{"id":131,"date":"2006-01-31T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-01-31T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/2006\/01\/what-passion-effect.html"},"modified":"2006-01-31T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-01-31T12:00:00","slug":"what-passion-effect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/01\/what-passion-effect.html","title":{"rendered":"What “Passion” Effect?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Remember how \u201cThe Passion of the Christ\u201d was supposed to be a wet smack in the face<\/a> for those jaded sybarites of Hollywood\/Babylon? How church basements, not focus groups, would be the new proving ground for America\u2019s blockbusters? After the success of Mel Gibson\u2019s thanato-pic, the theory went, the suits on Melrose would finally get it, and they’d greenlight a host of imitators, full of spiritual intensity and religious relevance.<\/p>\n

If today\u2019s Oscar nominations<\/a> are any measure, it\u2019s clear that Hollywood still doesn\u2019t get it. If Mel were handing out the awards instead of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences–call them the \u201cMels\u201d instead of the Oscars–which of the current crop of nominees would win big? \u201cBrokeback Mountain,\u201d in which two cowboys get it on in the heart of Red America? \u201cCapote,\u201d in which an effete New York writer seduces a murderer to tell him his tale in ghastly detail, and then roots for the dead man walking to hang for the sake of book sales? Spielberg\u2019s ambivalent take on the events of Munich in 1972?<\/p>\n

The Oscar nominations, of course, may not be an adequate measure. \u201cThe Passion,\u201d after all, didn\u2019t get a nomination either. But if Gibson\u2019s film has a legacy at all, we\u2019re still waiting for it to show up somewhere in Hollywood. Even the one spiritual film of the year, \u201cThe Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,\u201d neither sought<\/a> nor got prior approval from the evangelical Christian community that Gibson rallied before going wide with \u201cTPOTC.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remember how \u201cThe Passion of the Christ\u201d was supposed to be a wet smack in the face for those jaded sybarites of Hollywood\/Babylon? How church basements, not focus groups, would be the new proving ground for America\u2019s blockbusters? After the success of Mel Gibson\u2019s thanato-pic, the theory went, the suits on Melrose would finally get…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":275,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat "Passion" Effect?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/01\/what-passion-effect.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What "Passion" Effect?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Remember how \u201cThe Passion of the Christ\u201d was supposed to be a wet smack in the face for those jaded sybarites of Hollywood\/Babylon? 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