The Dartmouth Observer |
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Commentary on politics, history, culture, and literature by two Dartmouth graduates and their buddies
WHO WE ARE Chien Wen Kung graduated from Dartmouth College in 2004 and majored in History and English. He is currently a civil servant in Singapore. Someday, he hopes to pursue a PhD in History. John Stevenson graduated from Dartmouth College in 2005 with a BA in Government and War and Peace Studies. He is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago. He hopes to pursue a career in teaching and research. Kwame A. Holmes did not graduate from Dartmouth. However, after graduating from Florida A+M University in 2003, he began a doctorate in history at the University of Illinois--Urbana Champaign. Having moved to Chicago to write a dissertation on Black-Gay-Urban life in Washington D.C., he attached himself to the leg of John Stevenson and is thrilled to sporadically blog on the Dartmouth Observer. Feel free to email him comments, criticisms, spelling/grammar suggestions. BLOGS/WEBSITES WE READ The American Scene Arts & Letters Daily Agenda Gap Stephen Bainbridge Jack Balkin Becker and Posner Belgravia Dispatch Black Prof The Corner Demosthenes Daniel Drezner Five Rupees Free Dartmouth Galley Slaves Instapundit Mickey Kaus The Little Green Blog Left2Right Joe Malchow Josh Marshall OxBlog Bradford Plumer Political Theory Daily Info Andrew Samwick Right Reason Andrew Seal Andrew Sullivan Supreme Court Blog Tapped Tech Central Station UChicago Law Faculty Blog Volokh Conspiracy Washington Monthly Winds of Change Matthew Yglesias ARCHIVES BOOKS WE'RE READING CW's Books John's Books STUFF Site Feed    |
Saturday, February 28, 2004
The Passion It was one of the most uniquely powerful movies that I as an atheist have seen. Now I was moved on many occasions in the Lord of the Rings movies, but not in a way that I was for the two hours of The Passion; I can only imagine what religious people would feel. Yes, it was violent. But unlike Andrew Sullivan, who considers it "pure pornography," I did not see the violence as sensational or gratuitous. Watch Kill Bill if you want pornographic violence. Also, Sullivan doesn't note that the flayings and the beatings are juxtaposed with flashbacks from the Last Supper and earlier episodes in Jesus's life. I didn't find the movie anti-Semitic, and neither did my Jewish friend who watched it with me and who thought it was anti-Semitic before he did so. Who's to blame for Jesus's death? It's not just the Jews. While Caiphas and his followers are of course culpable, so too is Pilate, whose indifference and spinelessness in the face of said mob I found deeply disturbing. Speaking of mobs, what about the brutality of the Roman soldiers? |