Blood, sweat and tears ... Gibson's The
Passion of the Christ. Photograph: Philippe
Antonello/AP
The launch of FoxFaith spells good news for that one-time oxymoron, the Evangelical moviegoer. No longer will these God-fearing Bible-readers have to choke down a diet of violence, fornication and dubious moral practices when they visit their local Mulitiplex. Instead, the new Hollywood division promises major motion pictures promoting "Christian values" and "religious themes", and resulting in "great family films that they can trust won't be offensive".
I sometimes wonder exactly what Good Book these easily-offended types have been reading all their lives. Presumably it bears no relation to the one that fairly spills over with acts of fratricide and adultery, child abuse and human sacrifice. Surely it has nothing to do with the one starring an Almighty who, at various stages, condones the slaughter of kids who laugh at bald people (2 Kings: 23-24) and demands that all the people of Jabesh-gilead be murdered except for the bodacious ladies (and obviously I'm paraphrasing here) who should be held down and raped (Judges 21). Because, if so, it's hard to imagine a text that contains more in the way of full-on sex and horror than the Bible - and that includes Friday the 13th and all of its sequels.
Don't get me wrong. There is nothing remiss with using the Bible as an artistic inspiration. After all, it worked for Michelangelo and Caravaggio, and also for that God-fearing homosexual reprobate Pasolini, whose stark, beautiful Gospel According to Matthew is probably the finest Jesus movie ever made. Alternatively, FoxFaith's much-vaunted "religious themes" can feed fascinatingly through to contemporary stories. I've often thought that Roman Polanski's Chinatown is a Biblical epic in all but name, despite being set in 1930s Los Angeles and starring Jack Nicholson as a profane PI with a bandage on his nose.
But is this the kind of rich, challenging work that FoxFaith will be providing? Early evidence suggests not. The first film they are releasing is entitled Love's Abiding Joy, is based on a book by "Christian novelist" Janette Oke and tells the tale of "an early American Godly family". The title alone is enough to bring me out in hives.
In this, as in so many other things, we can hold Mel Gibson to blame. The Passion of the Christ alerted the Hollywood money-men to a previously untapped demographic that they are now rushing to exploit. And yet for all its faults, Gibson's Passion had a certain bonkers integrity in its blood soaked, fundamentalist reading of the Gospels that I suspect FoxFaith will steer well clear of. In its place we should expect a glut of insipid morality tales and feelgood family dramas that bear as much relation to the real Bible as the actions of George Bush do to, say, the teachings of Jesus Christ. It strikes me that the difference here is between the concept of "Christian stories" and the promotion of "Christian values". The one can, and does, lead to great art. The other produces pap. Love's Abiding Joy isn't even released until November 25th and I'm offended by it already.
