← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Happy Hacker
Thread ID: 10492 | Posts: 3 | Started: 2003-10-14
2003-10-14 23:47 | User Profile
[URL=http://www.lutherthemovie.com/]Luther the Movie[/URL]
Catholic civil rights leader says director Eric Till espouses anti-Catholic views
RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer Friday, September 19, 2003
(10-11) 12:05 PDT NEW YORK (AP) --
The Catholic League on Friday accused Eric Till of holding anti-Semitic beliefs based on the actor's response to criticism of his upcoming movie depicting Luther's role in the Reformation. A number of Catholic groups are blasting the movie Luther for promoting anti-Catholic bigotry. The president of the Catholic league says Till holds anti-Catholic beliefs based on his response to concerns that his movie misrepresents and demonizes Catholics.
The President of the Catholic League, Brent Bozell, has not called Till anti-Catholic but says "entertains views that can only be described as anti-Catholic." .
The spokesman for the movie has not returned calls for a comment.
Many Protestants who have attended the movie say it's the most powerful depiction they have seen of Luther's Reformation. But, Bozell says that portrayal of Catholics in the events leading to the Reformation will promote anti-Catholicism.
Till commented "Modern secular Catholicism wants to blame Protestantism for troubles in the Catholic Church. That is a lie and it's revisionism."
Bozell said the comment was more evidence that the director believed in Catholic conspiracies. "That's classic anti-Catholicism."
Until now, he has directed his criticism mainly toward the movie, while accusing Till of being "insensitive." However, Bozell said that his view of the actor changed after reading an article about the debate with Till in the New Yorker Magazine.
Till, who is Protestant, has repeatedly denied that his movie maligns Catholics. A senior Protestant official said this week that criticism of the film appeared unfounded since it was based directly on historical accounts of the Reformation.
Till is still looking for someone to release his movie. Meanwhile Catholic groups are demanding that the movie be changed to be more accurate historically.
Actually, the above quote is fictitious. It's a modified version of what's found on the front page of the ADL website of against Gibson's Passion. However, I could not any article about Luther on the Catholic League's website. And, of course, there's no big storm over Luther. And, there was no problem finding someone to release the movie. However, I would expect Catholic's to object to some of the portrayals of Catholics in the movie. However Catholics and Protestants are accustomed to Christian-bashing movies. Maybe the Jews are just throwing a fit because they're not accustomed to such things. Afterall, they control Hollywood, how dare Gibson use their vehicle for unapproved stories.
Luther has been in theaters since Sep 26, 2003, I haven't seen any media attention to it.
2003-10-15 03:01 | User Profile
I saw the film and I didn't find anything really that anti-Catholic about it. Many times throughout the film Luther states that his original intention was not to attack the Church but attack the corruption in the church. And there certainly was corruption in the church and many low-ranking priests and monks protested.
I just found that the movie never mentions the fact that Luther was anti-semitic, that was probally the most PC thing in the movie.
2003-10-15 05:35 | User Profile
I want to see it. I have to wait till the 30th till it comes out here.