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RECENT JOTTINGS a tale of two movies ALL THE JOTTINGS SITES OF NOTE Tektonics Apologetics Ministry blogs4God The Adarwinist reader Bede's Library: the Alliance of Faith and Reason A Christian Thinktank Doxa:Christian theology and apologetics He Lives Mike Gene Teleologic Errant Skeptics Research Institute Stephen Jones' CreationEvolutionDesign Touchstone: a journal of mere Christianity: mere comments The Secularist Critique: Deconstructing secularism Ex-atheist.com: I Wasn't Born Again Yesterday imago veritatis by Alan Myatt Solid Rock Ministries The Internet Monk: a webjournal by Michael Spencer The Sydney Line: the website of Keith Windschuttle Miranda Devine's writings in the Sydney Morning Herald David Horowitz frontpage magazine Thoughts of a 21st century Christian Philosopher one-eighty Steven Lovell's philosophical themes from C.S.Lewis Peter S. Williams Christian philosophy and apologetics Shandon L. Guthrie Clayton Cramer's Blog Andrew Bolt columns Ann Coulter columns
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"These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own." G.K.Chesterton "You cannot grow a beard in a moment of passion." G.K.Chesterton "As you perhaps know, I haven't always been a Christian. I didn't go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that."C. S. Lewis "I blog, therefore I am." Anon |
Thursday, September 01, 2005 a tale of two movies It seems like a bad dream but I remember it like it was only yesterday. The entire liberal media establishment got all self-righteous and suddenly theological about a movie made by "Mad Mel" Gibson. To say that the bi-coastals and the inner city latte-sipping chattering classes didn’t like The Passion of the Christ would be like noting that Stalin didn’t like the Kulaks. (It would of course be totally inappropriate to compare the response to the Passion as akin to Hitler hating the Jews...) All over the planet movie critics, "social commentators", liberal theologians, op-ed writers, left wing academics (excuse the tautology), Hollywood producers and brain-dead bleeding hearts joined in a chorus that soon rose to a cacophony and then slipped into tyre-screeching condemnatory overdrive about the brutality, the violence, the hatred, the anti-Semitsm and the unabashed conservative Catholicism of Gibson’s little labour-of-love independent film. Of course it was a box-office smash, seen by millions and making millions for Mel. Oh, the Outrage! The Horror. I swear you could hear them screaming "Red State rednecks!" over the sound of espresso machines as they filed their reviews. Flash forward a year or so. Same critics, same commentators, another film about "brutality, violence and hatred". This time its made by Quentin Tarantino’s best buddy, Robert "How do I kill thee, let me count the ways" Rodriguez and is based on a comic book, not a holy book. They go into raptures over it! Reading some of the reviews you would think the second coming had just taken place. Am I dreaming? Five stars out of five just ain’t enough stars in the firmament for this one. Sin City (an appropriate title for film with a passion for comic book violence and cheesy dialogue) is a piece of slick blood-letting from masters of the genre, a triumph of style over substance, a pop-art paean to amorality and guns (I thought liberals hated guns?), a homage to senseless violence and sexist stereotyping... and guns, a surreal and ridiculous tribute to the niche market of revenge, lust, nihilism, Catholic bashing... and guns, so ably cornered by... Tarantino and Rodriguez. But the style, man the style... This is indeed a nightmare – a superb and disturbing film portraying the betrayal and brutal execution of perhaps the pivotal figure of human history is feared and loathed by the liberal critics. These same critics then turn around and praise to the highest heavens a superbly executed but disturbing glorification of testosterone-fueled adolescent male fantasies merely because it is draped in the pretentious trappings of postmodern amorality and mindless brutality. The Horror indeed. |
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