I think he's against the Iraq war because he has a deep hatred and or distrust of Jews.
His father is one of those Old Testament, fire and brimstone fundamentalist preachers, and overtly anti-Jew. When that controversy broke, Mel stood behind his father, it seems they share the same views.
That being said I really like a lot of his movies and it's disappointing to see this side of him.
I haven't seen all his movies, but I've liked quite a few that he has starred in and/or directed. I can't wait to see this one. Medved said it's one of the most violent films he's ever seen but gave it four out of four stars. He said you get caught up in it from the start.
"His father is one of those Old Testament, fire and brimstone fundamentalist preachers, and overtly anti-Jew."
Hutton Gibson (Mel's father) is not a preacher, although he once studied for the Catholic priesthood. He is an anti-Semite though, and a Holocaust denier, plus more. Below is a bit of biography about Hutton Gibson:
Early life
According to Wensley Clarkson's biography of Mel Gibson, Hutton studied for the priesthood in a Chicago seminary called the Society of the Divine Word. According to one friend of the family, he left the seminary on the eve of World War II, disgusted with the Modernist doctrines taught there.
Hutton Gibson served as a US Army Officer in the Pacific Theater during World War II after graduation from an OCS program. He was wounded in action at the Battle of Guadalcanal and invalided home in 1944.
He married Anne Reilly Gibson on May 1, 1944 at the Catholic parish of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Brooklyn, New York. They had ten children and adopted another after their arrival in Australia. Anne died in 1990. Hutton has since remarried.
Hutton Gibson and Jeopardy!
Hutton Gibson claims to have won a substantial amount of money on the Art Fleming version of the Jeopardy! game show. After winning several thousand dollars on his first appearance, he reportedly won $21,000 at the Jeopardy! championship.[3] Episodes from this era of the show do not survive, so there may be no formal record of Gibson's appearance. The show currently considers 1965 Grand Champion Burns Cameron's cumulative total of $11,100 to be the Fleming-era record, a much smaller amount than the amount that Gibson claims.[4][5]
In the 1960s Gibson worked for New York Central Railroad. In the early morning hours of December 11, 1964 he slipped on some spilled oil and seriously injured his back. A work injury lawsuit followed and it finally went to court on February 7, 1968. Seven days later, on Valentine's Day, Gibson was awarded $145,000 by the jury. What remained of this money after paying off debts and lawyers was still a substantial sum, and with that he relocated his family to Australia that same year. One of the reasons he made this move was reportedly because he believed that changes in American society were immoral.[3]
Hutton Gibson in Australia
After the promulgation of the Novus Ordo, the Gibson family home in Sydney, Australia was used as a secret chapel where the Tridentine Mass was offered. Also, Hutton used the house to store statues and altar relics which were being discarded by Catholic parishes at the time.
Hutton was the secretary of the Latin Mass Society of Australia, but was ousted after becoming increasingly vocal about his belief that the See of Peter is vacant due to the Popes embracing heresy (see Sedevacantism).
Notable beliefs
Hutton Gibson is a Sedevacantist (a form of Traditionalist Catholicism). His ideas, however, are rejected by many in the Traditionalist Catholic community. He believes that the Second Vatican Council introduced heretical doctrines into the Roman Catholic Church, and he believes that every Pope elected since Pope John XXIII have been illegitimate anti-popes. He has been especially critical of the late Pope John Paul II (whom he refers to as "Garrulous Karolus the Koran Kisser"). [6] He has also stated that the Second Vatican Council was the result of a secret anti-Catholic plot orchestrated by both Masons and Jews.[7]
Gibson adheres to the theory that the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were not carried out by Islamist terrorists aboard the planes, but rather by an unknown party using a "remote control,".[8] He further believes that Jews want to take over the world and establish a one world religion and government.[9]
Hutton Gibson (left) with Holocaust denier Fredrick Töben, head of the Adelaide Institute, at the 2003 International Conference on Authentic History, Real News and the First Amendment
When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (prior to becoming Pope) stated that, although Judaism did not accept Jesus, it was nevertheless the "elder brother" of Christianity, Gibson observed that Abel also had an elder brother.[10]
He questions aspects of the Jewish Holocaust, especially the commonly accepted statistic that between five million to seven million Jews were killed, arguing that it would have been impossible for the Nazis to have disposed of so many bodies.[11] He further claims that most of the Holocaust was "fiction,"[11] that the thousands of Jews who disappeared from Poland during World War II "got up and left",[11] and that census statistics prove there were more Jews in Europe after World War II than before (a claim that is disputed by historians).[12] In support of his father, Mel Gibson claims that his father's beliefs do not amount to Holocaust denial. (Mel Gibson also says that he loves his father and will not speak out publicly against him.)
Hutton Gibson publishes a quarterly newsletter called The War is Now! in which he details many of his views.
Mel is drinking and cursing his way to the bank. He can make an excellent movie, but he is not a happy man.
I respectfully disagree. As many in this country and in Israel have observed, the Iraq war has hurt Israel.