| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Hanukkah, the movie |
| 2004-03-19 |
| Mar. 19, 2004 15:32 | Updated Mar. 19, 2004 15:35 Gibson planning movie about Maccabee revolt By JPOST.COM STAFF Hollywood star Mel Gibson is already planning his next foray into the weighty world of religious film-making - he wants to make a movie about the origins of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. According to a report on the Internet Movie Database website, Gibson - who was criticized by many Jewish leaders worldwide for propagating anti-Semitism in his epic The Passion Of The Christ - has hinted he may make a filmed account of the Revolt Of The Maccabees, the story behind Hanukkah, the festival of lights. The 46-year-old actor-director says, "The story that’s always fired my imagination is the Book of Maccabees. "The Maccabees family stood up, and they made war. They stuck by their guns and they came out winning. It’s like a western." The Maccabees led a three-year war, 200 years before the birth of Jesus, against Antiochus, a king who forced the Jews to worship false gods. The war led to the liberation of Jerusalem. Gibson’s interest in Jewish history concerns the Jewish Anti-defamation League. National director Abe Foxman was quoted on the site as saying, "My answer would be, ’Thanks but no thanks.’ The last thing we need in Jewish history is to convert our history into a western." |
| Posted by:Zhang Fei |
| #11 The general timeframe is 180-160 BC. Quick summary: Greeks oppress Jews, Jews revolt, Jews kick out Greeks. Masada was 70-3 AD and was at the tail end of the Jewish revolt against the Romans. That's a time interval of 250 years around 2000 years ago. We only get to that point around 2026. Jeebus. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-3-19 10:25:28 PM |
| #10 eLarson: The Book of the Maccabees is the account of the successful revolt of the Jews from the Seleucids (Syro-Hellenic successors of Alexander the Great). The general timeframe is 180-160 BC. Quick summary: Greeks oppress Jews, Jews revolt, Jews kick out Greeks. Masada was 70-3 AD and was at the tail end of the Jewish revolt against the Romans. |
| Posted by: 11A5S 2004-3-19 9:34:44 PM |
| #9 I'm sorry but I have a problem with people making money off of the Bible. Let's face it - anyone looking to risk tens of millions of dollars on a movie is going to have to see some kind of return. This kind of thing is pretty much feast or famine - either it works or you lose your shirt. If, as projected, Gibson makes hundreds of millions off this, I see these profits being plowed back into other religion-themed movies. And the only real action-themed sequences available in the Bible are from the Old Testament. I would love to see more Biblical epics - done as reenactments rather than as weird reinterpretations in the manner of the Last Temptation of Christ. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-3-19 9:12:56 PM |
| #8 Rafael -- before the movie was released, the experts expected Gibson to lose every penny he put into the movie. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-3-19 8:46:13 PM |
| #7 The Maccabees are in the Apocrapha (ouch that is bad spelling). Accepted in some denominations not in others. |
| Posted by: whitecollar redneck 2004-3-19 8:42:36 PM |
| #6 The Book of Maccabees not being part of my Bible, I have to ask. Is this the same as Masada? I recall a movie by that name from several years ago, but I don't recall the details well. |
| Posted by: eLarson 2004-3-19 8:30:30 PM |
| #5 Mel Gibson is an idiot. When I think of Passion of the Christ I get images of a camel trying to squeeze thru the eye of a needle. I'm sorry but I have a problem with people making money off of the Bible. Jesus didn't like it either. |
| Posted by: Rafael 2004-3-19 8:24:25 PM |
| #4 IMHO, of course, since Abe Foxman's made such an ass of hisself dissing the Passion of The Christ before seeing it, possibly he should STFU about Mel's next project and ask to help consult rather than critiquing another movie he hasn't seen (and hasn't yet been made). Foxman's doing more defamation than he's prevented by his intemperance |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-3-19 7:51:23 PM |
| #3 it's real - Reg Req'd on JPOst, but I just read it |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-3-19 7:45:16 PM |
| #2 "The Maccabees family stood up, and they made war. They stuck by their guns and they came out winning... A lesson that most Europeans and most American leftists would do well to learn, where terrorism is concerned. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-3-19 7:40:39 PM |
| #1 Uhhh....Is it real or is it Scrappleface? |
| Posted by: whitecollar redneck 2004-3-19 7:40:15 PM |