Mel Gibson: a nut cake or creative genius?

by David Grand
March 4, 2004

I guess the answer to that depends on who you're asking. If you ask me, he's a combination of both, like Mozart, van Gogh and Edgar Allen Poe were. But according to Andy Rooney, that old rapscallion on the "60 minutes" show, he said God told him in a conversation they had (after his private viewing of "The Passion of the Christ") that he thinks he's a real "nut cake" and questioned why in the heck he'd ever created him. And while he was at it, God blasted Evangelist Pat Robertson, calling him a "wacko" for lying in saying he'd told him that Bush will win in a blowout. Sorry, but I can't buy that story. For I'm sure God is apolitical and wouldn't even know, let alone use, such slang terms. 

Now, I don't mock those who say God speaks directly to them (a la Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Benny Lin, etc.). For I usually have a one-sided conversation with him once a week. And even though I'm doing all the talking, I know he's listening, however bored he may be in hearing me asking for material things and admitting to the same sins over and over again. But I've always felt that since Jesus died for our sins, I wouldn't dare make his martyrdom meaningless by not committing them.

And early feedback indicates that most Catholics and evangelical Protestants praise it to "High Heaven" (and the loudest hallelujahs coming from the Baptists), who consider it to be the best movie to come out of that modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah called Hollywood since "Moses" and "Ben Hur"- or even better! While others who've seen it are either lukewarm, have mixed feelings, or object strenuously to its anti-Semitic overtones, its straying (as religious scholars say) too far from the "gospel truth," of being devoid of any spirituality and overly emphasizing Jesus' bloody death over his teachings of "love and faith."

Come to think of it, the characters Gibson played as a half-crazy, "shoot 'em first and ask questions later" detective in that movie "Lethal Weapon," and as the leader of the Scottish rebellion in "Braveheart with blood  flowing like water may have been a precursor for his  bloodbath, box-office hit. And from I've read, it makes such horror movies as Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolfman, Halloween, Godzilla, the Night of the Hunter and the Silence of the Lamb look like light-hearted comedies.

But I doubt, however, if those who'll see it will be anymore shocked or traumatized than those who saw the 'Frankenstein" movies, with so many people fainting or "freaking-out" that nurses were walking up and down the aisles administering smelling salts. I remember sitting on the edge of my seat and dropping my popcorn box more than once.        

Now, I won't be going to see that movie for several reasons: first, because I don't care for movies which feature "gore for gore's sake," just as I don't like "sex for sex's sake"in films. Second, because I've seen enough of "man's inhumanity to man" and of mutilated bodies in war to last for ten lifetimes. And third, because I'm not about to fork over nine dollars to see a movie when I know beforehand how it'll end. (I like to be kept guessing.)

And as far as that movie being criticized for conveying (an overt or subliminal) anti-Semitic message is concerned, those who enter the theaters, who already view all Jews, past and present, as "Christ killers," will undoubtedly find reasons for re-inforcing their prejudice. But ,hopefully, not manifesting their anger in their communities. If so, it would make a mockery of them professing to be God-fearing Christians and churchgoers.  

So, I'll just look forward to seeing Mel in the next sequel to Lethal Weapon (not that he'd need the money), knowing that he'll kill at least a dozen "bad guys" with his guns, bare hands or with whatever other weapons that are handy. And that he'll show the same zeal and passion as he always does. But maybe not as passionately as he did in directing "The Passion of the Christ."