Interesting piece regarding Mel Gibson.

[bluesbassman]

The excerpt below is pretty limited, but the journalist goes into a lot of detail in the article supporting her change of perspective regarding Gibson's history and views.

As someone who has first hand experience dealing with people in the grip of addiction, I can see some reality in the comments this journalist offers in her experience with Gibson. Whether Gibson is truly the man she portrays him to be remains to be seen, and I'm sure some will never forgive or forget the things he's done and said, but the author's take on him from her personal experiences give some hope that he may at least not be as evil as those actions and words came off as. Time will tell.

How ironic is it that Hollywood studios walk on eggshells with faith-based groups hoping their religious epics like Noah do a fraction of the business Mel Gibson did with The Passion Of The Christ, while those studios continue to shun Gibson like a leper? What better way to commemorate Passion‘s 10th anniversary than journalist Allison Hope Weiner‘s examination of her relationship with Gibson and how it evolved from harsh coverage to the point where she feels strongly enough about his good qualities and recovery to urge Hollywood to consider giving him another chance. Weiner has written about Gibson for Deadline before, as well as The New York Times and other national magazines. – MF
It has been a decade since Mel Gibson made The Passion Of The Christ and watched it become the biggest-grossing independent film with $612 million in worldwide ticket sales. In the years that followed, Gibson made several comments that went public, made him seem anti-Semitic and racist. They made him persona non grata at major studios and agencies, the same ones that work with others who’ve committed felonies and done things far more serious than Gibson, who essentially used his tongue as a lethal weapon. As a journalist who vilified Gibson in The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly until my coverage allowed me to get to know him, I want to make the case here that it is time for those Hollywood agencies and studios to end their quiet blacklisting of Mel Gibson. Once Hollywood’s biggest movie star whose film Braveheart won five Oscars and whose collective box office totals $3.6 billion, Gibson hasn’t been directly employed by a studio since Passion Of The Christ was released in 2004.

The Gibson I’ve come to know isn’t a man who’ll shout from the rooftops that he’s not anti-Semitic, or hold a press conference to tell media those audiotapes were released as part of a shakedown, and that he never assaulted the mother of his infant daughter. He won’t explain to people that he first got himself into a career spiral because he’s a long struggling alcoholic who fell off the wagon and spewed hateful anti-Semitic remarks to an arresting officer who was Jewish. He won’t tell you that he’s still got a lot to offer Hollywood as a filmmaker.

The fact that he won’t jump to his own defense is part of his problem, but also part of why I have grown to respect him. That is why on the occasion of this 10th anniversary of Passion, a film about an innocent man’s willingness to forgive the greatest injustice, I propose to Hollywood that it’s time to forgive Mel Gibson. He has been in the doghouse long enough. It’s time to give the guy another chance.

Full piece: http://movies.yahoo.com/news/journalist-plea-10th-anniversary-passion-christ-hollywood-mel-214854535.html

[exboyfil]

1. Mel Gibson was main villain in Machette Kills

[DavidDvorkin]

5. That was Steven Seagal.

[exboyfil]

6. Nope.

Seagal was the villain in the first movie. Gibson is the villain in the second.

[DavidDvorkin]

9. You're right. I had the two movies reversed.

[yeoman6987]

2. Has he tried to come back?

I don't see him making any movies. He has his own production company so at least at first he could do some small movies and build up again. Many more have been forgiven for their faults, but typically they try and obviously show remorse and do something to prove it. I don't think anybody is in Mel's way but Mel.

[frazzled]

3. Drunken rants tend to bring out underlying feelings

There are sloppy drunks (they're the sentimental guys underneath, who cry) and the mean drunks (whose boundaries, once dropped, reveal their true rage).

No, not forgiving Gibson because he was a drunk. Those "spewed remarks" come from somewhere. Besides, he's too old for a comeback. Cede the field to some (sober) younger actors.

[Jefferson23]

4. Whether people forgive him, whatever that means in Hollywood, I don't know.

The few articles I have read of his point of view of parenting, when he was sober, before his
anti-semitic rant, was revealing. He came across as an authoritarian jerk, and heavy
handed with his children...not an impressive man, imo. Quite the contrary.

[Behind the Aegis]

7. Also interesting....

Mel Gibson Defense Omits His $70 Million Private Church That’s Anti-Pope, Modern Catholic Beliefs

Mel Gibson has a defender in Allison Hope Weiner, writing for Deadline.com. Weiner says it’s time to forgive and forget Gibson’s anti-Semitic, alcoholic, homophobic history.

---snip---

Noxon revealed some of the history of Gibson and his father, Hutton Gibson, a writer for neo-Nazi publications and a devout Holocaust denier. Noxon also referenced an interview Mel Gibson had done with Bill O’Reilly about whether Jews would be upset about “The Passion of the Christ.”

”It may,” Gibson told O’Reilly. ”It’s not meant to. I think it’s meant to just tell the truth. I want to be as truthful as possible. But when you look at the reasons why Christ came, why he was crucified — he died for all mankind and he suffered for all mankind. So that, really, anyone who transgresses has to look at their own part or look at their own culpability.”

http://www.showbiz411.com/2014/03/12/mel-gibson-defense-omits-his-70-million-private-church-thats-anti-pope-modern-catholic-beliefs

[hr]

He has a LONG history of homophobia. When I was in HS, I read an interview with him in the paper called "El País" and he was very nasty in his remarks to gay men. I am all for forgiveness, as long as s/he is actually repentant. I don't think he is.

[bluesbassman]

8. Good point, and that's really the crucial element...

If one is really repentant. Ms. Weiner's slant seems addiction related and I'm willing to cut some slack along those lines. However, one does need to take ownership of ones actions and deeds. It remains to be seen if Gibson can do that.