baracine

First, it was Jim Caviezel hit by lightning, now this. Is God trying to tell Mel something?

http://money.cnn.com/2004/08/25/news..._locusts.reut/

Locusts swarm in 'Passion' town

The southern Italian village where Mel Gibson filmed "The Passion" endures Biblical wave of insects.
August 25, 2004: 12:21 PM EDT


ROME (Reuters) - It seemed like an invasion of Biblical proportions in the Italian town of Matera, the outdoor setting for Mel Gibson's film "The Passion of The Christ."


Millions of locusts swarmed into the ancient stone city, scaring tourists off outdoor patios, and evoking some playful comparisons to Old Testament plagues.

The town Gibson used to depict Christ's final hours was still shuddering about the bugs on Tuesday, even though the worst seemed to be over.

I'd never seen anything like it," said Rosalia Guira Longo, who runs the Albergo Italia, where Gibson stayed while shooting the controversial film. "At night, the ground was carpeted by locusts ... they were huge," she told Reuters.

Matera, in the southern Basilicata region, is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site for its preserved ancient cave and stone dwellings.

Locusts are not uncommon in southern Italy.

Google search: "Mel Gibson" + locusts

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&ie...+locusts&meta=

Coral

Publicity stunt.

Rivero

Please tell me you're joking.

movielib

Industrial Light and Magic.

baracine

[sarcasm]Mr. Gibson, a staunch Catholic conservative who believes the only way to salvation is the conventional, vaginal way, did take the precaution to have his set "sprayed for gays", as he puts it, before shooting began, but obviously not for other forms of plague.[/sarcasm]

Cusm

So not really the set, since filming ended a couple a years ago, more of the town it was filmed in. So with the '92 LA riots you would say Riots erupt on Malcom X set?

baracine

The difference is that the inhabitants of that Italian village were hoping to cash in big time on Mr. Gibson's little opus with some sort of "Passion Land" tourist boom (see this story: http://businessawards.telegraph.co.u...6/ixworld.html ).

Besides which you chose a really, really bad (good?) example: Spike Lee is not exactly renowned for his efforts at compassion, tolerance and understanding either (you know what ahm sayin', bro?*). So you could say, as a general rule, that what goes around, comes around.

*E.g.: Conveniently forgetting to mention in his biography that, oh, by the way and by all accounts, Malcolm X was gunned down by Black hitmen working for a Black religious organization that is still very active, prominent and respected in the Black community today.

Matthew Chmiel

Groucho

Once again you're criticizing a movie you haven't seen. The film makes it clear that X was assassinated by the Nation of Islam (although it also implies government ties to the assassination as well).

PopcornTreeCt

I doubt it was actually that man locusts, they're pretty much making a big deal out of a small swarm.

Joe Molotov

So...where's the story?

baracine

I saw the film. And the "implications" far outweigh any attempt at "clarity", as usual in a Spike Lee joint. And I do believe that, at least on a poetic level, such sins of innuendo, omission and half-truth do bring on calamities like unjustified riots.

And the world is still awaiting the Nation of Islam's "backlash" about Spike Lee's film with bated breath... Any decade now...

Anyway, my work is done here. I wanted to gently poke fun at Mel Gibson's film and I succeeded in proving that the Gibsonites don't have a single holy relic of a funny bone between them. Much like the Tarantinites in that respect (or should I say the Tarantulas?).

Final irony... This "prophetic" quote from the University of South Carolina's dailygamecock.com of last January, on the "Passion" controversy:

Filling seats, at least during the first weekend, shouldn't be a problem, because this is one religious film that's getting more buzz than a plague of locusts.
http://www.dailygamecock.com/news/20...n-592982.shtml

baracine

Locusts plague home of Gibson's Christ
By Bruce Johnston in Rome
(Filed: 26/08/2004)

The humble town of Matera in southern Italy had been hoping for a tourist boom after Mel Gibson made his film The Passion of Christ there. Instead it has been hit by a biblical plague of locusts.

Tours were organised to take visitors around the town, show them Gibson's hotel suite, allow them to sample his favourite pasta and inspect his evening haunts. But the millions of locusts have driven the tourists away and are doing untold damage to crops. The town's economy has suffered so badly that businessmen are calling for a state of emergency.

The northern wine producing areas of Monferrato and Asti have been hit by two local varieties of locusts, which flourished during last year's heatwave.

But south-eastern Italy, including Puglia, a popular holiday destination for Britons, has suffered most, plagued by locusts up to 5in long from north Africa.

Nicolo Catucci, of Modugno, near Bari, wrote to his local paper: "We have been assailed by locusts. My wife was on the table screaming, my daughter was awake all night and, although I was armed to the teeth, I was helpless."

A woman from Palo del Colle said: "My son and his friends go out with tennis racquets to hunt locusts. They kill many but they never seem to end."

Filipo Buzzetti, of Padua University, said it was too late to do much this year. The only course was to spray fields to kill eggs and prevent a recurrence next year.

Source: http://businessawards.telegraph.co....26/ixworld.html