Hey Mel! You sayin' Herod's a Homo?

[PurityOfEssence]

To start with, please state first whether you've seen the movie or not.

I'll join in at length with the other threads on other issues, but in brief, I'd say that it isn't anti-semitic, but is deliberately homophobic in the Herod sequence. Herod--at best--is a sybaritic luxor, but there's a deliberate gay flavor to the character. (There's even a character named "Herod's Boy" in the end credits...)

Herod is portrayed as a self-indulgent and creepy creature of privilege living in a perpetual flesh party; his questioning of Jesus is even somewhat sexually charged. The whole thing is done, it seems, with a calculated deniability, and I think that's weaselly.

Beyond that, the movie is a travelogue for sadism, and offers nothing new or interesting about "why" this is happening. Admittedly an act of faith, it's unfortunately sullied by a truly bigoted moment like this and some other ones like the pecking out of an eyeball just after the guy heckles Jesus. There are many other annoying issues, some rooted in the faith itself, and some with the telling of this particular tale.

Anyone else get this? Anyone heard anything about this?

[Dookus]

1. It wouldn't be the first time

Mel has used homosexuality to indicate a character's evil.

[Moderator]

2. Locking

Rules to start discussion threads in the General Discussion forum

1. If you start a thread in the General Discussion forum, you must present your opinion in a manner that is not inflammatory, which respects differences in opinion, and which is likely to lead to respectful discussion rather than flaming. Some examples of things which should generally be avoided are: unnecessarily hot rhetoric, nicknames for prominent Democrats or their supporters, broad-brush statements about groups of people, single-sentence "drive-by" thread topics, etc.