The "Jesus" Actor Just Happened to Call-in to LIMBOsevic

[UTUSN]

This is getting out of hand. There's Mel everywhere, with his associate O'REILLY, claiming that Mel is being martyred, so (as another thread sez) the dude's now "Saint Mel".

Last night on LENO, GIBSON claimed this James CAWIESEL actor dude was just the only one to play Jesus, that he had both an "innocence" plus the masculinity that a carpenter like Jesus must have had, that GIBSON saw this in him in The Thin Red Line.

Today, the actor called in to LIMBOsevic, talking in a "holy" voice, monotone, insistent...just... "holy". Since LIMBO claims he never does interviews, I was wondering whether this actor dude was going to make some kind of wingnut declaration. Well, they stuck to a celebrity interview format, but why did this dude just happen to call-in?

So, get ready for the holiness: The dude said that it was a part he couldn't turn down when GIBSON approached him, who was 33 years old and has the initials "J.C.," that he underwent this incredibile, horrendous, and intense suffering (dislocated shoulder, struck by lightning, hypothermia in a loin cloth, 30 knot winds on the cross) but had to do it. He just stopped short of saying he did it FOR US.

Somebody a few days ago was aggressively posting that GIBSON has a right to make JUST A MOVIE. I don't dispute this at all. But these dudes, GIBSON and the WIESAL actor dude, are going around claiming to be holy. I agree with the poster who had a thread saying this is a PROPAGANDA movie. And it's not the blasphemy of these dudes that is offensive so much as the arrogance, the overweening pride.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Just for reference

Jesus was not a carpenter in the sense of a house builder, but probably more likely to have been a woodworker..maker of chairs and doorways, etc. (Apparently this was not a great job. Something families who had lost their land wound up doing?)

But man, this hype is just getting out of hand with this movie.

Hope Michael Moore's 911 flick and "The Corporation" get even half as much attention.

[yolatengo]

11. did he build crosses?

I remember reading in a scifi novel about 20 yrs ago the suggestion
that Young Jesus and his dad (Joseph) were carpenters. Also suggested
that they farmed out their labor to the local Roman Constabulary in
the form of making 'quality crosses' for them for a little extra income
(small business go getters that they were). I had to chuckle at the
absurd irony of that.

I thought it was clever. You don't read much about Jesus' early days
living in his parent's basement, skipping school to hang out with his
friends, hotwiring donkey's to go for joyrides in Jerusalem at night,
drinking wine underage, trying to get out of workin' for his dad,
going fishin' (for apostles) down by the old watering hole, playing
D&D, etc.

:evilgrin:

Bigby

[GreenPartyVoter]

14. Yeah, I just learned the woodworkers bit last night

while reading "Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time".

And as you point out, there's very little historical record of what Jesus was like as a child/teen.

(Personally, I have no interest in trying to hotwire a donkey. Sounds dangerous to me! *lol*)

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. If God had a sense of humor...

...old nekkid pictures of Cawiesel would surface which were taken back in the days he was a starving actor.

[BR_Parkway]

4. On a sacrilegious note, I did see a picture of the actor

and thought "he's sorta hot" then realized who he was. It's amazing what can give you a flashback of a nun telling you you are going to hell }(

[UTUSN]

12. Uh...You Nailed It? (I'm Not Good at This.) n/t

[alittlelark]

3. Maybe when he got struck by lightning during filming

He really did - it damaged some of his brain cells

[tridim]

8. I heard that he was struck twice

But now I think it's all BS. It's becoming clear that everything about this movie is propoganda. There's something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear.

[orwell]

15. Satan!

Maybe he was struck by lightning because he is possessed by...(Chruchlady intonation invoked)...SATAN.

SkyGod is angry. Where are the royalties for the screenplay...

O

[MidwestMomma]

38. I'm starting to think it's all BS too

Just wanted to agree...

[StClone]

5. Can we Talk JC

That's Jim Cawiesel.

The Devil Limbo cross examines Jesus's portrayer JC. I listened for about one minute. Rush loves to get all high and holier than thou as a self-absorbed, smasher of the unfortunate, divorced, rich man and unrepentant druggy he has gall. Freepers and Dittomonkeys never see the irony...never.

[maggrwaggr]

6. Hm, wonder what Mel slipped into his coffee

while they were filming.

Seriously, he's probably just acting, being a media whore like everybody else. He probably has profit participation and stands to make a gazillion dollars the more fundies go to see this movie

[slappypan]

7. Did anyone see "The Count of Monte Christo"?

Cavieziel is lovely to look at but boy did he stink up that movie.

[LeahMira]

9. They are trying...

... to make as much money out of this film as they can.

Don't be fooled just because of the "holy" theme. This is a for-profit enterprise all the way. The film, about the twenty-fifth "life of Christ" that's been produced over recent time, differs from the rest only in the really sharp marketing strategy... sort of like the "Harry Potter" for Christians.

