[dude1394]

I guess you could call it the marketing of religion but you could just as easily call it a labor of love, telling a story that he felt deeply about. There was certainly no guarantee that a movie in aramaic without sub-titiles would be some sort of hit. I look at the Passion and Saving Private Ryan much in the same vein. Both movies were exquisite and I'm glad I experienced them, but I wouldn't necessarily want to see either of them again, too gripping and emotional to be classified as "entertainment".

I think this article is correct to a point, the movies and hollywood for many years promoted a culture of self-sacrifice, good versus evil and honor. Also many of the stars of that days exhibited that honor and self-sacrifice. Stewart, bogey. There are still some today that would have the same thoughts I imagine, Willis, Hanks, Pat Tillman. It's the glorification of the dishonorable and the revelling in the immorality that is disturbing to me and is not worthy of being so honored. Much like the drug-culture that was glorified by SNL in the early days.

I have much more of an issue with the targeting of our youth by television, advertisers, magazines than I do the movies. I had a lot more control over the movies than I did the main-stream media in my household. Of course we were able to turn the television off, but the free media is hard to control.

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What is strange to me however that an australian has become such a maker of movies glorifying the american ideal of honor, self-sacrifice, freedom and self-reliance. Gibson is a good one.