I blogged yesterday (below) about an essay by Spencer Warren about the classical understanding of how to portray violence in visual art. Mel Gibson’s The Passion prompted me to remember Warren’s essay. Well, it turns out that yesterday the Claremont Institute posted this review by Spencer Warren of The Passion. The bottom line--Warren thinks highly of the movie, but also thinks Gibson overdid it with the violence.
I'll take "Apocalypto" myself.
The notion that a film must reinforce preexisting political or religious beliefs in order to be worth seeing is absurd. A film studio is not a church or a political party any more than vice versa. Don't expect one to do the other's job. Call it the division of labor.