I love me a good movie. I love Jesus too, but the two don't really go hand-in-hand. So you could imagine how far my jaw dropped when I found out that The Nativity Story, New Line Cinema's depiction of the birth of Jesus Christ, was premiered at The Vatican last sunday. The 7,000 in attendance witnessed history as the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church sponsored the event, it's first ever movie premiere.
Now, there is just something wrong about the world's most powerful religious organization endorsing a movie, in particular, one that comes from a studio that produced such films as The Texas Chainsaw Masacre and The Wedding Crashers. Ever since Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, Hollywood has been jumping on the religious bandwagon - simply put, because there be gold in dem' mines. Yet, what I can't understand, is how naive The Vatican is. Do they not realize how they are now a puppet for the Hollywood machine? True, the movie will undoubtedly stir up a religious fever and may draw viewers of the film into Catholic Churches, but the chances of the movie really saving a soul or even getting a patron to drop a dollar in the collection cup seems far reached. I do have to give it up to the marketing team over at New Line, however - because with this endorsement, they pretty much paid for the $65 million it took to give birth to baby Jesus on the silver screen.
I suppose it's only a matter of time before The Vatican puts out it's own movies and Pope Benedict XVI is up for an Oscar - all dolled up in Armani
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