[regnaD kciN]

27. I'm not so sure...

...while they certainly are trying to make money (after all, Mel dropped some $25-$50 millon of his own cash into this), I think you have to see this as the work of a rather zealous "true believer"...just like Battlefield Earth. (Sorry, couldn't resist!)

But it actually does differ from all of the other films produced on the subject -- it's the only one that basically jettisons Jesus's life, ministry, and teachings in favor of the sole event of his execution. I maintain that it is as it is because Mel is a devotee of an extreme form of Anselmian atonement theology, which essentially makes Jesus "God's punching bag" so that the Father could work off his anger at humanity. (Sorry to sound so flip, but that really is a fair summation of it.) According to the older films, the entire life of Jesus was important; in Gibson's mind, only his death as a "blood sacrifice" matters.

:crazy:

[formernaderite]

33. I think you've made an excellent comparison...

...too bad there just weren't enough scientologist whackos to have gone out and seen Battlefield and made it a hit. Nah, on second thought, I'm always glad there are not more relgious nuts of any stripe.

Went to the movies with my youngest daughter last night....NO, not to see the Passion. However, it seemed like we were surrounded by the kooks who were. Either everyone who sees this movie is a holy roller, or they become that way in the movie line.

[havocmom]

10. Lightening strikes? Somebody trying to tell him he was overplaying role?

Visions of that little cluster of airplanes carrying RW honchos that go hit a while back... Are they all suffering delusions or is some higher power trying to slap some sense into them?

[UTUSN]

13. Jeb Crow Shrub's Plane Has Been Hit at Least Once n/t

[Mick Knox]

16. LOL

He just stopped short of saying he did it FOR US.

LOL.. I didnt hear it.. I steer clear of listening to rw dopey dopes .. but thanks for the laugh.. good review.

He's apparently letting it go to his head.. I read somewhere people were falling down before him..

amazing.

[Rich Hunt]

17. I guess

Gibson is the 'fifth evangelist' now.

[MoonAndSun]

18. James Cavaziel is just an actor trying to continue the media hype

of his movie so that more people will go see it and his name will get famous and he will be picked for more acting jobs.

No more, no less. He is just promoting himself as any actor would. I did not listen in to his interview with pigboy, but at least that is what I would do if I was the lead actor in a movie that everyone is talking about.

What is the old line? "Any publicity is good publicity."

[callous taoboy]

19. Oh

:puke:

[RBHam]

20. Jesus was a dark skinned Semite.

He would have looked more like Osama bin Laden than the European actor portraying him in the film.

It amazes me that hardly anyone mentions this when discussing the movie.

[11cents]

21. Still standard ops for Jesus movies

Even Scorcese's Last Temptation cast a Nordic-looking actor as Jesus and a Jew as ... Judas.

[bleedingheart]

22. but that would mean all the nativity sets they sell would have to

be recalled...

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

23. I apologize in the name of all JCs in the world who are not loons.

Now bow before me, mortals.

[TacticalPeek]

24. I caught a little of this, but was mostly bored.

Cawiesel said he wasn't sorry he took the role, but that he wouldn't do it again.

In addition to the physical insults mentioned above, he told about when he was getting lashed. A couple of times the guy lashing him missed the protective board on his back and took off some flesh, a 14 inch strip one time. Wonder if the lasher was a member of the Teamsters? Those takes weren't used in the flick, but he said they were in the out-takes.

The little bit I heard gave me the impression he might not have been totally happy having to talk to Mr. Anal Cyst, like the promo guy was standing behind him with the whip. But, hey, that's show biz.

Actually, the caller before was really good. His beef was outsourcing, said he was behind on his bills and getting telecollector harrassed for a dun from JC Penny's, which he guessed was still an American company. But he asked the collector where they were calling from, and of course it was India. He tried to get Flush to see the irony of unemployed/underemployed people behind on their bills getting hit up by collectors in India, whose jobs used to belong to the out-of-work Americans.

Flush just passed by it like a drug ship in the night, and went on about retrain, relocate, blahblah. What a dope.

[UTUSN]

25. Kick for Question

Q #1: Why did this actor-dude call LIMBOsevic instead of THE HUNDREDS OF OTHER PLACES HE COULD CALL?????

[harrison]

26. Well, if it matters, I have a friend who has been an archeologist

in Israel for about 25 years. Based on his team's research, they believe the following about Jesus:

That Jesus wasn't a carpenter, but probably a stone mason, which would have made him a pretty "built" guy.

The average height of a Jewish male back then was about 5 feet two inches, so Jesus wasn't that tall.

He had short hair.

He was probably the first born in the family, and if the Wedding at Cana is taken as historical, then his father had probably died because Jesus was somewhat in charge of the wedding, and it was probably a sister that was getting married, since the bride's family was supposed to supply the wine and the party favors. Mary came to Jesus and asked him to take care of the wine problem which would have been the role of the first born son, stepping in for a dead father.

He was probably married, and chances are that he was around 40 when he died.

