I’m far more offended by his drunk driving than a few racist slurs. Racist slurs are very offensive indeed, but drunk driving still kills a huge number of people, and personally I’m fucking sick of drunk drivers getting community service and minor license suspensions.
In any event, maybe he’s a jerk and maybe he isn’t. I have enjoyed many of his films and his being a jerk doesn’t make them any less worthy. I don’t have to deal with him on a personal basis.
How many times have I heard of the wonderful father who turns into a real asshole when he’s drunk and beats his wife and even his kids, only to sober up and appologize even to the point of crying when he’s sobered up.
Its no secret that Gibson was raised in an anti- semitic home. Ideas you bought or remember as a kid stay with you even if you know better when you are much older.
Its easy for me to understand that a drunken Gibson would resort to the easiest avenue in his mind to insult the cop. That which he learned early in life.
I can’t stand bigotry. Yet for example, on an individual basis if a black man had done some harm to me and no one else was around that could be insulted and in the heat of the moment I can see myself calling him a “fucking n…”
As far as the “cover up” is concerned I don’t see a problem with it. The sanitized version adequately reports the legal transgression and everything else is meaningless dressing as far as the law is concerned.
I don’t care much at all.
My own mother can say some racist things when she’s got a couple of glasses of wine in her. I don’t like it, but all you people out there would never even know - because she’s not famous. This guy is a professional actor. The only difference between that and a professional bar tender or a professional burger flipper is the money.
He may or may not be bigoted. The apology may or may not be geuine. Notwithstanding the fact that we can never prove what’s really in his head, if he in fact is a bigoted, insincere areshole, so what? He’s not in charge of a nation, or a religion, or the UN. He’s a Hollywood actor. Who cares?
And I know you can argue that as a Hollywood actor, he has influence. But that’s our own silly fault rather than his. We put him there.
Well said! Who gives a shit? He’s a bloody actor! He may be a fairly decent actor but his odd religous beliefs and his weird bigotry are his.
I have no clue if my dentist or doctor hold odd beliefs why would I care if some random actor does?
Let him embarrass himself without the rest of us caring a jot.
His film The Passion of the Christ makes this worthy of interest. The controversy about that film was important as a matter of religion, culture and politics. The film was wholeheartedly embraced by certain varieties of Christians and seen as anti-Semitic and wallowing in gore at the expense of Christian virtues by some others. The idea that the film was anti-Semitic was roundly dismissed by many of the former at the time.
It will be interesting to see what happens to the “traditionalists” view of the film now, because it’s hard to see how Gibson could be any clearer.
I for one will definitely make it a point to go see all of his movies from now on.
Not because I believe in his bigotry but because NOW I know what a loon he is. That fact just adds to the (Comic) entertainment value of any of his movies.
Leaving aside the rest of it, this has always annoyed me.
Yes there is truth behind the in vino veritas but it should not be taken as a rule set in stone.
I’ve said many a thing while drunk and angry that I didn’t believe in the same way I’ve done when I was just angry. I’ve also dealt with Drunken idiots that were spouting all kinds of nonsense that they certainly didn’t believe.
To just say that everything said while drunk has to be true because of drink is bollocks in the extreme IMO.
I think an argument could be made that anti-semitism has killed more people than drunk driving.
You know, I’m honestly curious about this. Is it really SOP in a police report to write down eight pages worth of specific quoted remarks made during a DUI stop? I mean, if this was Jim-Bob the local good old boy who got stopped for driving drunk and acting belligerent, would the police even note whether he made some bigoted comments, much less transcribe them all word for word?
I’m inclined to agree with this and give Gibson the benefit of the doubt over whether the drunken comments reveal true bigotry. He acted like a total a-hole and apologizing doesn’t make it okay, but that apology does sound like he’s genuinely ashamed and not just trying to weasel out.
I was talking in general by the way. I suspect the shit that came out of Gibson’s mouth was an accurate look into his feeligs.
This was pretty much my line of thinking when I heard the story on the radio on the way to work this morning. I remember an outcry of “Mel’s an anti-semite!” after PotC, but I never gave it much thought. Now it seems he really does have a hard-on for the Jews. I wonder why.
Of course, many, many people will see any Christian film as being anti-Semitic.
The traditionalist view of the film should remain the same, because the film remains the same.
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What people would those be?
You guys are forgetting that of the 260+ million people in just the US, let alone the world, probably less than one percent give enough of a shit about anti-Semitic comments to have an affect on his career. I don’t think the average red stater cares enough about these comments enough to stop going to see one of his films. Hell, his core audience, probably agrees with him on this issue. Ultra liberals aren’t flocking to see his films since he became a cook anyway. And since he can now afford to fund his own films, he doesn’t have to worry about a studion not backing him.
And the South Park caricature of him is looking less and less like a caricature.
Possibly. It’s definitely SOP to record anything a suspect says that can be evidence of threaten or dementia (“anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law” if necessary). Anti-semitic remarks, particularly by a very well known and rich person who’s threatening to sue you/get even/etc., would have been a very understandable thing to record from a CYA perspective.
According to this site:
http://www.ou.edu/oupd/bac.htm
for a 160 pound person (MG is tiny IRL)
7 beers in 2 hrs = .14%
3 manhattans in 2 hrs = .11%
That surprised me a bit, because I had thought that a couple of quick drinks would raise your BAL higher than this calculator says. Messing around with this calculator suggests that it may not be the most accurate thing in the world. Also, as noted above, individuals differ tremendously regarding how they react to ETOH.
Absolutely.
Well, anti-semites have certainly killed plenty of people, but they didn’t do it by uttering anti-semitic slurs. Spewing anti-semitic bullshit might make someone a bigot and/or an idiot, but the words themselves don’t kill.
You know, i’ve made a lot of arguments on this board against voting Republican, and against the current ascendancy of Christian conservatism in some parts of the United States, but to imply that most red staters are anti-semites, or don’t care about anti-semitism, is just silly.
Sure, the United States still has no shortage of anti-semites and racists and bigots of many different varieties. But your blanket condemnation is rather ridiculous, i think.
Well, you learn something every day. Gibson’s foray into the culinary arts had not previously been brought to my attention.
As for the reason i don’t see his films, that has less to do with his politics and more to do with the fact that they are often lame. I think Gibson’s best stuff is far behind him, in movies like Gallipoli and The Year of Living Dangerously and the Mad Max films. Braveheart was OK, the Lethal Weapon movies were godawful, and some of his other stuff like Payback, The Patriot, and What Women Want are virtually unwatchable.
Geez, I thought that looked wrong- make that kook
And no, I didn’t mean to imply republicans are all anti-semites, I meant, do you think Joe Texas is not gonna go see a Mel epic because Mel hates Jews? Not bloody likely.