Really, I was. Sure, there had been the anti-semitism and sexism, the homophobia, The Passion of the Christ, that Apocalypto piece of crap, and that crazy beard.
I haven’t seen a Mel Gibson movie since Signs in 2002, and I only remember that it was awful, and there were glasses of water all over the house. And before that I have to go back to Ransom in 1996, which I think I enjoyed.
Then, yesterday, I saw a coming attraction for his next film, Edge of Darkness. Sure, the title brought to mind Carson’s old soap-opera bit. But it actually looked… pretty good. Car chases. Guns. Vengeance. The director of Casino Royale. And Gibson, former pretty boy, now looked kind of craggy. Maybe it could all work. Might this be Gibson’s The Wrestler? The comeback that reminds us why we liked him in the first place. Oh, those Mad Max movies! (Well, the first two, anyway.) Ah, the Lethal Weapon series! (Well, the first two.)
So I sat in the darkened theater, thinking, “hmm, maybe I will see this.” But at the very, very end of the trailer, Gibson utters a sentence. And I suddenly had to wonder—is he purposely trying to alienate me? Couldn’t he have asked for a quick rewrite, knowing he might stir up some negative associations with a chunk of the potential audience? The sentence in question: “Well, you had better decide whether you’re hanging on the cross, or banging in the nails.” Aw, come on, Mel!
Jack Silbert, curator