WASHINGTON -- Now that The Passion of the Christ has
been released, I have made my decision. I shall not see it. My
reasoning, I suppose, will be seen as shallow, but I shall stick to
my guns. I am not seeing the movie because it clearly abounds with
blood and gore, two staples of Hollywood that I abhor. Not only are
they revolting, but they are leading ingredients in Hollywood's
chief by-product, fantasy. Practically every film that comes out of
Hollywood produces fantasy. I incline toward reality.
As for blood and gore, any time I have witnessed the real thing
the real thing is never so dazzling, colorful, and dramatic as
Hollywood depicts it. Moreover, real blood and gore never take
place in slow motion. The real thing is slam bam and off to the
hospital or the morgue. I recall seeing mortar fire from a faraway
hillside hitting buildings in Bosnia. It all happened so fast I
never had a chance to calculate quite what was taking place, let
alone savor the scene. Hollywood's dramatic portrayal of blood and
gore is another example of one of my most dearly held prejudices,
to wit, the camera falsifies. Devotees of the camera will tell you
the camera produces accurate depictions of reality. I believe the
opposite. A camera in the hands of a Hollywood cameraman rarely
replicates reality and almost always produces fantasy.
For the real Christ I shall content myself with a reading of the
Gospels. And so on to the week's other fantasies, specifically the
ongoing presidential candidacy of Senator John Pierre Kerry, the
very French-looking frontrunner in the Democratic presidential
race. When I heard that he was being accused of having had an
affair with a young woman, I thought to myself, "How very French."
And when I heard Howard Kurtz on his CNN media show say that the
story was part of the Limbaugh-Hannity conservative smear machine,
I went back to the early stories and discovered that they
originated not from conservative sources but from people around
Gen. Wesley Clark. Kurtz's panel of experts also said there was no
substantial evidence of an affair having taken place. Apparently
they had forgotten that at least one British newspaper quoted the
alleged inamorata's father saying Kerry had pursued his daughter in
some vague but troubling way. The father called Kerry a "sleaze
ball." Later the father said he would vote for Kerry, but the man's
early aspersion is difficult to explain away.
Well, whether or not Senator Kerry had a François
Mitterrand-like relationship with a cutie, he still seems very
Gallic to me. Now it turns out he has a cousin who is mayor of a
small French town. Mon Dieu, how French is that? Oh, and
by the way, did I hear that he served in Vietnam?
James Taranto, the wit who edits Opinion Journal.com, has been
having a grand old time teasing Senator Kerry about his
chest-beating boasts of service in Vietnam. This past week reports
have begun to surface that the senator's boasts might be highly
exaggerated. It appears he only served four more months in Vietnam
than the 90 percent of the men of his generation who did not serve
there at all. Some critics are dredging up evidence that the
senator's decorations were more the consequence of his political
skills than his military heroics. Actually I doubt these critics.
Thus far Kerry's demonstrated political skills do not appear to be
that good. If he continues to drone on about the he-man he was
three decades ago, he may achieve the hitherto unthinkable effect
of rendering combat service laughable.
As this campaign runs on, it is becoming increasingly apparent
that the junior senator from Massachusetts is something of a cad.
That he allowed and at times seemed to encourage talk that
President George W. Bush, an F-102 pilot in the Texas National
Guard, had three decades ago been AWOL and a "deserter" was
shameful. His treatment of his opponents has been graceless. His
lapses into artless circumlocutions and dissembling suggest an
essential meanness in the man.
Kerry talks about wanting to keep the presidential debate on a
high plane, addressing issues rather than personalities, but he is
forever lapsing into boasts about himself and belittlement of his
opponents. Having reviewed his life and all its unlovely
manipulations, I suggest he stick to the high plan as best he can.
It is only a matter of time before wags suggest to him that he
could close the federal budget deficit that so alarms him by
marrying yet another rich wife.
topics:
Federal Budget, Hollywood, Military, NATO
