Word: priestly
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...processional pace. H.B. Warner's Jesus is in the gaunt El Greco mode; the scenes are essentially brisk illustrations of the Gospels. Nearly all the dialogue and narrative intertitles are from the Gospels. The exceptions: a few that mitigate supposed Jewish guilt for Jesus' death. Magdalene: "The High Priest speaketh not for the people." And a Pharisee, at the end: "Lord God Jehovah, visit not Thy wrath on Thy people Israel - I alone am guilty...
...Passion here consumes about 45 minutes. Jesus undergoes a torrent of taunting from Pilate, Herod, Caiaphas and the mob. "We turn to Rome to sentence Nazareth, We have no law to put a man to death," the high priest beseeches Pilate. And the crowd hollers, "We need him crucified, It's all you have to do." Pilate accedes, singing to Jesus: "Don't let me stop your great self-destruction, Die if you want to, you misguided martyr." (Does that rhyme in Aramaic?) Except for Gibson's "Passion," this is the Jesus film that goes heaviest on the torture...
...cradle from the tangle of religious and secular politics, the movie pins most of the blame on the Romans, whose second in command tells his soldiers, "Be sure that it is technically the Jews who make the arrest, and that he is brought to the house of the high priest." That's Caiaphas, played by Colin Blakely (who a decade earlier was Jesus in Dennis Potter's TV play "Son of Man," accused by some BBC viewers of blasphemy...
...Gospels and the earlier Jesus movies, I needed a good laugh. But I got hardly a giggle from "JCVH," the first kungfu-lesbian-horror-Mexican-wrestling musical comedy. (Could there be a second?) The premise, from screenwriter Ian Driscoll, is piquant: Jesus H. Christ joins forces with a priest to rid Ottawa of a vampire coven. He's an activist Savior ("If I'm not back in five minutes, call the Pope") who kicks beaucoup d'ass. He's closer to a standard Mel Gibson hero than to the hero of the new Mel Gibson movie. But the comedy...
...course of the Front's relations with Aristide demonstrates the complex character of Haiti's leader. Chosen in a 1990 landslide as the first leader of Haiti freely elected by its citizens, the charismatic former priest was deposed soon after in a military coup and then restored to power in 1994 through a U.S.led armed intervention. Aristide quickly disappointed many of his supporters by behaving like an autocrat; he was accused of arming gangs like the Cannibals that attacked his opponents. After flawed parliamentary elections in 2000, donor countries began cutting off much needed aid. Under international pressure to rein...