The Un-Cancelling of Mel Gibson
A few days back someone that I am friends with on Facebook but not in real life posted about how excited he was to be interviewing Mel Gibson in a few days.
All of the comments on the post were positive. People gushed about how much they loved Gibson’s movies and what an icon he was and expressed jealousy that the writer who wrote the post got to schmooze and kibbitz with a big macher like Gibson.
It’s possible that there were other, less enthusiastic comments but they got deleted but the general tenor of the comment section was unambiguously glowing.
My response was much different. When I see any reference to Gibson these days my first response is, “Wow, that guy really fucking hates Jews.”
I am Jewish myself so I take the Academy-Award-winning actor and filmmaker’s fierce hatred of Jews personally. My second thought is, “Wow, that guy really fucking hates women.” My third thought when it comes to Gibson is, “Wow, that guy really fucking hates black people.” My fourth response is, “Wow, that guy really hates homosexuals.”
This is not a matter of personal opinion. This is a matter of the public record. I have always detested Gibson as a crazed right-wing anti-Semite and homophobe but that hatred reached a new level when I heard the infamous recording of Gibson screaming at the mother of his child in a white-hot rage that he hoped she was sexually assaulted by a group of men.
I assumed that after that tape and the drunk driving incident where Gibson referred to a female officer as “sugartits” and spoke darkly of Jews running the world Gibson’s career was essentially over.
I was wrong. Gibson did what a lot of disgraced celebrities do: he waited the outrage out and hoped, correctly, as it turns out, that the public’s enduring love for Mad Max and Lethal Weapon and The Passion of Christ would allow them to forgive and forget Gibson’s transgressions after a suitable amount of time.
Gibson found lots of people willing to work with him after everything he’s done and said but the projects tended to be smaller and more modest. That was Gibson’s exceedingly mild “punishment:” he could work and work regularly in film but it was generally in supporting roles as villains in modestly budgeted genre movies, often with a distinct right-wing bent.
Gibson is scheduled to appear in no less than five movies this year and it was recently announced that he’d be directing AND starring in Lethal Weapon 5, a movie that obviously needs to be made.
Then again in 2016 Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director so it’s really been six years since we rewarded Gibson for his complete lack of contrition and moral growth.
Gibson didn’t apologize, or do anything to convey that he was at all sorry for what he’d done but he’s a handsome, rich straight white man who has made people a lot of money over the years so we welcomed him back with open arms.
What’s a little hateful sociopathy among friends? And isn’t anyone as successful as Gibson a friend? God knows he’s a friend to the Jews.
This is not unlike how I sometimes look at the comments on articles about Chris Brown and they’re invariably ninety nine percent positive. If someone points out that Brown viciously beat Rihanna and the whole world saw it and was appropriately horrified they’re immediately drowned out by indignant Brown fans apoplectic at the idea that anyone would sully that saintly man’s good name by pointing out his clear-cut history of abuse.
The consensus seemed to be that Brown abused Rihanna a long time ago so only someone with an agenda could possibly hold that against him. Besides, what happened to forgiveness? Shouldn’t people be able to redeem themselves after they’ve done something terrible?
I do believe in forgiveness and redemption but in order to be worthy of being forgiven or redeemed you have to apologize and show the world that you are a much different person than the lunatic who pummeled his girlfriend in a jealous rage or screamed threats at the mother of your child.
Gibson and Brown have not done this. They remained the same. Society just decided that they’d suffered enough and now it was time to bring them back into the fold.
Time undoubtedly plays a role as well. If Oksana Grigorieva, the woman Gibson terrorized in 2010 were to write a memoir about her experiences or was the subject of a meaty Buzzfeed expose I suspect we’d be looking at the situation much differently.
But she can’t do that because of a confidentiality agreement she signed with Gibson that would punish her severely for talking publicly about the abuse she suffered at Gibson’s hands.
She hasn’t written a book or talked to the press so Gibson’s transgressions are being treated as old news by a public and press with a VERY short attention span.
We can forget about all the bad stuff and be excited again that a major icon of our childhoods is back in action and willing to talk to us to promote his career and his new projects.
I am frustrated and disgusted but not particularly surprised.
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