‘Temptation’: Some Resist, Others Yawn

Dozens of protesters marched, chanted and prayed at the AMC Fashion Valley 4 Theatre on Friday, drawn in opposition to the San Diego opening of the movie, “The Last Temptation of Christ.”

Muriel Goodman, a retired social worker who saw the first sold-out showing of the day at 12:30 p.m., said everyone should save his energy and money.

“It’s ridiculous,” she said of the film, which has drawn fire from Christian fundamentalists for depicting Jesus as a mortal who, slowly and with much reluctance, accepts his appointment as messiah.

Arguably, the most controversial moment of the film shows Christ dying on the cross and having a dream in which he consummates his marriage to the prostitute Mary Magdalene.

“Disney does better fairy tales,” Goodman said.

‘It Was Boring’

“It was boring ,” said Kelly Kayarian, an investor who accompanied Goodman to the movie. “I couldn’t get past the Brooklyn accents.”

Goodman, who is Jewish, and Kayarian, who is Catholic, echoed the views of many leaving the theater in saying that protesters, in loud, collective howls, are giving the film a box-office score it doesn’t deserve.

“If they would let it rest on its own merits,” Goodman said, “it would wither and go away. We came mainly because of the buildup. Now, we’re sorry we did. If most of these protesters would go see it, they’d all have a good nap.”

The movie, directed by Martin Scorsese, opened to packed houses in selected cities in the United States and Canada a week ago, averaging more than $40,000 in gross revenues per theater. (The film “Die Hard,” starring Bruce Willis, is, by comparison, grossing $30,000 per theater.)

Local opposition began mounting Wednesday when the Los Angeles-based AMC chain announced it would show the film on two screens in the Fashion Valley “four-plex.” No other theater in the county is showing “Last Temptation.”

Security Beefed Up

Airport-style metal detectors, checking for guns and knives and manned by a beefed-up security detail, scanned each of the 300 patrons who saw the film at six screenings on Friday.

Robin Beltran, general manager of the Fashion Valley theater, said the first two showings sold out and all showings throughout the day were expected to sell out.

Beltran called the protests “peaceful” and “actually, kind of fun,” as they helped to “break the monotony” of what usually goes on at a theater. By late afternoon, she estimated the number of protesters at 100.

Friday evening, protesters hurled water balloons at patrons entering the theater, according to an employee at a nearby pizza restaurant. The employee, who did not want to be identified, said the protest had grown throughout the evening hours.

“What a zoo!” was the comment of one of the teen-age workers behind the concession counter as the first wave of patrons poured in shortly after noon.

Beltran said that AMC had chosen not to debut the movie in its Santee six-plex, as opposed to Fashion Valley, because of the “Bible Belt” nature of Santee. She said a private security detail, staffed by eight men, was working throughout the day with two San Diego police officers.

One man approached Beltran’s ticket window about noon, asking for a ticket to the 6 p.m. show. He was informed that advance tickets would not be sold. He wasn’t the only one who flashed a little anger on Friday.

More Protesters After Sunday?

Don Schock, 41, describes himself as a reformed drug dealer who is now the pastor of Calvary Chapel in Chula Vista. Schock said his church had obtained a permit from police to protest the film for the balance of its local run.

“They caught us off-guard,” he said. “They kind of sneaked it in quietly. We’ll have a lot more people out here after everybody’s Sunday’s sermon.”

Schock said fundamentalists “resent the fact that AMC even brought the movie into San Diego. And we’re gonna let ‘em know. We asked the management not to bring it in, but they didn’t listen. We’ll show them.”

Schock said he is a born-again Christian who has no intention of viewing the film. He blamed the media, and not the protest, for hyping the film.

“I’ve read in the papers what the film is about,” Schock said. “I’ve talked to clergy who we appointed to see it. They think it’s shameful. I don’t need to see it to be able to criticize it.”

Debra Caudle, 32, an El Cajon housewife and mother of three, said that she is a Baptist and that the film “misrepresents my Lord” and ought to be banned. She said, in this case, “our country’s biblical heritage” should take precedence over free speech and concerns about censorship.

“The movie is blasphemous and shouldn’t have been made,” said Caudle, who was passing out watercolor portraits of Jesus. “The movies should get back to being like they used to be.”

Asked what she objected to in the film--which she hasn’t seen--Caudle said, “It shows Jesus having sexual intercourse with all these women, and Jesus wasn’t even a sinner.”

People leaving the movie pointed out that sex scenes in the movie were limited to one, which lasts less than a minute--”A matter of seconds,” one man said. Caudle was passing out a flyer headlined: “A sampling of scenes and quotes from the script.”

The flyer claims that Jesus says to Mary Magdalene: “Now I know, a woman is God’s greatest work. And I worship you. God sleeps between your legs.”

Several patrons said that such lines never appear in the film; they were excised from an earlier draft of the screenplay by Scorsese.

Part of the circus atmosphere of Friday’s event involved protesters pitted against protesters.

Ayatollah Look-Alike

John Hamilton, 46, a “rare coin dealer” from La Jolla, came to the theater dressed as the Ayatollah Khomeini.

“This idiocy is a reminder of how fragile our civil liberties really are,” Hamilton said. “There are always those who are trying to restrict our freedoms. I’m dressed as the Ayatollah because he’s as good a symbol as any of repression and intolerance.”

Bartholomew Brewer was there, billing himself as a former priest. He carried pickets protesting the picket-carrying Catholics, who walked in a circle, chanting, “Hail, Mary, full of grace,” over and over. Brewer said he is the head of Mission to Catholics, International, “a biblically controversial ministry.”

“Roman Catholic theology is based on the same superstitious, Medieval nonsense as this movie,” Brewer said. “Look at these silly Catholics doing these repetitive prayers. It’s stupid. I haven’t seen the movie, but I don’t need to, to know that it’s foul. You don’t have to have cancer to know that cancer can hurt you.”

Although his effort was more anti-Catholic than anti-movie, Brewer was not alone in wielding a picket as the visible form of protest.

“Christ’s Second Crucifixion!” read one. “The Greatest Show Ever to Be Distorted,” read another. Others noted, “Jesus Is Sold Again,” “Don’t Let the Devil Rape Your Mind” and “The Last Sensation of Christ: Father, Forgive Them, for They Know Not What They Do.”

Helping Hand

One woman, dressed elaborately in a black, rhinestone-studded sweat shirt, wrote feverishly on placard after angry placard. A man approached, asking meekly to carry a sign.

“Can you come up with something in your head that we can print?” she said.

He pulled out a pen and began to write, slowly, “Why Do the Heathen Rage and People Imagine a Vain Thing?”

The woman quickly handed him a thick pen.

“Write over it with this,” she said. “It has a wider tip.”

Those coming out of the first two showings were clearly divided over the merits of the movie. James Aronovsky, a photographer who lives in La Jolla, said he is Jewish but nonetheless appreciative of the movie, which he found “moving and uplifting.”

“I could see where Christians wavering in their faith could see this and come out feeling rejuvenated,” he said. “For the first time, I was able to understand and even appreciate New Testament theology.”

A few feet away, Jerry Barnard, a local TV evangelist, led people in prayer while television news cameras recorded the scene. Barnard discounted the prospect of a non-Christian being “saved” by seeing the film. He said fundamentalists “probably are boosting the film at the box office” by denouncing it so strongly.”

“Nevertheless,” he said, “we must continue to protest. It’s what God would want us to do.