Mel Gibson
Written byPosted on July 31, 2006
Filed Under Gibson, Mel
There is little to be said about Mel Gibson that hasn’t been said already. But I have to ask why Gibson’s anti-Semitic remarks, which shouldn’t have shocked or surprised anyone, have even the Hitch contributing a rant. Anybody who has been following Gibson’s paranoid answers to interview questions, the demented one-frame cameo appearance in the Apocalypto trailer, and his insistence that Jews be maligned (without the consolation of subtitles) in The Passion of the Christ should know by now that Mel Gibson is as feral and unstable as Martin Riggs. His comments were depraved, hateful and clearly the heartfelt vitriol of a kook caught drunk. But why do the words of a Hollywood superstar dwarf the hatred spewing in Israel and Lebanon? Why the outpour from Gibson fans and blogs and cultural commentators? There’s a bloody war going on right now. Could the Western world be so hopelessly swirling within the seductive spiral of celebrity that it is only capable of understanding anti-Semitism and hatred through the likes of Mel Gibson? Is that how low the bar is now set?
I won’t abjure myself of cultural navelgazing. I’ve been just as guilty too, but let’s put this into perspective. 37 children died because of an air strike on Lebanon within hours of Gibson’s arrest. Do you mean to tell me that it takes a Mel Gibson arrest to get people aware of hatred these days? Has our culture become so depraved that gossip means more than the lives of children? Have we reached the point where we have merely a refractory Hollywood context for the way we perceive the world?
The big issues now making the rounds: What does this mean for Gibson’s career? How will Apocalypto make money?
I’d like to put forth some more profound questions to think about.
Is it possible to reconcile Israel and Palestine, much less Israel and Hezbollah? Why are the United States and the United Kingdom the only nations championing Israel? Will Iran get involved? Will this mean more American involvement? More lives lost? More hatred unfurled?
All of these are difficult questions to answer. They’re neither as easy nor as satisfying as pointing to Mel Gibson and saying, “There is a man who, in his own words, fucked up. There is a man who has problems.” But perhaps we should be pointing the fingers at ourselves instead. Here is a nation that has perception issues. Here is a nation that has fucked up.
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Books To Jump Up and Down Over
Beyond Heaving Bosoms by Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan. The famed writers behind Smart Bitches, Trashy Books have written a very funny and thoughtful volume about romances, both Old Skool and New Skool. Here is a book that any smug and humorless literary manboy beating his flabby passive chest over Banville or Bolano should probably read pronto, if only for the distant possibility that he might get over himself. While the Choose Your Own Adventure segment at the end caused me to have a very disturbing dream involving Shelley Long (don't ask), Sarah and Candy did have me rethinking many of my own misperceptions when I wasn't busy laughing. They're not afraid to take on the New York Times Bok Review or even the groupthink within certain sectors of the romance community.
Alice Fantastic by Maggie Estep. This wild and highly enjoyable narrative involves two sisters (presumably, the third one was still being rented out by Chekhov), a hippie ex-junkie mother who lives with seventeen dogs, a murder, gambling, and libidinous Hollywood actresses who live in Woodstock. But this is the wonderful Maggie Estep we're talking here. And what seems at first like a quirky yarn becomes something unexpectedly moving about connectivity. What I love about Estep's work is the way that she'll juxtapose an extremely astute observation (now that you mention it, why do cab drivers always have somebody to talk with on the phone past midnight?) with an often outrageous story development.
Generosity by Richard Powers. It doesn't come out until September 29th, but Richard Powers's latest will have anyone committed to books reconsidering their literary fervor. I foresee some animosity from the vanilla critics hostile to idea-driven novels, but book bloggers, YouTube chroniclers, and MFAs would do well to plunge into this chance-taking narrative, which introduces vital questions about what the reader's relationship is with media, scientific dissection, and "creative nonfiction." Are we rats fleeing to happy cities? Or can we find the humanism within the purported plague?
Pieces for the Left Hand by J. Robert Lennon. Lennon is one of the most underrated fiction writers working today. Much as On the Night Plain proved that Lennon had a lot more in the toolbox than heartfelt (and often very funny) suburban satire, this slim but fascinating volume juxtaposes 100 small-town anecdotes -- arranged by category -- in a manner that reads, at times, like Nicholson Baker's passions for minutiae and, at other times, Stewart O'Nan's concern for psychological detail. The result is fiction that makes us wonder about whether one person's subjective view of particulars can entirely be trusted. This book never found a publisher in 2005. But thankfully, Graywolf has released it in the United States, along with Lennon's latest novel, The Castle.
