A STUDY IN MEDIA TRANSPARENCY
From blog BEAUTIFUL ATROCITIES, reviews of The Passion up against reviews of Fahrenhate 9-11:A.O. Scott, New York Times:
F9/11: Mr. Moore's populist instincts have never been sharper...he is a credit to the republic.
Passion: Gibson has exploited the popular appetite for terror and gore for what he and his allies see as a higher end.
Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune:
F9/11: Received both the first prize and the longest continuous standing ovation in the history of the Cannes Film Festival and it wasn't because of some cliched French antipathy to America.
Passion: Lacks artistic and even spiritual balance.
William Arnold, Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
F9/11: A masterful job of ridiculing the personality, intellect and employment resumé of George W. Bush ... could well become the docu-equivalent of "The Passion of the Christ" and even affect the presidential election.
Passion: Despite Gibson's claim that he's finally telling "the true story," his movie strikes me as less faithful to the Gospels than the earlier Christ movies. Crammed full of scenes and dialogue and minor characters that he's completely made up.
Jami Bernard, NY Daily News:
F9/11: I was in tears after first seeing "Fahrenheit" at Cannes.
Passion: The most virulently anti-Semitic movie made since the German propaganda films of World War II.
Ty Burr, Boston Globe
F9/11: Should be seen because it takes off the gloves and wades into the fray, because it synthesizes the anti-Bush argument like no other work before it, and because it forces you to decide for yourself exactly where passion starts to warp point of view.
Passion: If you come seeking theological subtlety, let alone such modern inventions as psychological depth, you'll walk away battered and empty-handed
David Edelstein, Slate:
F9/11: After the screening, a friend railed that Moore was exploiting a mother's grief. I suggested that the scene made moral sense in the context of the director's universe, that the exploitation is justified if it saves the lives of other mothers' sons.
Passion: A two-hour-and-six-minute snuff movie—The Jesus Chainsaw Massacre—that thinks it's an act of faith.
[Note: Mr. Edelstein feels this quote misrepresents his review. You decide.]
David Elliott, San Diego Union Tribune:
F9/11: He spends time with a caring, patriotic woman reduced to near-ruin when her son is killed in Iraq. And shows how Iraqi mothers respond, too. Call that "demagogic," if you have an agenda in place of a conscience.
Passion: "Single-mindedness is all very well in cows or baboons," wrote Aldous Huxley, but "(for those) claiming to belong to the same species as Shakespeare, it is simply disgraceful."
Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle:
F9/11: (Moore) is an indispensable treasure, and his imperfections are part of the reason, because they mark him as real.
Passion: It's awful because everything he knows about storytelling has been swept aside by proselytizing zeal.
J.Hoberman, Village Voice:
F9/11: Let us not forget that Dana Carvey did more than anyone in America, save Ross Perot, to drive Bush père from the White House. There are sequences in Fahrenheit 9/11 so devastatingly on target as to inspire the thought that Moore might similarly help evict the son.
Passion: Sitting through the film's garishly staged suffering, one might well ponder the millions of people—victims of crusades, inquisitions, colonial conquests, the slave trade, political terror, and genocide—who have been tortured and killed in Christ's name.
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post:
F9/11: Moore exercises admirable forbearance ... his finest artistic moment.
Passion: Gibson has exhibited a startling lack of concern for historical context.
beautifulatrocities: Read the rest...
