I had a friend who refused to take her then 12-year old to see Patriot becauee of the violence. That may or may not have been a good decision, but one can hardly study the story of the American Revolution without understanding the sacrifices made through violence, blood, gore and death. Same with Passion of the Christ and Braveheart. Bloody movies all.
The history of mankind is replete with violence, blood and gore. So we're supposed to make movies only about Mary Poppins? Mel Gibson is NOT Walt Disney.
His likely personal nuttiness should be segregated from his artistic product. So far, his sins seem to be related to an innate anti-semitism. That is not ok according to the secular Jews who rule Hollywood (or most of us, for that matter). That would be fine, except that other, 'acceptable' Hollywood moguls are outright perverts, whose rtistic output is ok by Tinsel Town.
>>>I had a friend who refused to take her then 12-year old to see Patriot becauee of the violence.<<<
"The Patriot" is one of my favorite movies.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0187393/