Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ has stirred up a whirlwind of controversy nationwide as it has done the unthinkable and put a subtitled movie about the final hours of Christ's life on track to becoming one of the most profitable films of all time.
Last night at Logan Hall, the Department of Religious Studies, the Bassini Jewish Studies Program, the Office of the Chaplain and Penn Hillel sponsored a panel to facilitate discussion on the controversial topic of The Passion. Speaking on the panel were Director of Cinema Studies Timothy Corrigan, Chairwoman of Religious Studies Ann Matter, Director of Jewish Studies David Stern and Director of Italian Studies Millicent Marcus.
The panel explored topics ranging from the film's historical accuracy to its implications in our culture today.
College junior Diana Claybon and College senior Angelika Zilberman, the event's organizers and interns for the Bassini Jewish Studies Program, were quite pleased.
Zilberman said the event was "more than we were hoping for."
Despite the enthusiasm of organizers and of the majority of the 100-plus-member audience, there was a significant minority that was less than happy about the panel. Engineering freshman Kenny Pearce felt that the panel did not have "as much diversity of opinion" as he would have liked. Two of the panelists, Corrigan and Stern, gave quite negative opinions of the film, albeit from differing stances.
Corrigan introduced himself as coming from a Roman Catholic background and did not feel that the anti-Semitic controversy stirring around the film was an issue, but instead felt that it was simply "not a good movie." Corrigan said he thought the film was ultraviolent and that he was afraid that this aspect of the movie spoke of society's preoccupation with "hyper-realistic" violence.
Stern was much more controversial and got a rise out of the audience when he said the film "doesn't move anyone intelligent." He later apologized for the comment and explained he was trying to express how he felt a very staged and hollow feeling from a film he saw as "anti-Jewish." He was also critical of the publicity around the movie, specifically Mel Gibson's self-staged crucifixion by the media.
Matter prefaced the discussion by giving a historical overview of passion plays -- re-enactments of the final hours of Christ's life, often performed on Good Friday -- and explained both the religious importance and anti-Semitic undertones that they have historically held.
Marcus was perhaps the most objective of the four and said she was horrified by the film's violence. She said she feared that Gibson was using "the psychodynamics of cinema to convince people that he has the authoritative view on Christ."
Ultimately, this problem of truth was the issue that was most agreed upon among the panel members. All expressed a fear that Gibson's "authoritative view" would be manipulated by other agendas and would stall personal interpretations of the source material.
Although controversial at times, the panel was not heated but instead opened channels of academic debate and allowed for a rewarding and intense examination of a controversial popular culture phenomenon.
