MAybe he could start with the United Wild Pack Of Niggers College Fund…
My mother was in love with Charlton Heston most of her life, then later in life she learned he was a right-wing, conservative gun nut and that love faded fast. That does not compare with the major nosedive my once crush took. Now what do I do with that giant Braveheart poster? sigh
I dont know if members of the Supreme Court go to movies all that often.
I doubt it will affect his career adversely at all, in fact it’s possible it may give it a boost. Nothing so true as the old Hollywood adage, there’s no such thing as bad publicity.
As some of us have pointed out, Gibson didn’t recover from that incident. That happened in 2006 and he didn’t appear in another movie until 2010. And that was Edge of Darkness, which did poorly in the box office.
I don’t think that had much to do with the anti-semitism incident though, he stopped starring in films in 2002, he just has one supporting roll and a couple cameos between Signs and Edge of Darkness.
But Apocalypto, which came out just a few months after he accused the Jews for all the worlds problems did very well, and while he didn’t act in that movie, it was obviously promoted by advertising the fact that it was a “Mel Gibson movie”. The title on the movie poster is “Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto” and his name is bigger and more prominent then anyone elses.
I think he weathered his drunken anti-jew rant without too much lasting damage, or at least, he would have if he’d managed to keep from being recorded making racist slurs and justifying punching women.
It’s all up to Mel. He has some inner demons to confront that are due to his upbringing, and these are compounded by alcohol problems. If he goes public with his problems, and asks forgiveness, he will receive it. Sincerity is unnecessary, simply the appearance of it.
Additional background: Mel was born in a Verplanck NY, which was a racially segregated community. His father didn’t find it racially pure enough, along with other complaints about the incredibly liberal environment of the 1950’s in the US, so he packed up his family and went to Australia. By all accounts, his father maintained his intolerance and Mel was probably raised under that influence. He has had continuing problems with alcohol, and his vile rantings only seem to emerge when he has been drinking.
Personally, I’m guessing that Mel does not hold bigoted views on an intellectual level, but hasn’t been able to resolve his upbringing interally. The drinking lowers his inhibitions and he then speaks from an emotional level, probably trying to vent frustrations that have nothing to do with topics he’s speaking of. That’s all just amateur psychology speculation though. Maybe he’s just a jerk.
But as you noted, Apocalypto was already in production. The investors had no option except to market it.
But where did Gibson’s career go after the incident? Who wanted to invest in him? He wasn’t offered any acting jobs. He wasn’t offered any directing jobs. The only work he did for three years was producing a couple of TV shows
While there is def. some truth to what you are saying (obviously Mel’s racial views were largely shaped by his Nazi-apologist father) when a 50 year old man says that “Jews are responsible for all of the war in the world” that sounds to me like a fairly well thought out (intellectual level) kind of statement to me.
Michael Richards’ (who I know nothing about other than he is the most overrated comic character actor in history) rant seemed more of a one time meltdown/freekout, probably without much intellectual backing behind it.
Mel Gibson is (IMHO) a dyed-in-the-wool racist and anti-semite, and just because he was raised that way dosen’t mean he gets a pass for life on it.
Well, the film was financed by Gibson’s own company, so its not really surprising they didn’t bail on the film. But my point wasn’t that the investors marketed it, my point was that they marketed it successfully under Gibson’s name. Anti-semite or not, people were still willing to go see a Mel Gibson movie.
He started filming Edge of Darkness in '08. So there was really only a year and a half hiatus between Apocalypto and when he started work on a new movie. I’m sure some of that was wanting to keep a low profile after the “incident”, but as I said earlier, he appeared to be on a fairly long hiatus from acting that went back to 2002 (and he apparently had…umm…a lot going on at home during the past few years. Divorcing wives and impregnating and beating up girlfriends probably takes a lot out of a guy). In anycase, at worst, his drunken tirade cost him a year of working. I think the longterm damage wouldve been minimal if he hadn’t had this more recent spat of assholishness.
People that wanted to make three to one on their investment (what Apocalypto made) and were willing to over-look an antisemetic rant or two to do it. I doubt such people are particularly hard to find, especially when you’re the owner of your own production company.
He’s filmed two movies since then, so people apparently started calling his agent within a year of the incident.
I’m not saying he got off scott free for his previous misbehavior, it might’ve cost Apocalypto some at the box-office and who knows, maybe he would’ve been cast for a big part in 2007 but the relevant director got scared off by his damaged reputation, but within two years he’d show he could still draw crowds and was slated to act in more movies then he’d been in in the four or five years previous to '06.
I was just thinking that some people might interpret that statement as “Jews control Hollywood.”
And the hits just keep coming…
Death Threats? Admission of Violence? Latest Mel Gibson Rant Hits Web
Others have mentioned him, so I suggest Mel Gibson and Michael Richards do a buddy movie.
The press would eat it up.
Until I heard this most recent tape, I would have said that Mel still had a chance, if only as a director. Now I’m not as certain.
What’s really disturbing to me is some of the shit I’m reading online in response to these rants. People are all over the net implying that because Oksana (using her first name because I cannot begin to spell her last) has a varied sexual history (apparently) Gibson’s “anger” is justified. All sorts of slime is being written about her and her “sluttiness”. So it’s ok to abuse (at the very very least, verbally) a woman as long as she’s a slut? Maybe people will be willing to overlook this, and that’s just a little frightening.
On a lighter note, I was able to use “Sorry, I was wandering the streets dressed provocatively and was raped by a pack of wild niggers” last night as an excuse for running a few minutes late. Hilarity ensued.
I liked this quote myself:
Maybe I’ll use that line next time I have an argument with my wife.
I’m not giving him a pass myself, but I’m sure most people would if he goes through obligatory steps of apologizing tearfully, rehab for alcohol, and performing some public service. I think he’s responsible for his actions, whatever the cause, and he clearly hasn’t attempted to deal with these problems.
I suppose if he shows a sincere enough effort to reform, I would accept it in time, but I’d consider the intentions of any Hollywood figure to be suspect anyway.
By ‘intellectually’, I just meant to say that he understands rationally that Jews are responsible for all the war in the world, but he must still ‘feel’ it somewhere to have such statements come out. I’m sure he’s echoing things he’s heard before, and for all I know, joins up with equally vile people to espouse these views in a what he considers a friendly environment.
The Michael Richards case is an interesting comparison. I think he’s having to deal with being highly overrated, with no real future as a comic/actor, so he probably would have lashed out at anybody, saying anything at the time. He’s probably truly sorry and regretful for his actions, while Mel probably still brushes it off as something he did while drunk, and doesn’t consider it a real problem (except with those nasty Jews and other people not white enough to suit him).
I never cared for Gibson even way back when I first became aware of him, probably around Lethal Weapon. Just rubbed me the wrong way somehow. Now (drunken anti Jews rant to present) all this stuff coming out is confirming my initial feeling.
That said…Apocalypto was awesome!
I don’t think anyone seriously denies they have a disproportionate influence!
Really? That just sounds like basic knee-jerk hatism to me.
For something to be any kind of thought out, it must have either a. empirical evidence, or b. a coherent underlying philosophy, to me.
You could tell me that religions are responsible for all of the war in the world, or that Jews have some trait that makes them the best violinists and metal musicians, and I will listen. Maybe.
But when any 50 y.o. drunk says, “X group of people are responsible for all the Y unpleasant things in the world”, I just cannot find that even poorly thought out.
I hope he continues to direct, because he is talented. He owns the rights to Fahrenheit 451. I saw the original last week, and while I respect Truffaut, that film has not aged well.