Film star and director Mel Gibson has launched a scathing attack on US President George W Bush, comparing his leadership to the barbaric rulers of the Mayan civilisation in his new film Apocalypto.
The epic, due for release later this year, captures the decline of the Maya kingdom and the slaughter of thousands of inhabitants as human sacrifices in a bid to save the nation from collapsing.
Gibson reveals he used present day American politics as an inspiration, claiming the government callously plays on the nation's insecurities to maintain power.
He tells British film magazine Hotdog, "The fear-mongering we depict in the film reminds me of President Bush and his guys".
after that post, I will not watch another Mel Gibson film.
Yes...I have read that he went off on Bush and the administration...no big suprise as he is a Hollywood (albiet via Australia) actor...
I do not have to like his politics (I wish he and most all other poorly informed, self-righteous actors and film-industry workers would just 'shut up and sing/act/whatever') to still think his movies could be important for their own merits.
It is only if he starts infusing his flicks with rants similar to what he says in person that I will stay away...probably will not see this in the theater anyway...will wait for the DVD to rent.
Being someone who can stand out as a man whose mansion is probably not on the Israel-hating Islamists' top target lists...
...I think it would be a good idea for him to shut his cocktail hole about the President's leadership in the Global War on Terror.
"He tells British film magazine Hotdog, "The fear-mongering we depict in the film reminds me of President Bush and his guys"." ~ familyop
He's doing his pentance to get back into the good graces of Hollywood". The evidence:
Bottomline excerpt from item below: "...Last night, a senior Tinseltown studio executive told the Mail: 'Mel Gibson better get down on his knees and eat dirt because he has made some very important enemies.' Indeed, there is already talk that distribution companies and cinemas may be reluctant to take on future Gibson projects because of fears of a backlash from Jewish groups.
And the influential U.S. Jewish Anti-Defamation League has wasted no time wading in to say that his apology is not enough and that Gibson should be ostracised by Hollywood. ....."
Mel Gibson's meltdown
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=398527&in_page_id=1773
by PAUL SCOTT, Daily Mail Last updated at 09:45am on 1st August 2006
"...he unleashed a hate-filled anti-Semitic rant, saying: 'F****** Jews. The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.' ... asked an officer: 'Are you a Jew?' before beginning another four-letter onslaught.
...Last night, a senior Tinseltown studio executive told the Mail: 'Mel Gibson better get down on his knees and eat dirt because he has made some very important enemies.' Indeed, there is already talk that distribution companies and cinemas may be reluctant to take on future Gibson projects because of fears of a backlash from Jewish groups.
And the influential U.S. Jewish Anti-Defamation League has wasted no time wading in to say that his apology is not enough and that Gibson should be ostracised by Hollywood. .....
This is not, it should be said, the first time he has landed in hot water over his hard-line views. He has been pilloried for his outspoken views on homosexuality and his membership of the fundamentalist sect The Traditional Catholic Movement.
HIS uncompromising approach has led him to reveal that he expects Robyn - his wife of 26 years and the mother of his seven children - will go to hell when she dies because she is a member of the Church of England, rather than a Roman Catholic.
...Much of this dogmatic approach can be traced back to Gibson's domineering father, Hutton, now 87, a Biblical scholar who force-fed his ten children his own skewed approach to Catholicism. He condemns the Sixties modernisation of the Church and the ending of the Latin mass, and rejects the legitimacy of all Popes for the past 40 years. Gibson Snr, a New Yorker who relocated his family to Australia when Mel was 12 to avoid his sons being drafted to Vietnam, has also made a string of bizarre public pronouncements, including that burning heretics is an act of 'charity', that the Holocaust never happened and that Al Qaeda had nothing to do with the September 11 attacks on New York.
Hardly surprising, then, that his son, who has steadfastly refused to denounce the majority of his father's propaganda (although he has said he believes the Holocaust did happen), has been tarred with the same brush.
....The pious Gibson immediately invested £5 million in building his own Catholic church in the Agoura Hills, on the outskirts of Los Angeles.
The lavish Holy Family's chapel, which is run by Gibson's Icon production company, has an unlisted phone number and keeps its exact location a secret for fear of becoming the target of unwelcome attention. Those attending services are asked not to divulge any details of their worship or the church's famous benefactor. Women entering are instructed to keep their heads covered at all times.
The couple's children, whose privacy the star has steadfastly sought to protect, are all said to be deeply involved in the Church. Indeed, four years ago their only daughter Hannah, now 25, joined a religious order in America to train as a nun. ..."
btt
So much for our defense of Gibson. Oh well, Hollywood elite. What did we expect.
>the slaughter of thousands of inhabitants as human sacrifices
>in a bid to save the nation from collapsing.
There's a much stronger comparison to be made to our (USA) propensity to abort millions of children each year.
Guess he goes on my $hi! list. Whats he trying to prove now?
Well, that's two for Mel. Thanks for posting this.
Big deal. Mel Gibson is an old-fashioned paleo-con of the New Oxford Review variety. That doesn't change the fact that the man makes outstanding movies.