COMMENTARY | Film circles are abuzz with the news about Mel Gibson’s next film project. The director of “Braveheart” and “Apocalypto” is going to do another historical epic, this one about Judah Maccabee, the 2nd century B.C. hero who freed Judea from the Seleucid Empire.
What makes this project interesting and controversial is Gibson’s history. His “The Passion of the Christ” was accused of being antisemitic. In this writer’s opinion, this is a false charge. If anything, the Romans come off far worse than the Jews, who are depicted as having diverse opinions about the execution of Jesus.
In 2006, Gibson was involved in a drunk driving incident in which he offered the arresting police officers a virulent antisemitic rant that all but ruined his career. Gibson has undergone some therapy and appeared in a number of low-budget, low-performing films. The Judah Maccabee project is his first attempt at a big budget epic since the 2006 incident.
Joe Eszterhas, who at one time was one of the most successful screenwriters in Hollywood before taking a several years sabbatical from the film business, will write the script.
There is no doubt that in the right hands, the story of Judah would make an astonishing epic. Using guerrilla tactics, Maccabee faced down and defeated the hoplite armies of the Seleucid Empire, one of the successor states to the empire of Alexander the Great. The Jewish holiday Hanukkah is a commemoration of the liberation of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem and its restoration to Jewish worship. Maccabee eventually died in battle, but his successors finally won independence for the Jewish people. The war fought by Maccabee also featured the first contact Judea had with the Roman Republic, with which it signed a treaty of alliance.
Parallels between the Judah Macabbee project and “Braveheart” are obvious. Both involve a charismatic nationalist hero leading his people in a struggle against foreign tyranny. Both involved tragic endings but eventual triumph for the cause being fought for. The project also is a chance for Gibson to get a little redemption. If he can create an epic film about one of the great heroes of the Jewish people, Gibson will go a long way toward getting people to put the 2006 incident in the past. That makes an interesting back story in and of itself.
Source: Mel Gibson, Joe Eszterhas Team Up for Tale of Jewish Hero, John Nolte, Big Hollywood, Sept. 9, 2011