tight” with participate in any parish of this Archdiocese. He, apparently, has his Dad. And his dad has M chosen to live apart from the communion of the Catholic Church. been keeping some very bad com- I pray for him.” pany. Mel’s dad, Hutton Gibson, Questioned further on Gibson’s “traditionalist movement,” Ma- spoke on the subject of “Tradition- hony said, “Actually, there is no such thing as the ‘Catholic tradi- al Catholicism” at the fourth in- tionalist, modernist, movement.’ Either one is in full communion ternational conference of The with the Catholic Church, in unity with the Successor of Peter, or Barnes Review held June 21, 2003 not. One cannot pick and choose which to follow, especially in Washington, D.C. dead ones.” The Barnes Review is the current The Cardinal went on to criticise Gibson’s treatment of the publication of former Liberty Lob- Gospel, saying, “Scripture is very clear that the people through- by leader and editor of Spotlight, out the Gospels were supportive of, and responsive to, Jesus. It is Willis Carto. Carto promotes his the small group of leaders who are always jealous and seeking to new review as a journal of “revi- silence him; eventually, to kill him.... I think it’s always best to sionist” history, which features present the life of Jesus in the larger context of the entire Gospel works glorifying holocaust deni- — it’s always more difficult to select one small slice of the Gospel al, Senator Joe McCarthy, Rudolf and have it stand alone.” Hess, American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell, and “sound money”, among other Mel Gibson’s dad, Hutton Gibson (l.) with Holocaust revisionist Fredrick Toe- ADL: Gibson’s “Passion” Provokes Anti-Semitism things. Speakers who appeared ben of the . Hutton Gibson has said about , “It’s all — maybe not all fiction — but most of it is.” with Gibson included Fredrick he U.S. Anti-Defamation dreds and hundreds of hate-mail Toeben on “Holocaust Revision- Passion of the Christ”. filth, include The Stormfront: TLeague is notoriously unreli- letters and e-mails, attacking the ism”. Toeben is the leading figure The Adelaide Institute is spon- White Pride World Wide; Volks- able. ADL for its campaign against Gib- in ’s pro-Nazi Adelaide In- soring an International Revision- front News; and Regmeister, whose However, it sounds as if ADL di- son’s movie. “People sign their stitute. The Institute’s web-site fea- ist Conference in Sacramento, Cal- stated purpose is to make avail- rector Abe Foxman were telling the names, talk about their faith and tures a tribute to Rudolf Hess, ifornia in April 2004. Other spon- able Nazi works not legally avail- truth to the March 17, 2004 Wash- love of Jesus, then ask whether whom it identifies as “Germany’s sors, at least some of which feature able otherwise to Germans; and The ington Times, when he reported Jews have learned anything from Freedom Fighter,” as well as a spir- support for Mel’s movie amongst Institute for Historical Review. that the ADL had received hun- the Holocaust yet,” Foxman said. ited defence of Mel’s movie, “The their other pro-Nazi, anti-semitic