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Today's
Stories
February 28 / 29, 2004
Stephen Green
Serving Two Flags: Neo-Cons, Israel
and the Bush Team
Mike Whitney
Dismantle
the Military Goliath
February 27, 2004
Thomas C. Mountain
A
White Jesus During Black History Month?
Laura Carlsen
Americans
Abroad: Bush is Persona Non Grata
John B. Anderson
Nader's Campaign Brings Back Memories: Creating an Open Electoral
Process
Jason Leopold
Spying
on Kofi Annan
John Chuckman
Nader,
Risk and Hope
Standard Schaefer
An
Interview with Michael Hudson on Putin's Russia
Ray McGovern
Punished
for Honest Intelligence
Saul Landau
The
Haiti Redux
Website of the Day
Bush: Why I'm Running for Re-election
February 26, 2004
Brandy Baker
Is Nader
on to Something?
Jacques Kinau
AEI
to Colombia: "Can't Give You Anything But Guns, Baby"
Norman Solomon
Bugging Kofi Annan: UN Spying
and the Evasions of US Journalism
Greg Weiher
A Purloined Letter: the Zarqawi Gambit
Walt Brasch
Janet Jackson, Bush & No. 542: There are No Halftime Shows
in War
Shadi Hamid
The Music World Explodes in Anger
Norman Madarasz
As Canadian as Corruption
Chris Floyd
Bullets and Ballots
Virginia Tilly
The
Deeper Meaning of the Wall
Amy Goodman / Jeremy
Scahill
Haiti's
Lawyer Says US is Arming Haiti's Anti-Aristide Paramilitaries
Website of the Day
Clear Channel Sucks
February 25, 2004
Dr. Susan Block
Saddam's
Sex Therapist and the Rape of Free Speech
Bruce Anderson
Treacherous Bastards: The Greens and the Dems and Nader
Ron Jacobs
Our Power is on the Streets and
in Our Hearts
Mike Whitney
Bush
and Gay America: the Politics of Duplicity
Sam Husseini
Jesus in 100 Words
John L. Hess
Kick Off or Flub?
Sam Hamod
Bush's Newest Red Herring
Cockburn / St. Clair
Winning
with Nader
Website of the Day
VotePact
February 24, 2004
Ralph Nader
Why
I'm Running for President
Greg Moses
Rally
the Mob! Bush, Gay Marriage and the Constitution
Douglas O'Hara
The
Merchants of Fear: Smearing Nader
Phillip Cryan
Frozen in Time: The WSJ's Paranoid
Lens on Latin America
David Lindorff
John Kerry's China Connection
Jason Leopold
Cheney's Shame: Halliburton Faces New Charges
Gary Younge
Haiti: Throttled by History
Kromm, Masri & Purohit
Why No Democracy in Iraq?
Steve Perry
Tangled Up in Red and Blue: Beware the Electoral College
February 23, 2004
Neve Gordon
Israel's Apartheid Wall on Trial
at The Hague
Kurt Nimmo
Richard Perle, Executioner: "Heads Should Roll"
Jonathan Franklin
US Soldier Seeks Refugee Status in Canada
Al Krebs
The Liberal "Intelligentsia" v. Nader
Josh Frank
Nader's Nadir? Not a Chance
Bruce Jackson
Nader, Another View: "He's as Evil as Bush"
Gary Leupp
A Misguided
Attack, The Passion, Rabbi Lerner and the Gospels
February 20 / 22, 2004
Cockburn / St. Clair
Kerry:
He's Peaking Already!
Derek Seidman
Chasing
Judith Miller from the Stage: Watch Her Run!
Ghada Karmi
Sharon is not the Problem
Vanessa Jones
This Week in Redfern, a Boy Dies, Chased by Cops
Ben Granby
Anatomy of a Night Raid on Balad, Iraq
John Holt
An Air That Kills: Greed, Apathy, Dead People
Saul Landau
Entry from a White House Diary
Tom Jackson
Why They Couldn't Wait to Invade Iraq
Frederick B. Hudson
Slave Power and the Constitution: Jefferson, Slaves, Haiti and
Hypocrisy
Roger Burbach
Argentina Fights Back
Kate Doyle
Lessons on Justice from Guatemala
Mike Whitney
Operation Enduring Misery: the Afghanistan Debacle
Greg Moses
What Gives Texas A&M the Right to Trample the Civil Rights
Act?
David Krieger
US Elections: an Opportunity to Debate Nuclear Weapons
Sam Bahour
Palestinian Issue Riddles Bush's Budget
David Grenier
You Could Get 10 Years in Prison Just for Reading This
Charles Sullivan
Corporatism vs. Single Party Politics
Poet's Basement
Hilda White, Larry Kearney & Stew Albert
Website of the Weekend
The Rumsfeld Fighting Technique
February 19, 2004
Cecilie Surasky
Anti-Semitism
at the World Social Forum? That's Not What I Saw
Ray McGovern
Iraq
Hawks and Deceptive Intelligence: Did They Really Think They'd
Get Away With It?
Tariq Ali
How Far
Will Bush Go in Iraq?
