The fundamental feature of Christianity is that its believers are all committed to the idea they are especially beloved by a super-being, which makes them particularly insufferable. Mel Gibson is the pinnacle of this brand of intrinsic narcissism.
Mel Gibson: I was not chosen by men, nor by Hollywood, nor by the powers of this world.
I was chosen by God.
The Lord put a fire in my bones and a cross on my shoulders.
I will carry it until my last breath.
No darkness, no enemy of this age will stop what Heaven has already decided.
Betty Bowers called it: “Is there a more potent brand of blasphemy than a shitty narcissist claiming they are the way they are all because of God?”
Don’t watch Mel Gibson movies.
“Chosen by God” to do…what, exactly? You should probably get a clear answer to that question BEFORE you start bragging about it.
South Park got him mostly right:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-O3o5W3QGhk
I may still watch We Were Soldiers on occasion and considered Fatman a Christmas thing as it was over the top ridiculous. I’m trying to think of anything else. The Patriot was an ahistoric mashup of the Swamp Fox and Gamecock that may have demonized Green Dragoon Tarleton a bit too much. Did interest me in guerrilla tactics in the South during the Revolution. Still not a great movie though cast Heath Ledger.
Ransom had the embarrassment of the infamous boom mic scene. Oops!
Kinda burned out on Lethal Weapon and Mad Max series early on.
Despised The Passion snuff film with a…passion. Guess he’s doing a sequel. Jim Caviezel kinda aged out of the role. He’s another with off-putting IRL issues. I liked Person of Interest and Frequency.
I’ll give Gibson at least one movie I’ll not boycott, though it showed the recovery of the French bugle yet excised Rick Rescorla (who later died evacuating people from one of the towers) from the storyline. No one gets left behind.
The Blues Brothers did the mission from god schtick much better.
Recently I keep seeing things like this that I think any rational thinker would have expected to be negative arguments, but that their perpetrators seem to think is a positive flex. A candidate for Louisiana Governor thinks it’s just right that many women go back to work the day after giving birth because they need the money. Trump points out that there are two Americas – one in which a fat man in an ill fitting tuxedo stands next to his bored wife in a dress that looks as if she tripped over a roll of crepe paper, and the other in which a man and his wife embrace on a couch….etc. etc., and here now is Gibson saying, basically, that we can blame God for assholes like him, and there’s nothing we can do about it!
It made me mad Rescorla wasn’t featured in the movie We Were Soldiers unlike the book. I read his biography Heart of a Soldier by James Stewart. The movie centered on Hal Moore and of course Gibson’s ego, but still…
https://www.tapsbugler.com/from-vietnam-to-the-world-trade-center/
Skip Fatman. The new hyperviolent santa claus movie is Violent Night, with David Harbour.
Wow, the delusion is strong with this one. I knew he was bad, but not like this. Glad I was never a fan of any of his work.
Going way back there’s another war movie Gallipoli which was ok. The tragic ending in the trenches helped serve as an analogy for me to an argument Dennett makes regarding timing in the brain and free will which I haven’t thought about for quite some time.
Finland has made a couple of good war films, they were on the losing side (but retained their independence) so they have had mitive to reflect over the cathastrophes history inflicted on them.
An Ice Cold In Alex and The Hill are two b & w British films about war and the military, respectively, that I can recommend.
Ah, mel gibson, the most powerful, arrogant xtian terrorist extant. But, wait, there are so many competing with him for that title.
p.s. the works of Mrs. Betty Bowers are great!
This tedious exercise: treating the artist and his art as two different entities. Mel Gibson is an insufferable asshole, “Christian”, Jew-hater, and Trump-lover. And he hasn’t done much great “art.”
But he sometimes has enough likable screen presence to make enough people watch his movies.
The Passion of the Christ is what I saw when I went to the movies years ago. In spite of what many Christians say about it, the film wasn’t an accurate retelling of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ (i.e. Peter denying Jesus in a highly noisy crowd, Pilate being nervous before a crowd of Jews, the Devil tempting Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, etc.)
And what was I thinking when I commented about the film being worthy of an Academy Award while watching the torture scene?
Raging Bee@1: “Chosen by God” to do…what, exactly? You should probably get a clear answer to that question BEFORE you start bragging about it.
