Kathy Heilbronner, assistant director of the Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations, rightly foretold that Jews and Christians would be seeing two completely different movies in Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ.”
Her prediction was confirmed in conversations The Chronicle had with some random Christian moviegoers at a showing Sunday afternoon at the North Shore Cinema and with some members of the Jewish community who have seen the controversial film.
That the film is at least a short-term hit is undeniable. The specific theater at the North Shore Cinema multiplex in which the film is playing holds 275 people, and it was sold out for three afternoon showings and likely to sell out that evening, according to one of the theater’s workers.
And there is no doubt that the film, which depicts the crucifixion of Jesus, is a moving experience for many Christians. This reporter saw many people wiping away tears as they left the previous showing and during the showing he attended.
Afterward, Anne Trindal, a Catholic who attended with her daughter Maria, 18, acknowledged that the film was “a lot more violent than I thought” it would be; but the overall experience of the movie “confirms my faith.” Maria agreed.
Sandra Reedus, a Pentecostal, said she thought the film is “a true [rendition] of what I read in the Bible,” and that it is not anti-Semitic. “The Jews didn’t kill Jesus. He came to die for all of us,” she said.
Her grandson, Steve Reedus, 26 and a Southern Baptist, said, “I thought it was a very powerful movie. It is good and also pretty disturbing.” He also said, “I don’t hold anything against Jews” as a result of what he saw.
Karin and William Barnes, who described themselves as “non-denominational” Christians, said the film made real what Jesus suffered. It only takes “five minutes” to read the Christian Bible’s accounts of the crucifixion, said Karin, and the film “emphasizes the length of time and the amount of suffering” that Jesus endured.
“We don’t realize the brutality of that time,” William added. He further said that while he watched the film he did not have the sense that “the Jews” were responsible for Jesus’ suffering.
Through Jewish eyes
But area Jews saw something completely different. Bob Peterman, a financial consultant, is a member of the Catholic-Jewish Conference and saw the film at a special screening before the Feb. 25 opening.
“The brutality is beyond imagination,” he said in a telephone interview. “It’s without question that the Jews were put in the most negative of lights.” And he believes the film “will ignite anti-Semitism domestically and in some foreign countries.”
Lisa Goldstein, director of Lifelong Learning at Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun, attended the same screening as Peterman, and “I’ve never seen a film that was so painful to watch,” she said.
“My greatest concerns are that both Christians and Jews who are not knowledgeable about the [Gospel] text itself and of the historical accuracies will take this to be true,” she said. “And in fact I’m hearing that from my own children and these kinds of conversations are happening in school.”
Milwaukee artist and Jewish activist Barbara Kohl-Spiro was asked to see a special screening of the film with a group of five Jews and five Christians put together by Milwaukee TV Channel 6. The group then discussed the film for about an hour, of which about two minutes were televised on Feb. 25, she said.
“I found the movie a torture to watch,” Kohl-Spiro said. “I found it sadistic and most offensive in its depicting of the Jews…. I thought [Gibson] has done serious damage to all the work done” in interfaith relations.
Moreover, “I felt so apart from my Christian brethren because they were so moved by the movie and it was so meaningful to them,” Kohl-Spiro continued. “For me, it was such a source of anger.”
The one good that may come of the movie is “that it has initiated dialogue between Jews and Christians,” said Peterman. “It also will require Jews to become more knowledgeable and have an understanding” of Christianity.
Yet there are limits to what can be accomplished here, said Goldstein. “We can understand intellectually the [idea of the] redemptive value of Jesus’ suffering, but we can’t understand it in our kishkes the way Christians do,” she said. “As much as we want to try to see through each other’s eyes, we can’t, not really.”
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