Ralph Nader
Whither
the Nation?
Wayne Madsen
Would Kerry Purge the Neo-Cons?
Norman Solomon
The Collapse of Dean's Cyber-Bubble
Christopher Brauchli
Cheney, Halliburton and the NYT
Mike Whitney
Bush's Iraq Strategy: "I Hope They Kill Each Other"
Lewis Carroll
Bush the Mighty Helmsman from Yale
Website of the Day
Sex Toy Horoscope
February 18, 2004
William Wilgus
Bush:
AWOL and Dereliction of Duty
William Blum
Mush-Minded
Liberals
Dave Lindorff
Bush's China Syndrome
Greg Weiher
Why
is Kerry Getting a Pass?
Mike Griffin
Killing the Messenger: the AFL-CIO's Attack on Harry Kelber
Mark Hand
Kerry Tells Peace Movement to "Move On"
February 17, 2004
Mike Ferner
The
Countryside Murders in Iraq
Mokhiber / Weissman
Corporation
as Psychopath
Marjorie Cohn
DrakeGate:
a Victory for Free Speech
Kurt Nimmo
Bush's
Endgame: a Review of Chalmers Johnson's "Sorrows of Empire"
Greg Bates
Nader Ambush: a New Low for The
Nation
Ximena Ortiz
A Bush
Doctrine, of Sorts
Gary Leupp
Whatever Happened to Gen. Khazraji?
Sen. John Kerry
"The Cause of Israel is the Cause of America"
Steve Perry
Kerry
1, Drudge 0
February 16, 2004
James Johnston
Huddling
with the Cheeseheads in a NASCAR World
Sara Eltantawi
To
Wear the Hijab or Not
Bruce Anderson
Kevin
Cooper and the Midnight Needle
Elaine Cassel
Feds
on Campus: the Drake Subpoenas
Rahul Mahajan
Bush,
Is the Tide Finally Turning?
Kevin Cooper
The Ritual of Death
Stan Cox
Goodbye, Howard Dean
Larry David
My War
Steve Perry
Bush and the Guard: the Cover-Up's the Thing
Website of the Day
Prison Patriots: Help This Vital Film Get Made
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
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Weekend
Edition
February 28 / 29, 2004
Making "Piss
Christ" Seem Profound
Dances
with Crucifixes
By LEIILLA MATSUI
The carefully crafted controversy surrounding
actor Mel Gibson's much hyped directorial debut "The Passion
of the Christ" over its alleged anti-Semitic message (Jews
killed Christ, now they want to kill my movie) will likely succeed
in tempting millions of Americans to sit through a film with
subtitles for the first time in their lives. How they'll manage
to move their lips in the dark with Mars Bars and corn dogs stuffed
in their mouths is anyone's guess, which is probably why it's
never been tried before.
America's Christian majority have cause
to rejoice over Hollywood's temporary transformation into "Holywood".
Families can now safely venture into cineplexes without worrying
about what Pee-Wee Herman may have left on the seat. So much
for "secular excitement." Some might argue that a man
being impaled, flayed alive and left to bake in the desert could
hardly be categorized as wholesomely edifying entertainment,
unless of course you're Mel Gibson's dominatrix.
Like Kevin Costner and Clint Eastwood
before him, Gibson's "Dances with Crucifixes" looks
like yet another over-his-prime beefcake's foray into serious
filmmaking -- only this time the amateur auteur has his eye on
a bigger prize than an Oscar. If sainthood can be measured in
box-office receipts then Mel can trade in his hairpiece for a
hairshirt and let the beatification ceremonies begin.
Even before its release date, the controversy
has already forged an unholy alliance between the Evangelical
Christian right and conservative Catholics. Their combined spending
power guarantees Mel Gibson a healthy return on his initial $25
million investment through merchandising alone. Still, there's
even more reason to praise the Lord and the marketing geniuses
on his payroll: In two words, cross nails. What better accessory
for a film whose S/M themes make it this year's "Lord of
the Nipple Rings." For children not old enough to watch
an 'R' rated film, these pricey trinkets may very well make up
for the lost revenue - (just don't ask Junior which part of his
anatomy he plans to pierce with them).
Given the current political situation,
it's perhaps not surprising that Jesus is making headlines again,
or that "news" these days is being torn from the pages
of the New Testament. Irrelevant theological debate has always
flourished in a climate of war. What better way to detract scrutiny
from unbearable images of suffering than to put them up on the
big screen? The present administration, along with their corporate
handlers are manufacturing yet another faux crisis of faith,
dumbing down political discourse to the level of a pop-up bible
so that the unholy guardians of the Empire can go about their
more worldly business.
In the late 1980s, a similar controversy
erupted when artist Andres Serrano exhibited a "blasphemous"
series of photos depicting the crucifixion as seen through a
jar of the artist's own urine. Using the iconography of his Catholic
childhood, Serrano's work challenged the virulent homophobia
of America under Reagan. A dying man bearing the cross of his
unacceptable passions became an apt and powerful symbol of a
nation coming to grips with AIDS. Now, as the issue of a constitutional
amendment to ban gay marriages provides the impetus for a new
onslaught of homophobia, Gibson gives us a battered and muscly
defender of "family values," murdered by a howling
Jewish mob; a minority anti-Semites throughout the ages have
associated with decadent sexual practices and "tainted"
blood. In an age of war, non-artist provocateur Mel Gibson explores
the roots of his own blood lust in the character of Jesus simply
because he has enough money to play dress up in the desert.
