Gibson gives private 'Passion' viewings

NEW YORK -- Those who have seen Mel Gibson's film about the final hours of Jesus Christ have called it beautiful, magical, a great and important work.\nThose who fear "The Passion" could fuel anti-Semitism, however, until now hadn't been allowed to see the film. Seven months before its release, this extraordinary vanity project is stirring passions over Gibson's exclusionary screenings and the potential for a negative depiction of Jews.\nOn Friday it was shown in Houston to an audience that included for the first time an official from the Anti-Defamation League, which fights anti-Semitism. Audience members signed confidentiality agreements before attending the screening.\n"We still have grave concerns," Rabbi Eugene Korn, director of the ADL's Office of Interfaith Affairs in New York, told the Houston Chronicle in Saturday's editions.\nNot just Jews are concerned -- the film was first questioned by a nine-member panel that included Christians. Gibson is a member of an ultraconservative Catholic movement which rejects the Vatican's authority over the Catholic church.\nGibson has said the film is faithful to the account of the crucifixion in the four Gospels and is meant "to inspire, not offend."\nThe star of the blockbuster "Lethal Weapon" movies and Oscar-winning director of "Braveheart" has spent nearly $30 million of his own money to produce, co-write and direct "The Passion," starring Jim Caviezel as Jesus and Monica Bellucci as Mary Magdalene. Filmed entirely in the languages of Aramaic and Latin, it has yet to secure a distributor.\nIn recent weeks, the actor-director had been building support with invitation-only screenings for film industry insiders, conservative commentators, evangelical Christians and sympathetic Jews.\nTrailers of the two-hour movie have turned up on some Web sites. A four and one-half minute preview was shown Friday for thousands of people attending a Christian festival at Anaheim, Calif.\nTed Haggard, president of the National Evangelical Association, saw a screening in late June with about 30 evangelical scholars. The scholars are very strict about adherence to scripture, so Gibson "had no assurances that we would be friendly toward that movie."\nBut Haggard said he loved it. "I thought it was the most authentic portrayal I've ever seen," he said.\nCal Thomas, a conservative syndicated columnist, called the film "the most beautiful, accurate, disturbing, realistic and bloody depiction of this well-known story that has ever been filmed."\nInternet personality Matt Drudge told MSNBC: "It depicts a clash between Jesus and those who crucified him and speaking as a Jew, I thought it was a magical film that showed the perils of life on earth."\nBut critics of "The Passion" -- who have not seen the film -- worry that the popular Hollywood superstar will attract millions to see a violent, bloody recounting of the crucifixion that portrays Jews as a frenzied mob eager to watch Jesus die.\n"For too many years, Christians have accused Jews of being Christ-killers and used that charge to rationalize violence," said Sister Mary C. Boys, a Catholic professor at the Union Theological Seminary who read an early draft of the script. "This is our fear."\nBoys and others on a committee of nine Christian and Jewish scholars that reviewed the script said Gibson may have been skewing public opinion by screening the film primarily for conservatives.\nPaul Lauer, marketing director for Gibson's Icon Productions company, said the committee obtained a stolen, outdated script that is completely different from the rough cut of the film being screened. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued an apology this spring after learning a staff member had obtained a draft, and the script was returned.\nBoys said an Icon employee provided an intermediary with the script.\nWhile Gibson said "The Passion" will be the most authentic account ever of the crucifixion, Boys said the script she read presented the Jews as more culpable for Christ's death than the Romans who executed him.\nIt only recounts the last 12 hours of Christ's life, she said, and therefore lacks the context to explain the Jews' portrayal. "It seems to me that the film looked on Jews as antagonists, Jesus as this perfect victim," she said.\nBoys and others said they have received anti-Semitic hate mail after being quoted in news reports criticizing "The Passion." Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, said the center has received several dozen letters related to his criticism of the film.\nGibson said in a June statement that he and his film are not anti-Semitic. "My intention in bringing it to the screen is to create a lasting work of art and engender serious thought among audiences of diverse faith backgrounds (or none) who have varying familiarity with this story."\nBut what is Gibson's version of the story? His traditionalist religion rejects the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, which in 1965 rejected the notion that Jews were collectively responsible for killing Jesus. The actor is building a traditionalist church in Malibu, Calif., for about 70 members, and intends to hold Sunday services there in Latin.\nHis father, Hutton Gibson, was quoted in a New York Times Magazine article in March as denying the Holocaust occurred.\nMeanwhile, film industry observers are wondering whether this film can find an audience.\nLauer said the film has not sought a distributor, but that at least three major studios are interested. Also, although the recent screenings have included English subtitles, Icon hasn't decided whether to include them in a major release.\n"I don't know that he will be able to find a studio that will distribute this," said Kim Masters, a film columnist for Esquire magazine.\nMasters said industry people who have seen the film respect its quality, but said it is disturbingly graphic.\n"It's not a family film, from what I understand," she said. "It's a really difficult film"