“The Passion of Christ,”<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> Mel Gibson’s take on the
\nlast 12 hours of Jesus Christ’s life, to be released nationwide later this month. It purports to be an
\naccurate historical depiction, complete with bloody whippings, nine-inch nails, subtitled Aramaic
\ndialogue and, let’s not forget, the actual soundtrack (dolorous music, portentous drums) that
\naccompanied the torture and crucifixion.
“This isn’t just violence for violence’s sake,”
\nRon Luce, president of the Christian youth group Teen Mania, tells The New York Times. “This
\nis what really happened, what it would have been like to have been there in person to see Jesus
\ncrucified.” Luce must have been listening closely to Gibson, who has himself said: “This film will
\nshow the passion of Jesus Christ just the way it happened.” <\/P>
\nI guess if you say it enough times and cue the mood music that makes it true. (<\/FONT><\/A>Nah<\/FONT><\/EM><\/STRONG><\/A><\/FONT>,
\n<\/FONT>see the comments.)<\/P>
\nExhibit Two: “The Guilty Men,”<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> a documentary about
\nthe assassination of John F. Kennedy, which was shown last November on the History Channel. It
\npurports to give evidence that Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was part of a conspiracy to have
\nJFK killed. <\/P>
\nBased largely on “Blood, Money and
\nPower,”<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> a book by Barr Mcclellan (coincidentally the father of White
\nHouse Press Secretary Scott McClelland and Food and Drug Administration chief Mark S.
\nMcClellan), it alleges that LBJ ordered the assassination of JFK to halt an investigation into his
\ndealings with a fellow Texan, the fabled con man Billy Sol Estes, as well as the imminent
\ndisclosure of allegations that he, LBJ, had been involved in a murder.<\/P>
\n
\n“Simply stated, LBJ killed JFK,”<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> McClellan
\nsaid in the documentary, repeating what he’d written. What’s more, according to McClellan, the
\nnight before the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination, <\nB>the final decision to kill Kennedy<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A>
\nwas made at a party at the home of Clint Murchison, a Dallas businessman and owner of the
\nDallas Cowboys, where LBJ discussed the plot with Richard Nixon and J. Edgar Hoover.<\/P>
\nUh-huh.<\/P>
\n
Postscript:<\/STRONG> Now here at least is a movie you can
\ndepend on<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> for historical accuracy. Love
\nthe soundtrack.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Exhibit One: “The Passion of Christ,” Mel Gibson’s take on the last 12 hours of Jesus Christ’s life, to be released nationwide later this month. It purports to be an accurate historical depiction, complete with bloody whippings, nine-inch nails, subtitled Aramaic dialogue and, let’s not forget, the actual soundtrack (dolorous music, portentous drums) that accompanied […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-513","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-8h","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}