Another fluff blog until I get to posting my holiday stories and the serious blog:
Mel Gibson's anti-Semite rant has me a bit puzzled. Disclaimer: Everything he is reported to have said about Jews is bad and he shouldn't have said it.
BUT - why is it ok when he is rampantly anti-English and not ok when he is anti-Semite?
He has been anti-English for YEARS, and as proof I offer Braveheart and The Patriot, neither of which have a single 'good' English character - all the many English characters in both films are bad. Why is it ok to make films rubbishing my country but not ok to say nasty things about another country/race? Why is it that an accusation of anti-Semitism can wreck a career, but not one of anti-Americanism, anti-Britishism, anti-Koreanism and so forth?
Maybe it's because the Jews have been very persecuted throughout history, and so might be understandably sensitive about jerkoff statements like Mel's. I'm not denying that they have been through some serious shit, but what I don't get is why the double standard.
If anyone reading this can shed any light, I would welcome it! Maybe I'm missing something really obvious, I don't know...
posted by Elle @ 4:33 pm
7 comments
7 Comments:
Great question. I don't know the answer either.
LOL! Thanks for playing ;o)
Any thoughts, no matter how daffy would be appreciated. I am seriously at a loss with this one..
nice puppy by the way :o)
Interesting post... I'd not thought about Braveheart in that way, more akin to our civil war, so yeah, in the context you raise, the English folk don't come across well. Would it help knowing I never perceived England in a bad light, either through this or the Patriot film? I thought Patriot was brutal, and a bit simplistic, given there was great division within the 13 states on whether to support independence. When there is war, there is nastiness all the way around.
I'm no Mel fan. His movies have entertained, but I refused to see Passion, and his denials on the story ring rather hollow now. I am all for giving someone another chance though. Perhaps the trauma of all this produces a wholly different person. We can hope.
Nelle, I think in some cases you have to be part of the maligned group in order to notice the insult, if that makes sense.
I like a lot of his films, especially his earlier ones, but he's getting a bit Cruisey now...I wonder what it is about Hollywood that makes people go nuts.
Good question...
perhaps a combination of wealth, power, pressure, fame...
who knows why some things happen, but I've screwed up, and Mel has screwed up. Now he needs to take stock and sort out a better way.
Was your view of Braveheart commonly held there?
The commonest view of Braveheart I've heard here (critics etc) is 'nice battle scenes, shame about the history rewrite' ;o)
thats a good question. Dunno, but i hadn't really thought about it, other than the film Braveheart isn't an accurate reflection of what happened at the time, I suppose i've just seen it as a piece of fiction which is loosly based on a historical event! also, i probably wouldn't have noticed that the english were badly portrayed, cos am welsh!?
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