Wonderful World by Javier Calvo. This wonderfully raucous volume has been completely ignored by the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. But it's probably one of the most delightful reading experiences I've had this year. Calvo cavalierly mashes up multiple genres and manages to mix up familial subtext with larger-than-life, almost cartoonish characters. (Indeed, one might argue that one mobster's penis is a character of its own in this sprawling novel.). This is not an easy thing to pull off, but Calvo makes it work. And it's helped immeasurably by Mara Faye Lethem's idiom-specific translation. (See longer post.)
The Means of Reproduction, Michelle Goldberg This thoughtful book tackles the complicated (and little discussed) subject of reproductive rights from numerous angles, which includes a number of unpleasant but necessary ones. The upshot is that there isn't a quick fix solution for declining birth rates and fundamentalist abuses. Just about every political faction has contributed to the friction. But you'll want to read this book anyway to refamiliarize yourself with the topic, but also to understand just what's occurred during the past several decades to get us where we are today. (See also podcast interview with Goldberg.)
Finally. Someone telling it like it is without pretending there’s an easy solution. Thanks for the morning wake-up call.
Mel Gibson got drunk, got caught and insulted a bunch of people–good for him. I happen to prize insults of all stripes and think they’re much underrated by people who deserve nothing but. Gibson is feral and unstable? That’s rich, did you happen to read any of David Denby’s film reviews in The New Yorker–even months after the release of The Passion he could hardly complete a sentence without foaming at the mouth. Not to mention the shitstorm in other media outlets. Most amusing and entertaining I thought. Gibson’s remarks were depraved and hateful? I don’t think so at all, I thought they were funny and, given the context of the hysterical critical reaction to his film about Jesus Christ, completely understandable. Forgivable even, but turn the other cheek isn’t exactly all the rage these days, is it? Insults are the spice to life, a necessity in a variety of situations so get over it. And please spare us your banal observations about global hatred, you write a blog dude, you’re just another unfulfilled narcissist typing in his bedroom, as local as local gets.
“Is it possible to reconcile Israel and Palestine, much less Israel and Hezbollah?”
Yes the first, no to the second.
“Why are the United States and the United Kingdom the only nations championing Israel?”
Because nobody lost votes in Europe or Asia by siding against Israel. Also, depends on what you mean by “championing.” Most of the public in the UK is against the Israeli action, and a good portion of Americans, as the perception is Israel has gone over the top.
“Will this mean more American involvement? More lives lost? More hatred unfurled?”
Yes, yes, and yes. Given all the jokers running the show, on all sides.
I don’t much care about Gibson. I didn’t see The Passion. But then I didn’t see The Last Temptation… I’m Jewish. We don’t run the world. Neither does Gibson. It is sad that his alchohol is running him and that his dad’s religion is ruining him.
I liked Braveheart and sort of liked The Patriot, but I thought that Rob Roy and The Rebel were better in each genre. I think that Thunderdome indicts Mel worse than anything he has said (We don’t want another hero…All we want’s to know the way home..). I probably won’t see his next movie because I’m not into psychotic chases through Mayan Jungles.
If the Passion functions as a hate film, it will be in Arab countries. The christians mostly purged Anti-semitism after wwII. They wouldn’t see the anti-semitic thrust of the movie. Hitchens’ post was right on that.
But I don’t think that anything could make Moslems more anti-semitic than they already are. Other asians just don’t care either way. So I tend to give Mel a pass. I pray that he sobers up. He apologized and abhored his remarks. I forgive him.
Let’s get back to worrying about Hezbollah, Aminijihad the mad, Hamas, Alquaida, and their co-jihadis and how the FR RS CH et al are chewing on our ankles while we try to fight mass murderers of us all…Jews, Christians, Secularists, Communists and even Moslems who don’t share jihadi sects and ideologies. These people are unashamed of their hatred.
Jihadis are armed and dangerous. Gibson is increasingly unarmed and sad.
I was thinking the same thing about Gibson…no big surprise there. I read somewhere that now he’s not getting to make a miniseries about the Holocaust. Wha? Chew on that one for awhile!
Big questions of the day:
Is it possible to reconcile Israel and Palestine, much less Israel and Hezbollah?
Anything’s possible, but I find it highly unlikely.
Why are the United States and the United Kingdom the only nations championing Israel?
I have trouble trying to understand this one, but my best guess is that it has something to do with it being the holy land and Bush’s evangelicalism. The prophecy that Christ cannot return until the Jews are in possession of the Holy Land is what drives Evangelicals like Bush to care. The UK just seems to go along with whatever the US wants.
Will Iran get involved? Will this mean more American involvement? More lives lost? More hatred unfurled?
I don’t know, but if Iran gets involved, I think America will be involved. More lives are going to be lost and more hatred will be unfurled regardless of Iran’s involvement. It’s a sick sad world we’re living in.