Gibson Movie Will Stun You

From the moment this anti-Semitism came up, I said, “Why are these people talking about this? Just ignore it.” They’re making it much bigger than it needs to be. And then I thought, well, maybe they need to fund-raise, maybe they need to continually alert people that this kind of thing is going on out there. And Gibson is going on Diane Sawyer and he goes on, he’s a suspect, he’s automatically guilty and he’s got to defend himself against these charges. And I wonder how many of these people who are putting him under the microscope and under the interrogation lights have read the gospels themselves and understand what this is. Folks, forget all this anti-Semitism stuff. When you watch this, you’re going to be numbed. You’re not going to come out of there angry, raging, you’re going to be numbed. You are going to be so in yourself on this. They’re trying to create something that’s not going to happen. Now, admittedly, the movie is now going to open on 4,000 screens instead of 2500. His dad is one of these off-the-wall guys, and they got his dad out there talking, but that’s just going to hype it up even more as to the movie. But it really is unfortunate.
The Bible is something you can choose to believe or not. But it’s not one of these things that if you don’t like what’s in it, it’s got to be changed, for crying out loud, it is what it is. There have been people that told Gibson you’ve got to change this, you’ve got to change this, you’ve got to take that line out, and he did. He did take a line out. To appease them he took a line out. There’s a line in there, “your blood is on our hands and our families and our children.” He took that out. It’s in the Bible. It is what it is. Two plus two is four. There are just some people here that don’t like absolutes, but you don’t have to believe the Bible. I’m going to tell you something else, folks. The one thing that this ex-priest complained about Martians not understanding the movie, there may be a point that he’s got, and that is, if you aren’t familiar with the story, this is going to have no meaning to you, and you’re going to think, what is that, why am I watching this? Well, they might make them curious to find out on their own, but the visuals, the mind-numbing effect of the violence and the graphic nature of the violence in this movie is such that to people who don’t know the story, they’re going to be saying why am I watching, what’s the point here, what is this? Who is this? I mean, I know everybody’s heard of Jesus and everybody’s heard of the crucifixion supposedly, but the things leading up to it.

Look, I can tell by watching the news. There’s millions of Americans that have no clue about this story. And those who go watch this simply out of curiosity to see what the hubbub is about are going to walk out of there in a fog, they’re going to walk out of there not knowing, why did this happen, what’s the point of doing, this I mean anybody could show a lot of blood, this is no big deal, you’re going to hear that, but you’re going to see people walk out of there doubled over in pain. You’re going to see people walking out of there uncontrollably crying, but you’re not going to have anybody walking out of there filled with hate. Because that’s not what it’s about. It’s a story about love. That’s the whole point. And we had a bunch of people with us. You would not believe the tears. I mean, when it was over, there had to be five minutes of silence. Nobody said a word. Nobody sprung up and said, ‘Well, that’s it, I’m seething.” It doesn’t have that effect on people. And yet there’s people trying gin that up.

Now, I’ve told this story. I’ve had two or three reporters, one from CNN, and I watched them do a feature that had absolutely – now, they weren’t interviewing me for it. Don’t get me wrong, they weren’t interviewing, I was not part of the story, but the agenda that is behind this. Gibson had to know it’s going to happen. He’s a big boy. I’m not trying to defend him. I’m just telling you the effect that it had on me and the people who saw it with me. It’s not a big epic; it’s not got grand vistas, there are no razzmatazz special effects, even though they weren’t in, there are going to be some special effects. There always have to be, but there are no lasers and that sort of stuff, the stuff that defines great movies today, all the computer graphics, zilch, zero, nada, folks. I mean it’s just what it is. That’s why another thing, or reason I think it stands out.

COMMERCIAL BREAK

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, we just had what we call a drive-by caller, a caller calls with a question, comment, but can’t stay on line to discuss it. And the call was relayed to me, is this movie appropriate for 12 or 13-year-old kids? Now, my knee-jerk reaction was no. But I’ve been thinking about this. This is a toughie. This is a real, real toughie. I mean, if this were just any old average Hollywood movie, there is no way a 12 or 13-year-old should see this. But I think that’s a question that parents are going to have to decide, and it’s based on what teachings they are imparting to their kids about Christ and Christianity now, if they are of age.

I can tell you that throughout my whole life, as a Christian, I never once imagined the crucifixion to be this way. It’s been sanitized, because actually what happened is not the point of it, it’s why it happened and what followed that is the point, but to see it this way, it’s going to be a toughie. I wouldn’t know what to tell you. I really would not know what to tell you to do with your 12 or 13 – because I can make a case that, yeah, depending.

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