Furthermore, his ministry probably didn't last three years, but just a few short months. The Romans wouldn't have allowed him to assemble large crowds over a three year period of time without shutting him down.

In the Garden of Gethsemane where he was betrayed by Judas, and the disciples were asleep, the disciples were more than likely passed out from drinking during the Passover meal.

And he cleasned the Temple because the religious leaders were making money off the poor, and it pissed off Jesus, because the poor were unable to worship God without it costing them an arm and leg. The poor had Roman money which they had to exchange with the money lenders in order to buy the perfect sacrifice.

Finally, the crucifixion of Jesus would have been no big deal. So many Jews were put to death, it would have been just another day for most of the city dwellers who were accustomed to seeing Jews being executed.

Anyway, that's a thumbnail sketch of Jesus from my friend.

[Johnyawl]

40. They erred on a couple of points...

...Furthermore, his ministry probably didn't last three years, but just a few short months. The Romans wouldn't have allowed him to assemble large crowds over a three year period of time without shutting him down

According to the Gospels the better part of his three year ministry was spent wandering around in obscurity, collecting a handful of devotees. The Romans would have had little interest in some cult preacher wandering around the back-roads of Galilee, hanging out with fishermen and prostitutes. The large crowds didn't show up until the last few months of his ministry, which of course brought him to the Romans attention, and got him shut down.


I'm unsure how a team archaeologists could:

-determine a persons vocation.
-determine whether or not an individual was married
-determine his age at the time of his death(since neither his bones nor a record of his birth exist.)
-assign motives for a particular activity (the incident with the moneylenders), since the scriptures assign an entirely different motive to that action.

The other conclusions your friend comes to can be arrived at by studying the culture of the time, and I think they're probably right.

[MattBaggins]

28. That my I am now calling him Meli Gibsonstahl

Propaganda at its finest

[scottxyz]

29. How Would Jesus Look? (very funny letter to WaPo)

How Would Jesus Look?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13823-2004Feb27.html

Mr. Gibson stressed the "authenticity and realism" of his film, and yet he has perpetuated the ethnocentric portrayal of an Anglo-Saxon Jesus.

...

How would the audience have received a Jesus who, nowadays, would be singled out for a security check prior to boarding an airplane?

[Catherine Vincent]

30. This actor also played a killer in a previous movie.

[Spirochete]

32. High Crimes

with Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman, right?

[Catherine Vincent]

31. James Patrick Caviezel the actor in "The Passion of the Christ"

In the movie "High Crimes" with Ashley Judd, it says on the IMDB.com website that he didn't want to do any love scenes in bed with his on-screen wife because of his strict Catholic upbringing and yet in that same movie he is the actual killer of innocent people in Nicaragua and almost succeeded in killing his wife (but she killed him first) at the end of the movie.

In other words, he doesn't mind playing a killer but didn't want to play a husband pretending to make love to his wife? That does'nt make sense to me.

[UTUSN]

34. What IS It With These Dudes?

What does "strict Catholic upbringing" have to do with being an ACTOR?

What does it have to do with being a Supreme Court JUSTICE (SCALIA?).

It's like, after hundreds of years of intellectual progress, we have gone to sleep and are in a theocrat nightmare--------fundamentalism of all stripes and name-brands.

[kskiska]

37. I remember when Vanessa Redgrave was castigated

for playing a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp because she supported Palestinian causes. Isn't that what being an actor is all about?

She also played a man, later transsexual, Dr. Renee Richards, the tennis player.

[minkyboodle]

41. I hate Pigboy

as much as the next guy and this martyr for Mel stuff is ridiculous... but James was fantastic in one of my favorite movies, The Thin Red Line.. That stuff about the love scenes is a bit strange though...
Scott

[Sideways]

42. This guy looks as dumb as a dirt taco. There is NOTHING in those eyes.

Strictly GQ or Maxim or whatever the fuck the male Comso is these days. Seriously folks the eyes are the window to the soul and this dude looks as vapid and vacuous as Pamela Anderson. I'd bet my ugliest and oldest red shoes that even THEY have more intelligence than he does.

Some might find him hot, I find him BORING.

YMMV but I think Gibson is a hack and he has a few issues of his own. Make that many issues.

[kskiska]

35. To this day, Charleton Heston is regarded as God

after playing Moses in DeMille's Ten Commandments. Maybe this guy hopes for the same, though it didn't work for Jeffrey Hunter or any of the other blue-eyed blonde wonders.

I just saw a bio of Gibson on CNN this morning. Gibson isn't Australian. He lived in Upstate New York till he was 12 when his father won $25,000 on Jeopardy and moved the family to Australia to avoid having his kids drafted for Vietnam.

[UTUSN]

36. Won on Jeopardy? Wow. They Really *Have* Been Chosen n/t

[Johnyawl]

39. I always think of Charleston Heston as Long John Silver

A mean, vicious, greedy killer, who would cut his mothers throat for a handful of dubloons. Putting a republican in that role seemed like typecasting to me.

And that was the best "Treasure Island" ever made.