• Mel Gibson is a Film Making Genius

    For the most part I had a relaxing Saturday – not a lot to do. Just some chores. The kids are at the age were they are content playing video games and skateboarding outside. My wife was at work today, which gave me the opportunity to watch a movie that I bought last night in hopes of watching it with her, but she shot down as soon as she looked at the cover. LifeTime is more her thing. In all fairness, she did sit through 300 with me.

    Anyway, I get the laundry out and put in Apocalypto. My eyes were glued to the TV the whole time. I didn’t fold a piece of laundry. How did I overlook this film when it was released in theaters? I don’t think I heard anything about it at all.

    Did this film win any awards? Why not? Is Mel Gibson getting blacklisted by Jewish Hollywood because of his anti-Semitic views? I do think that every person should except responsibility and the consequences for their ignorant actions, but should his body of work or new work take a hit because of it? Should the actors, writers, cinematographers, musicians, and producers not receive any recognition because they are in one of Mel’s movie’s?

    His personal life should be left at just that, because what he does with film is undeniably genius. Apocalypto takes place in ancient Central America – a region that is dear to my heart because I grew up in Costa Rica. Many of the images in the film that take place in jungles and rainforest were very familiar, which was exciting. The film's dialogue was in some ancient native Mayan language which was translated into English via subtitles. For a guy who has ADHD, I was still enthralled the entire time.

    This movie was so intense, so graphic, and so realistic, my adrenaline was going the whole time. The main character in the movie is Jaguar Paw. His village was invaded by a superior and ruthless tribe – it’s hard to explain. They take most of the village’s men off to the stone built city to be executed in a very graphic nature, via human sacrifice for some type of Mayan god. He escapes death due to a solar eclipse; and from that point, it’s a roller coaster ride.

    Jaguar Paw makes his way back to his village where he hid his pregnant wife and child in a cave before he was captured. Through the jungles, he is being chased by ancient demon-like warriors. At the end, he is vindicated. This is a must see.

    Then you have Braveheart, a movie in which Mel directed and starred. It was an instant classic about the liberation of Scotland with historical relevance – something that seems important to Mel. Then you have the Passion of Christ. No matter which way you cut it, it is probably the closest thing on film to what actually happened throughout the New Testament. I wonder why this movie was plagued by so much controversy? It didn’t really stray from biblical history and was incredibly touching. The actors were superb and you could tell that a lot of the research, blood, sweat, and tears were put into it.

    All at the demise of Mel Gibson that and very public drunk driving incident where he was babbling anti-Semitic comments to the police. Although I am willing to forgive Mel Gibson and move on to sitting and waiting at the edge of my seat for his next film, is everybody else? I think they should, if for no other reason than for the sake of personal entertainment. Because you're missing out on what a guaranteed quality film when you skip out on one of his movies.

    Mel Gibson is movie making genius.