For all its "bad taste," Serrano's
novelty shop crucifix floating in a jar of pee could hardly be
described as "kitsch" which may explain why Republicans
were so offended by it at the time. Perhaps the most subversive
element of "Piss Christ" was its rather melancholy
and conventional beauty. Gibson, on the other hand, adds an element
of high camp to his significantly bigger budget drama.
With oafish earnestness, Cecil B. De
"Mel" gives his film the "golden shower"
treatment, pouring on the melted butter lighting effects whenever
Christ's life is recalled in flashback, as if he has loaded his
camera with parchment. Gibson not only pisses on his Christ,
he ritually tortures him for the simple reason that his vision,
ultimately, is that of a failed artist. With the theatricality
of a novice kitsch meister, Gibson fills the void onscreen with
his own bombast. Arguably, it is the absence of imagination;
a falsely derived "passion," which drives Gibson's
Messianic ambitions.
It's this very theme that director/screenwriter
Menno Meyjes explores in his mostly-fictional and highly controversial
2002 film "Max" -- an account of Hitler's youthful
days as a struggling "artist" emerging from the trenches
of the first world war. The film's hero, Max Rothenberg, a Jewish
art dealer, mentors a greasy and sniveling little corporal; a
fellow veteran of the battlefield where Max has lost an arm.
The scrawny and bitter "artist" is star struck by his
own ambitions to achieve greatness and sets himself to the task
of realizing his goal of conquering the art world. With tragic
consequences, the cynical yet generous-hearted Max takes it upon
himself to channel Corporal Hitler's "passion" into
"art", hoping to divert his interest away from anti-Semitic
oratory -- the one "gift" Hitler has in spades.
Hitler, stumped by his own impotence
at the easel (and likely elsewhere), can do no more than churn
out faithful reproductions of architecture and landscapes with
a mechanically uninspired hand. Infuriated by his own shortcomings,
he finds a more accommodating and less demanding medium with
which to release his spittled up rage. Corporal Hitler impresses
the party's bosses with his substanceless, (the key factor of
kitsch) emotionally rousing beer hall speeches on the need for
"racial purity." Hitler's "talents" attract
one of his commanding officers who needs someone with strong
oratorical skills to stir the passions of Germany's demoralized
military. The budding National Socialist Party is looking to
fill the political vacuum left in the wake of the disastrous
signing of the treaty of Versailles and restore "dignity"
to the nation after its humiliating defeat.
Then, as now, a nation coming to terms
with the hubris of its disastrous leadership seeks comfort in
the ancient myths of biologically determined destiny -- a theme
which rings as familiar today as movie audiences line up for
each installment of "The Lord of the Rings" and now
"The Passion of the Christ" -- films which cast good
and evil in spectacular race-based terms.
At one point, Max tells his intriguingly
vile new companion, "You can be a modern artist, but you
have to pay the price, and that's honesty. Can you be that voluptuous
with yourself?" Unfortunately, Max isn't around to ask Mel
Gibson that very question. With the advantage of 20/20 hindsight,
he could have answered the question himself with a resounding
"no" and pulled the plug on this abominable "passion
play," averting yet another artistic and political disaster.
Leilla Matsui is
a freelance writer living in Tokyo, Japan. She can be reached
at: catcat@s3.ocv.ne.jp.
This article first appeared in Dissident
Voice.
Weekend
Edition Features for February 20 / 22, 2004
Cockburn / St. Clair
Kerry:
He's Peaking Already!
Derek Seidman
Chasing
Judith Miller from the Stage: Watch Her Run!
Ghada Karmi
Sharon is not the Problem
Vanessa Jones
This Week in Redfern, a Boy Dies, Chased by Cops
Ben Granby
Anatomy of a Night Raid on Balad, Iraq
John Holt
An Air That Kills: Greed, Apathy, Dead People
Saul Landau
Entry from a White House Diary
Tom Jackson
Why They Couldn't Wait to Invade Iraq
Frederick B. Hudson
Slave Power and the Constitution: Jefferson, Slaves, Haiti and
Hypocrisy
Roger Burbach
Argentina Fights Back
Kate Doyle
Lessons on Justice from Guatemala
Mike Whitney
Operation Enduring Misery: the Afghanistan Debacle
Greg Moses
What Gives Texas A&M the Right to Trample the Civil Rights
Act?
David Krieger
US Elections: an Opportunity to Debate Nuclear Weapons
Sam Bahour
Palestinian Issue Riddles Bush's Budget
David Grenier
You Could Get 10 Years in Prison Just for Reading This
Charles Sullivan
Corporatism vs. Single Party Politics
Poet's Basement
Hilda White, Larry Kearney & Stew Albert
Website of the Weekend
The Rumsfeld Fighting Technique
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