In short, the man has had his share of troubles including alcoholism, and he had some extremely inappropriate outbursts in response to the negative criticism he received after making Passion of the Christ. But while a more savvy public figure would respond by going on a highly-publicized "apology tour" to repair his public image, he chose to address his problems privately and tried to make amends for his actions without bringing a film crew to capture every moment. Just because you weren't invited along for the spectacle doesn't mean it didn't happen.
For comparison: filmmaker Woody Allen, who does a great job of publicly portraying himself as a lovably bumbling and nervous little guy, has been repeatedly accused by Mia Farrow's daughter of raping her when she was 13. He also cheated on Mia Farrow with her own adopted daughter, who was 21 at the time. Mike Tyson, as the article mentions, is a convicted rapist. Yet these men have done a better job than Gibson at repairing their public image, but this says nothing about what goes on in their hearts and minds. Everybody knows Roman Polanski is a child rapist, and that's why he fled the country. But Jack Nicholson was clearly involved in that incident as well, and even if he didn't rape a child, it's clear that at the very least he knew what was happening and in some capacity shared some responsibility. Again, he's one of the most beloved actors of our time.
I'm not saying that just because those men got away with bad things that Mel Gibson should also be given a free pass. But you can't call him an anti-semite just because he was blackout drunk and said some nasty things about the jews at at time when his life was in the dumps.
If the world was privy to every nasty and embarrassing thing you've ever said or done, what would we think of you?
I have read my share of articles about Gibson's demise but I will read that one too. It's hard to fight the against antisemitic charge though, to say that he was really drunk is more an indictment than an excuse really. The way I see it all those Hollywood types are already very racist/sexist and there's no good reason to pretend that Gibson is an unique case somehow. Your comment is misdirected: I actually think it's a net loss for Hollywood that he isn't able to make the films he used to make when he was in his prime. I'd be glad if he is forgiven or accepted back again into the arms of mainstream Hollywood studios. The films he directed were among the very few high budgeted films that didn't predictably suck IMHO.
http://deadline.com/2014/03/mel-gibson-career-hollywood-dese...
In short, the man has had his share of troubles including alcoholism, and he had some extremely inappropriate outbursts in response to the negative criticism he received after making Passion of the Christ. But while a more savvy public figure would respond by going on a highly-publicized "apology tour" to repair his public image, he chose to address his problems privately and tried to make amends for his actions without bringing a film crew to capture every moment. Just because you weren't invited along for the spectacle doesn't mean it didn't happen.
For comparison: filmmaker Woody Allen, who does a great job of publicly portraying himself as a lovably bumbling and nervous little guy, has been repeatedly accused by Mia Farrow's daughter of raping her when she was 13. He also cheated on Mia Farrow with her own adopted daughter, who was 21 at the time. Mike Tyson, as the article mentions, is a convicted rapist. Yet these men have done a better job than Gibson at repairing their public image, but this says nothing about what goes on in their hearts and minds. Everybody knows Roman Polanski is a child rapist, and that's why he fled the country. But Jack Nicholson was clearly involved in that incident as well, and even if he didn't rape a child, it's clear that at the very least he knew what was happening and in some capacity shared some responsibility. Again, he's one of the most beloved actors of our time.
I'm not saying that just because those men got away with bad things that Mel Gibson should also be given a free pass. But you can't call him an anti-semite just because he was blackout drunk and said some nasty things about the jews at at time when his life was in the dumps.
If the world was privy to every nasty and embarrassing thing you've ever said or done, what would we think of you?