How much did the critical meltdowns by the usual suspects over 300 fuel its success this past weekend? Probably not a huge amount, but still. As Allahpundit wrote last week in response to Slate's Dana Stevens, "I wasn’t going to go, but now that she’s turned it into a blue state/red state thing, I sort of feel obliged. Good work, Dana".

Stevens' over-the-top criticism (with yet another Godwin's Law violation, which seems inevitable for film critics these days) was astonishingly reminiscent of similar hair-pulling freakouts when The Passion debuted three years ago. Both immediately made their respective movie the film to see, if only to understand what all of the fuss was about.

But compare the leftwing critics' reactions to the American Christian right, who have been assaulted by four decades worth of Hollywood movies challenging their sensibilities.

Eventually, they finally learned their lesson with Hollywood and the media. Here's Michael Medved in 2006 on Brokeback Mountain, in USA Today:

The publicity blitz surrounding Oscar front-runner Brokeback Mountain not only challenged stereotypes about gay relationships, it simultaneously cleared away persistent misunderstandings about the nation's Christian conservatives.

Instead of reacting with outraged calls for censorship or condemnation, the much-reviled minions of the so-called religious right have mostly ignored the movie, allowing it to collect every sort of honor with shockingly scant controversy. While derided by prominent liberals as “the Taliban wing of the Republican Party,” conservative Christian leaders have displayed a new sense of security and confidence, in dramatic contrast to the paranoid Muslim mobs that riot across the globe over a dozen disrespectful Danish cartoons.

This doesn't mean that cultural traditionalists in the USA have abandoned their principles and suddenly embraced the much-discussed “gay cowboy movie”: People who revere biblical strictures against same-sex relationships can scarcely commend a film that provides a lyrical celebration of a homosexual affair that wrecks two marriages.

Nevertheless, the publicists and activists involved in promoting Brokeback Mountain seem almost disappointed that religious conservatives have expressed so little indignation. No major organizations called for a boycott of the film, or threatened its producers, or made any serious attempt to interfere with those who might enjoy this artfully-crafted motion picture (it has become a modest commercial success). In the heartland of Evangelical America, Brokeback has generated more ho-hums than howls of protest (or hosannas).

Or as Mark Steyn wrote in his 2006 National Review cover story on politicized Hollywood's box office woes and Oscar snoozefests:

The more artful leftie websites have taken to complaining that the religious right deliberately killed Brokeback at the box-office by declining to get mad about it.

Will film critics learn a similar lesson about films that challenge their own religious beliefs and understand that collectively blowing a gasket over these movies merely helps to fuel their box office returns?