Why would anyone want to watch a movie with Mel Gibson in it?

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/10/24/why-would-anyone-want-to-watch.html

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Yep, no interest in any projects by Mel Gibson. Starring him or directed by him or whatever. If other people want to patronize his projects that’s up to them but i have no desire to give him my time regardless if i have to pay or not.

Last thing i saw of his was Apocalypto, which i enjoyed and think it’s a damn shame Gibson is a garbage person.

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Read “From Heaven to Mel” its worth it.

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You’re the third person that I’ve heard mention Apocalypto in the past week. I saw it years ago and didn’t think much of it but I think I need to give it another try.

Blade Runner was the same for me. I saw it years ago and thought it was boring. I just saw it again a few weeks ago and thought it was ok.

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I really like the angle of the narrative. It uses the native language rather than have characters speak English and have the viewer pretend they’re talking among themselves in their own tongue. This is something i regularly wish for more movies to do.

Also the casting of people of Mayan heritage was also quite inspired, and its likely the only Hollywood movie that has ever featured the mayan language. So i will give props to the movie for being pretty forward thinking and including elements of the real world culture and peoples into the story. I don’t think it’s a favorite movie of mine but for what it is i think it’s a remarkable movie.

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To be fair the movie lost my interest at Daddys Home, adding Mel to it made me want to see it less.

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Besides Gibson’s personal issues, I think that it’s a flaw of the concept of celebrity and celebrity culture as used to market movies. Movie stars are marketed as being “media personalities” despite that this is largely superficial, and we don’t generally know much about their actual personalities. Compared to areas like science, art, or athletics - the paradox with acting is that the more skilled the performer, the less is evident about what their baseline persona is.

It is easy to wonder about one actor, their effects, and whether one should or not patronize the movie. But I think it is ultimately impossible to be consistent and only watch movies or television shows with a dozen or more actors only if one accepts the personal values of each of them.

So I would not go see anything specifically because it had an actor who I found disagreeable, but I probably would not avoid it either. Any more than I would dismiss a good painting with a toxic amount of cadmium in it, or Firefly just because Adam Baldwin turned out to be something of a tool.

On the “two wrongs don’t make a right” tip, having personal problems about somebody else having personal problems does not really help. That’s what critique is for.

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Is it really because of Berk that Mel still has a career, though? I would think that her expertise would be limited to defending him from criminal charges and/or lawsuits. The movie work would be someone else’s purview, like his agent’s, assuming he has one.
But in any case he does have other defenders in Hollywood, like Jodie Foster.

He’s gross :frowning:

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I’m not under the impression that I’m consistent, and that’s just fine with me.

There is a huge amount of media that I will never support for a variety of reasons, ranging from the actual content, to the actors/creators, networks, and so on.

On the other hand, I make exceptions for some things that I wouldn’t in others.

I don’t think consistency is really possible or even desirable, in this case.

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I agree for the most part, same with musicians. But there comes a point where i know enough about a given celebrity that i just can’t continue to support them. Knowing Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and Will Smith are bat shit and quite into Scientology is enough of a distraction that i no longer can enjoy their projects. If i happen to catch an old movie of theirs i might watch it but i do have a hard time reconciling the things i know about the actor vs enjoying a movie for what it is.

For other actors i have an easier time ignoring some of their personal flaws as long as its not something too out there.

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Perhaps the article should also mention that the movie stars Mark Wahlberg who has been convicted of hate crimes twice. Once where he assaulted African American children and once where he was convicted of attempted murder against two Vietnamese men (see his Wikipedia profile).

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Thank you for explaining why you would not avoid watching a movie with Mel Gibson in it.

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Because the Mad Max movies were fun? And that stuff @Grey_Devil said about Apocalypto? Or because you wanted someone other than Mel Gibson to profit from the movie (like all those Maya for example)?

That’s all I got, sorry. I haven’t even seen the most recent Mad Max, I sure wouldn’t watch this thing.

I’d rather have all my teeth pulled than watch his Jesus Torture Porn movie.

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…I wonder what it says about me that his old Hamlet adaptation is playing on my other screen right now. In my defense, I don’t think it’s very good.

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Sure he does “Daddy’s Home 2” but not the latest “Mad Max?”

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“The Road Warrior” is pretty good IMO. But of course that was made almost four decades ago. Lots of things have changed since then. There’s not much in terms of dialogue in that movie either. It was one of the earlier post-apocalyptic movies, and far less sappy than “A Boy and His Dog”, which I didn’t care for that much.

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One of the confounding things about humans is that there’s no particular correspondence between how smart and talented someone might be and how ethical or moral they are. And were all a mess of flaws and inconsistencies. We have limitations and make mistakes. So we all have to make a kind of calculated judgment call about what we will accept in others, or more particularly, how much we are willing to separate their work from their personal selves. In this instance, it doesn’t seem like a hard call: I don’t care that much about Gibson’s work generally, so if he never worked again, it would be no loss to me. I’d think John Lithgow could have found something better to do.

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Never seen it nor do i have any intention to. There’s a lot i can say about the subject of the movie but i’ll save it for another time as it has nothing to do with the topic at hand.

The new Mad Max is pretty good by the way :slight_smile: not sure if its up your alley but i thought it was great. The fact that Gibson isn’t involved is just gravy as far as i’m concerned.

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Yeah it’s an easy call for the most part for me as well, with Gibson and other particular actors. It’s not like i’m going out of my way to avoid their projects, i just don’t want to see them and i’m happy to spend my time watching what i want.

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