THE JEWISH NEWS
THIS ISSUE 60(P
SERVING DETROIT'S JEWISH COMMUNITY
JULY 29, 1988 / 15 AV 5748
Movie Protests Claim Bias
Fundamentalists protest against The Last Temptation
of Christ.' They say the film will unleash anti-Semitism.
TOM TUGEND
Special to The Jewish News
Los Angeles — The scene was
pure street theater and although the
backdrop was Beverly Hills, the
undertones were those of a medieval
Passion play. On a corner of Sunset
Boulevard, lined with tall palm trees,
an actor named Ivan Klein, robed and
coiffured like Jesus Christ, had col-
lapsed under the weight of a full-sized
cross. Another actor, swinging a lash
and made up to resemble one of
Hollywood's most powerful Jewish ty-
coons, contemptuously placed a foot
on the back of the prostrate cross
bearer while blood dripped from his
hand smearing the robes of "Jesus."
The tycoon character wore a sign
around his neck which read "Wasser-
man Fans Anti-Semitism" while a
dozen other participants held
placards with such messages as
"Wasserman Endangers Israel."
Overhead, a light plane was pulling
a banner proclaiming "Wasserman
Fans Jew Hatred wrIbmptation'."
Across the street, a handful of Jewish
militants were heckling the
demonstrators, and half a dozen
television cameras were recording the
event for the evening news.
The little drama was played out a
few yards from the stately home of the
intended target, Lew Wasserman,
chairman of MCA, Inc., the parent
company of Universal Pictures.
Universal Pictures has announced
that this fall it plans to release the
movie "The Last Temptation of
Christ," based on the 1955 novel of
the same name by the late Greek
writer Nikos Kazantzakis (who also
wrote "Zorba, the Greek").
The announcement has been
greeted by a storm of protests by Pro-
testant evangelicals and fundamen-
talists, who claim that the film
blasphemes Jesus by portraying him
as a troubled and vacillating wimp.
Worse, they say, a dream sequence
shows Jesus making love to Mary
Magdalene and having children by
sisters Mary and Martha.
None of the fundamentalist critics
has actually seen the film, having
boycotted a preview screening for
Christian clergymen, but what they
have read in an early script for
"Temptation" has been enough to fuel
their fury.
"These Jewish producers with a
lot of money are taking a swipe at our
religion," charged the Rev. Robert L.
Hymers, a Baptist clergyman who led
the demonstration in front of Wasser-
man's home. (Another protest,
organized by a Christian radio sta-
tion, drew 800 pickets to Universal
Studios.)
America's best-known fundamen-
talist, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, describ-
ed "Temptation" as "probably the
most blatant blasphemy yet for
Hollywood!' He predicted that, if
released, the movie would "create a
wave of anti-Semitism" because many
Christians would blame Universal's
"Jewish leaders" for it.
What gives these attacks a sharp
anti-Semitic slant, rarely exposed to
the public since World War II, is that
the full focus of the fulminations has
been on the Jewish "moneymen" of
Universal, the company which financ-
Continued on Page 20
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