Gibson's next movie?
The Franciscans have a petition up, asking Mel to do a movie on Francis of Assisi entitled "Man of the Passion" (see related Church History article). They ask:
We, the undersigned, ask you to apply your best efforts and resources to this worthy and needed project. While this story has been portrayed on the screen in the past; it has been done poorly. This powerful figure who shaped and changed the course of history has too often been reduced to a pious, peace-loving character cast in plaster. His spiritual zeal, ardent devotion, mystical insight, and heroic charity have been terribly distorted. These are the realities our society needs to learn and apply, not only for its spiritual edification, but perhaps for it's very survival.
I'd be happy to have a movie done on Francis. I do wonder, though, if modern Christianity has been looking to cinema too much as a means for cultural transformation. I liked The Passion and found it edifying, but there are many, many more things that have had a more powerful and lasting effect on me. It bothered me that so many Christians were looking at the movie as the precursor to the Third Great Awakening. I hope this isn't in the same vein of thought; it just seems like the easy way out, a quick and easy substitute to personal transformation.
May 1, 2004 10:49 AM