Rob Roy MacGregor
May 9th, 2004, 12:39 PM
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/174404p-151891c.html
Chanukah - by Mel Gibson
By DEREK ROSE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
He has portrayed the Crucifixion - now Mel Gibson has his sights set on the tale that led to Chanukah.
"The Passion of the Christ" director told WABC's Sean Hannity yesterday that he's planning a movie based on a Jewish rebellion nearly 200 years before the birth of Christ.
"The story that's always fired my imagination ... is the Book of Maccabees," Gibson said in the radio interview.
"It's about Antiochus, the king who set up his religion in the Temple, and forced them all to deny the true God and worship at his feet and worship false gods.
"The Maccabees family stood up, and they made war, they stuck by their guns, and they came out winning," he continued. "It's like a Western."
The revolt is said to have begun when a king's officer tried to force a priest named Mattathias to make a pagan sacrifice.
Mattathias killed the man instead, and he and his followers fled to the hills to wage a successful guerrilla war that eventually liberated Jerusalem in 165 B.C.
That victory led to the holiday of Chanukah, when a tiny amount of oil lasted eight days as the Maccabees purified the Temple in Jerusalem.
A story about heroic Jews might insulate Gibson from charges of anti-Semitism leveled by the movie's critics. But some Jews might not take kindly to Gibson, a conservative Catholic, interpreting their history.
Anti-Defamation League Executive Director Abe Foxman told the Orlando Sentinel recently that if Gibson dramatizes the rebellion, "we'll lose."
"He'll write his own history," Foxman said. "I would prefer to leave the fate of Jewish history and Hollywood to Steven Spielberg. The Maccabees ... are our sacred history."
Gibson, though, said the success of "The Passion" has silenced some of his loudest critics, and he repeated his view that the movie does not blame Jews for Christ's death.
Gibson talked politics as well as religion during the Hannity interview.
One of a small number of Hollywood conservatives, Gibson said he thinks "a lot of what" President Bush "does is good," but he has been "having my doubts of late.
"It's all to do with these weapons [of mass destruction] that we can't seem to find, and why did we go over there [to Iraq]."
The conservative talk-show host, a Bush supporter, quickly changed the subject.
Originally published on March 17, 2004
Chanukah - by Mel Gibson
By DEREK ROSE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
He has portrayed the Crucifixion - now Mel Gibson has his sights set on the tale that led to Chanukah.
"The Passion of the Christ" director told WABC's Sean Hannity yesterday that he's planning a movie based on a Jewish rebellion nearly 200 years before the birth of Christ.
"The story that's always fired my imagination ... is the Book of Maccabees," Gibson said in the radio interview.
"It's about Antiochus, the king who set up his religion in the Temple, and forced them all to deny the true God and worship at his feet and worship false gods.
"The Maccabees family stood up, and they made war, they stuck by their guns, and they came out winning," he continued. "It's like a Western."
The revolt is said to have begun when a king's officer tried to force a priest named Mattathias to make a pagan sacrifice.
Mattathias killed the man instead, and he and his followers fled to the hills to wage a successful guerrilla war that eventually liberated Jerusalem in 165 B.C.
That victory led to the holiday of Chanukah, when a tiny amount of oil lasted eight days as the Maccabees purified the Temple in Jerusalem.
A story about heroic Jews might insulate Gibson from charges of anti-Semitism leveled by the movie's critics. But some Jews might not take kindly to Gibson, a conservative Catholic, interpreting their history.
Anti-Defamation League Executive Director Abe Foxman told the Orlando Sentinel recently that if Gibson dramatizes the rebellion, "we'll lose."
"He'll write his own history," Foxman said. "I would prefer to leave the fate of Jewish history and Hollywood to Steven Spielberg. The Maccabees ... are our sacred history."
Gibson, though, said the success of "The Passion" has silenced some of his loudest critics, and he repeated his view that the movie does not blame Jews for Christ's death.
Gibson talked politics as well as religion during the Hannity interview.
One of a small number of Hollywood conservatives, Gibson said he thinks "a lot of what" President Bush "does is good," but he has been "having my doubts of late.
"It's all to do with these weapons [of mass destruction] that we can't seem to find, and why did we go over there [to Iraq]."
The conservative talk-show host, a Bush supporter, quickly changed the subject.
Originally published on March 17, 2004