Easter Fare

cinema à la carte

Easter Cinema AUDIO BOOK Yesterday I watched Mel Gibson's The  Passion of the Christ on my iPad; the first time since seeing it at the cinema in 2004 (even though we've owned the DVD).  It is unparalleled film making, IMO.  Because of it, Gibson was targeted by Hollywood for neutering.  Upstairs, I learned, MoSup had been watching the movie version of Bill O'Reilly's book "Killing Jesus."  I Googled it up on the iPad, but of course Apple does not accept Flash, or whatever the hell format the civilized world use, but I found something better on YouTube.  The full 6 hour+ Audio Book read by O'Reilly.  Just finished the first two chapters, and what a treat.  In that time the book has covered an introductory birth of Jesus replete with a short political history of the area and then into a broader—and captivating—history of Caesar's Rome itself.  What an unexpected treat.  I've paused now (at 1:09), after the account of Casca shoving his shiv into Caesar's sack left me ... queasy. ASIDE: I can appreciate that Jews were fearful that The  Passion of the Christ might have the power to rekindle old hatreds.  It did not.  But the Sanhedrin, led by high priest Caiaphas, which demanded his crucification was the earlier equivalent of General  Pétain's lackey Vichy government under the Nazis.  Rome controlled the Temple, and who ran it.  Hell, they erected a statue of Caesar inside of the Temple!   Many  learned and pious Jews of the time reacted to this  abomination by forming splinter groups having nothing to do with that ilk.  Of course Jesus, his apostles, and most early converts were Jews.  As a Roman Catholic I have come to view the church as a Jewish sect, and myself a member.  For me, this is riveting history.