Ever notice how insipidly weak the gods always eventually become? Empty-headed cult members are always required to do the god’s work. In the past the gods could stop the motions of the sun and moon and cause worldwide floods, create huge plagues, etc. but nowadays, they have become so pathetically weak that their cultists have to do literally everything for them. The gods got so scared that humans were going to break into heaven and become like them, that they had to split the only language into so many variants that no one could even understand anyone else. Perhaps Gibson can explain why his god(s) is(are) so extremely weak.
PS:
I am well aware that the above is aimed one particular set of gods, but change the fables and the end result remains the same.
Totally agree but I would add The Cruel Sea
What an asshole.
Given that, there are movies with him in it that are good. It takes a lot of other people besides the leading character to make a movie.
It’s kind of like when music videos were very much more popular. I didn’t really care for the genre, but I was appreciative of the increased chance for artists like choreographers and dancers to find employment.
I despise him because he made a bunch of vile, racist, misogynistic phone call to his much younger Russian girlfriend he left his wife for. Also the “are you a Jew?” comment he made to a cop whilst driving under the influence.
I don’t like Austen Tayshus, but he did call it with Mel Gibson.
@zetopan 14: I’ve noticed a similar trend with new age parapsychology junk. It’s “subtle energy” this and that because they can’t pass a scientific trial. Psychic energy and deities apparently aren’t what they used to be. Just like Big Foot and flying saucers remain blurry no matter how sharp and ubiquitous our cameras get.
The way religion works in my lived experience, I imagine being a god would be endlessly frustrating: You’re surrounded with people who idolize everything tangential to you like idols and holy books over you, and power hungry charismatic schemers who can’t actually hear you.
No, no. They are still able to impose their self-portraits on pieces of toast, and dogs’ arses!
zetopan @14, Recursive Rabbit @18: Sometimes they get creative.
Behind the Bastards podcast – TB Joshua: The Evangelical pastor who built his own Hell, part 2
@ 3. Hemidactylus & others : What did you think of Apocalypto?
Umm, SPOILERS WARNING rly needed? : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypto
Aside from mixing up the Mayas and Aztecs which is a bit like confusing the ancient Greeks with the ancient Romans..
StevoR, I already noted what I think. Comparatively, about one aspect.
You did ask.
Here: https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/07/20/uh-oh-i-saw-another-movie-this-weekend/#comment-2306817
@ Morales
Your link expresses zero opinions apart from the Odyssey (no Mel) being a “typical Hollywood movie”
@ ^
You could always grow some – I believe the expression is “cajones” – and express a fucking opinion like a grown up instead of just hinting at it like a coward.
@ ^ Silentbob :Thinking of courage you could always have the decency to address my questions to you for once instead of just ignoring them. Same applies to the Trumpist troll “beholder” here who owes me and the rest of us an apology and some actual honesty..
PS. Gendered and toxic masculinity ref insults by you, Silentbob, duly noted.
@22. John Morales : Okay, thanks but that’s seems to be about the new Odyssey movie rather than Mel Gibson’s Apocalypo one?
Surely it does not ‘seem’ so upon perusal, StevoR. I can tell you just took a cursory look.
Two movies, two directors; one movie is “the new Odyssey movie”, the other is “Mel Gibson’s Apocalypo one”.
One aspect.
[copypasta]
Reaction. A meme sums it up:
(https://www.reddit.com/r/Cinephiles/comments/1uzs8om/does_historical_accuracy_actually_matter_in/)
Assuming the opinion Morales wanted to express, but was to timid to express, was, “Mel Gibson is cool actually because he insists on strict ethnic and linguistic accuracy”. Dude. What do you think a racist would do?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-07-14/gibson-takes-aim-at-hispanics-in-latest-rant/904480
StevoR @21
I never watched Apocalypto. I might have checked it out or rented it way back when but the subtitles thing seemed too daunting at the time and I never watched it nor revisited it. I imagine people liked it.
With Gibson there are unwatchable movies (eg The Passion ), watchable movies (take your pick), and movies I would watch again. The last category is quite small.
I get PZ saying don’t watch Gibson movies, but I would hazard Gallipoli should at least transcend him starring in it. I don’t know how well it conveys history, but highlights Aussie experiences in WWI. Probably did a much better job of that than Lawrence of Arabia:
“Australia forgives Lawrence of Arabia’s history” – https://www.reuters.com/article/economy/australia-forgives-lawrence-of-arabias-history-idUSSYD181369/
@27. John Morales : Ah, yes. mea culpa. I did miss that fair enough.