Mel Gibson Challenges Church of Scientology
"The Passion of the Christ" marked Mel Gibson's bloodiest commentary on religion, but it wasn't his first.
In 2000, Icon Productions, Gibson's production company, made "Bless the Child," a staunchly pro-Christian movie replete with anti-Scientology references.
Gibson's challenge to the Church of Scientology is the subject of an investigation in the current issue of Citizen Culture Magazine, the new magazine that has been called "A New Yorker for a New Generation." (
www.citizenculture.com)
The article, entitled "Scientology's Night at the Movies," was written by editor-in-chief Jonathon Scott Feit, based on earlier research published in the Journal of Media and Religion.
Feit writes that "Bless the Child" "resembles so closely the reality of events and perceptions surrounding the Church of Scientology that it seems to have been written, in everything but name, as an expose of Scientology's seedy internal operations."
"Bless the Child," which was co-produced by Paramount Pictures and starred Kim Basinger, Jimmy Smits, Rufus Sewell and child prodigy Holliston Coleman, performed less successfully at the box office than "The Passion" (re-released in March as "The Passion Recut"), which highlighted Gibson's fundamentalist Christian views.
Feit writes that, "Scientology is either Hollywood's latest 'dirty word' or its Holy Grail, depending on who is being asked. In the 21st century, to denounce it publicly or shun it is to risk being blacklisted as were celebrities and filmmakers suspected of being Communism-friendly in the 1950s.
"Gibson's professional proximity, and perhaps friendship, to his colleagues of high grandeur [including noted Scientologists John Travolta, Tom Cruise and others], not to mention the Hollywood political game, may explain the film's cryptic bludgeoning rather than outright deprecation of Scientology."
In "Bless the Child," "The New Dawn," a fictionalized religion that borrows Scientology's symbols and rhetoric, is ultimately defeated by Catholic believers. The film differs significantly from the novel of the same name, which emphasizes the power of faith as a hopeful force, but does not side with any particular religion.
I'll get to them eventually!
