Judah Maccabee movie: Is Mel a hard sell?



Judah Maccabee (from Die Bibel in Bildern)

A movie about Judah Maccabee’s life seems like a

blockbuster in the making.  After all, Rabbi Shimon

Apisdorf depicts Judah as Arnold Schwartzenegger

with a yarmulka.

Wikipedia reports that Judah Maccabee (aka Judas

Maccabeus or Judah the Hammer) was a Kohen (a

direct priestly descendent of the biblical Aaron).  The

first-century Jewish historian, Josephus, tells us that

Judah was the son of Mattathias, a Hasmonean priest.  In 175 BCE, Mattathias and his five sons began a rebellion against the Seleucid ruler, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, due to Antiochus’ intense persecution of the Jews.  When Mattathias died in 166 BCE, his deathbed wish was for Judah to take his place as leader of this revolt.

Judah was more than willing to comply.  Because his relatively small group was up against the mighty

Seleucid army, Judah cleverly avoided direct battles.  Instead, he conducted a highly successful guerilla

warfare campaign.  This eventually led to the restoration of Jewish religious freedom, including Jewish control of the Jerusalem Temple (as commemorated by the Hanukkah story).  Judah Maccabee is therefore “acclaimed as one of the greatest warriors in Jewish history alongside Joshua, Gideon and David.”

What, then, is the problem with making a movie about this glorious history?  Judah’s story has certainly been

told time and time again.  He appears as a “hero of the true faith” in Dante’s Divine Comedy.  He is depicted as one of the “Nine Worthies” in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost.  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a five-act play about him.  Rubens painted him praying for the souls of slain Jewish warriors.

And then there’s Mel Gibson…  Gibson, who’s been known to sling some anti-Semitic arrows, is Warner

Brothers’ possible choice for directing the currently-planned movie about Judah Maccabee.  CNN quotes

Rabbi Marvin Hier as saying that this choice would be as ridiculous as “casting Bernie Madoff to be the head

of the Securities and Exchange Commission.”

Resources

http://www.cnn.com/2011/SHOWBIZ/celebrity.news.gossip/09/09/mel.gibson.jewish.film/

http://www.torah.org/features/holydays/judahmaccabee.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judas_Maccabeus

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Die_Bibel_in_Bildern

Copyright September 10, 2011 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved