What the Hell Happened to Mel Gibson?

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http://lebeauleblog.com/2012/01/06/what-the-hell-happened-to-mel-gibson/

Posted by lebeau

For a long time, I debated whether or not to write-up Mel Gibson. On
the one hand, the answer to the question “what the hell happened” is
known by all. Gibson’s personal life and bad behavior exploded very
publicly. I’m not sure if any celebrity has ever had such a public
melt-down.

It’s easy to forget now, but not all that long ago Gibson was one of
the undisputed kings of Hollywood. He was so popular and so beloved
that he could do no wrong. Even if he made a cinematic turkey, his
legion of fans practically guaranteed a hit. And while the hits
rolled in, his eccentric behavior was portrayed as charming in the
media.

Gibson had a long history of courting controversy. He had gotten in
trouble with GLAAD for supposedly homophobic comments as well as some
borderline offensive film roles (see Bird on a Wire – or better yet,
don’t). His 2004 blockbuster, The Passion of the Christ, was seen by
many as anti-Semitic. And Gibson was a drinker and a womanizer from
way back.

Gibson’s mug shot

Eventually, that behavior caught up with Gibson. In 2006, Gibson was
arrested for a DUI. A drunken Gibson made matters worse with a series
of anti-Semitic and sexist comments.

Amazingly, Gibson managed to recover from what many considered career
suicide. However, in 2010 he imploded again with domestic abuse
charges and a series of phone messages that showed his dark side.
Every day, a new message was leaked to the press. And each one made
Gibson look more and more like a monster.

So, right up front, the answer to “What the hell happened to Mel
Gibson?” is that his inner demons spilled out on the public stage for
the better part of a decade.

To the point where many of his fans can’t look at the guy anymore
without seeing a despicable human being. But even though we know how
the story ends (or do we?) it’s worth going back to the beginning and
reviewing the fascinating career of Mel Gibson.

Gibson was actually born in Peekskill, New York. He was the 6th of 11
children and relocated to Australia at the age of 12. He began his
film career in Australia and in 1979 he had the good fortune to be
cast in George Miller’s apocalyptic action film, Mad Max.

Even today, Mad Max is kind of crazy movie. Most American audiences
think of the post-apocalyptic sequel, The Road Warrior, when they
think of Mad Max. But the original film was about gang warfare on the
open road as society comes crumbling down.

Mad Max has a very loose structure which can be hard to watch. The
ending in which Max takes revenge on the gangsters is killer stuff.
But getting to that point can be pretty brutal. When the film was
released in America in 1980, all the dialogue (including Gibson’s) was
redubbed. While the film was not a hit in America, it was a big hit
over seas.

Gibson was a rising star in Australia. But in 1981, he had two films
which crossed over to the US. The first was Peter Weir’s World War I
drama, Gallipoli. The second was the sequel to Mad Max.

The Road Warrior is one of those movies whose impact is bigger than
the movie itself. Not only did it make Gibson an international star,
it redefined the look and feel of sci-fi movies going forward. Almost
every post-apocalyptic movie made since 1981 owes a debt to Miller’s
Road Warrior.

Kevin Costner drove his career into the ground trying to make his own
Road Warrior-esque post-apocalypse flick. He failed twice.

What strikes me the most about Gibson’s Australian film career is that
in the span of 1979-1981, Gibson managed to work with the two most
successful directors in his country’s film industry.

Wier and Miller would both go on to have long, successful Hollywood
careers. That’s some pretty amazing luck to get to work with two
immensely talented directors so early in your career.

In 1982, Gibson re-teamed with Peter Weir for the first-ever
Australian-Hollywood co-production, The Year of Living Dangerously.
The film co-starred Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hunt who won the
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress while playing a man.

The Year of Living Dangerously was a modest hit in the US, but was
very well-reviewed.

1984 was a big year for Gibson. Before he made his Hollywood debut,
he was first seen in the British remake of Mutiny on the Bounty.
Gibson played Fletcher Christian to Anthony Hopkins’ Bligh. The
Bounty did decent box office and received mostly positive reviews.

Gibsons’s first American film was The River with Sissy Spacek. Gibson
played a farmer who stubbornly refuses to abandon his farm in the face
of floods and foreclosure.

The River received primarily negative reviews. Audiences were already
worn out by similarly themed films farm dramas Country and Places in
the Heart.

The first but not the last time we would see Gibson under arrest…

Gibson ended the year starring opposite Diane Keaton in the gothic
romance, Mrs. Soffel. Gibson played a convict who forms a bond with
the warden’s wife (Keaton) as she reads to him from the bible.

Neither The River nor Mrs. Soffel established Gibson as an American
star. But they definitely allowed Gibson to get his foot in the door
with American audiences. Especially the ladies.

In 1985, Gibson returned to the Australian Mad Max franchise for Mad
Max: Beyond Thunderdome.

Director George Miller lost interest in the project when a friend died
in a helicopter crash while scouting locations for the film. He
agreed to direct the action sequences, but left the rest of the movie
to co-director George Ogilvie.

The result is an uneven movie with some pretty fantastic action
sequences. But the more family-friendly movie was a hit in America
and scored mostly positive reviews.

In 1987, Gibson would finally achieve stardom in the United States
with the first Lethal Weapon.

It’s easy all these years later to assume Lethal Weapon would be a box
office smash. But I remember when it came out thinking that audiences
were already sick of the racially charged buddy cop movie. Lethal
Weapon could have been a cut-rate 48 Hours. But instead, it re-
engerized the genre.

It was a great showcase for Gibson. He got to be serious, funny and
looked great as an action star. Americans finally embraced the Aussie
hunk as more than just a pretty boy.

The next year, Gibson starred opposite Kurt Russell and Michelle
Pfeiffer in Tequila Sunrise.

Tequilla Sunrise is what I call a “post card movie”. It takes place
in an exotic setting filled with beautiful people. But it’s not
especially engaging. Still, those beautiful people sold a lot of
movie tickets.

Tequila Sunrise got decent reviews and helped establish both Gibson
and Pfeiffer as stars. (Poor Kurt Russell never really joined them on
the A-list.)

As big of a hit as Lethal Weapon was, a sequel was inevitable.

Once again, it’s easy to forget how low expectations were for Lethal
Weapon 2. 1989 was a sequel-heavy summer. Batman was the big movie
of the year. But 1989 was packed with Indiana Jones 3, Ghostbusters
2, Star Trek 5, Karate Kid 2 and a James Bond movie.

There was little reason to think a Lethal Weapon sequel would make
much of an impact in such a crowded summer. But Lethal Weapon 2 amped
up the comedy and toned down the grim violence of the original. That
proved to be a winning formula.

Lethal Weapon 2 is arguably the most entertaining movie in the series
if not the best. It became the third highest grossing film of the
year guaranteeing that Danny Glover’s Murtaugh wouldn’t get to retire
any time soon.

1990 was a busy year for Gibson if not an especially good one. Gibson
starred in three films that year. The first was Bird on a Wire, a dim-
witted action/comedy that paired Gibson with Goldie Hawn.

Hawn had been making this exact same movie with diminishing returns
ever since Foul Play with Chevy Chase. She was a talented, beautiful
actress. But for whatever reason most of her movies seemed like they
were filmed without scripts.

Bird on a Wire was bad even by Goldie Hawn standards. I remember
seeing it at an early screening. About the only thing I remember
about the movie is Gibson doing a really unfunny hair dresser schtick.

I started reading the description of the plot to refamiliarize myself
for this article. But then I decided, why bother? The plot was
completely incidental to the movie.

Amazingly, the star power of Gibson and Hawn (but mostly Gibson I’m
guessing) made Bird on a Wire a hit despite the scathing reviews.

Later that year, Gibson starred opposite Robert Downey Jr. in Air
America. Downey was trying to escape the Brat Pack label. But his
career was entering a spiral from which he would not recover for many,
many years. Air America got mixed reviews and audiences were mostly
put off by the Vietnam era action/comedy.

Much to the horror of my high school English teacher, Gibson ended the
year starring in the title role of Franco Zeffirelli’s Hamlet. The
1990 Hamlet is a pretty okay movie. But Gibson is laughably too old
to play the part. And Glenn Close played his mother despite being
only 9 years older than Gibson.

Hamlet didn’t get great reviews and it wasn’t a big hit. But it did
show that Gibson could branch out beyond action/comedies. And
Gibson’s star power helped make Hamlet a bigger force at the box
office than it would have been with a lesser star.

In 1992, Gibson and company returned to the Lethal Weapon well for the
third time. This time, Rene Russo was added to the cast as a love
interest for Gibson. Joe Pesci returned despite having no real reason
to do so.

The premise was wearing thin, but the chemistry between Gibson and
Glover plus the light touch of director Richard Donner made Lethal
Weapon 3 the biggest film in the series.

Later that year, Gibson starred in the time travel melodrama Forever
Young. Forever Young was a return to the kind of heart-throb roles
Gibson played at the start of his Hollywood career.

The movie got mostly negative reviews. But women swooned for Mel and
made Forever Young a respectable hit.

Say what you will about Gibson, but the guy’s got balls. For example,
in 1993 Gibson got the chance to direct a movie. But instead of
picking a surefire hit, Gibson picked Man Without a Face.

Sure, Gibson’s star power practically guaranteed an audience. But
Gibson spent the entire movie buried under burn make-up. It was a
huge gamble for a first-time director and it paid off. Reviews were
mostly positive and the movie was a hit.

In 1994, Gibson reteamed with his Lethal Weapon director for the big
screen adaptation of the TV western Maverick. Jodie Foster and James
Garner (TV’s original Maverick) co-starred.

The movie is big, goofy fun. But it’s purely empty calories. And as
fun as the movie can be, you get the impression Gibson and company had
more fun making it than the audience has watching it.

Reviews were mixed, but Maverick was another hit for Gibson.

In 1995, Gibson released his second film as a director. The movie was
Braveheart. And it bombed.

Seriously, it did.

What? You thought Braveheart was a hit? Well, it was eventually.
But audiences mostly ignored it when it was released in May of 1995.
Amazingly, Paramount kept dumping it back in theaters as the movie
gained critical acclaim and eventually started being nominated for
awards.

Braveheart did eventually become a hit. And it won both Best Picture
and Best Director for Gibson.

It should also be noted that in 1995 Gibson was the voice of John
Smith in Disney’s Pocahontas. And he sang very badly.

Gibson paired with director Ron Howard for the 1996 thriller Ransom.
The tense cat-and-mouse game between Gibson and Gary Sinese made
Ransom a hit with critics and audiences.

Ransom was kind of like a victory lap for Gibson. He was sitting on
the top of the A-list. He had a stack of awards, he was rich. He was
powerful. He could make any movie he wanted and odds are, it would be
a hit. He was beloved.

Just thought I’d point that out for contrast.

In 1997, Gibson starred opposite the biggest actress in Hollywood at
the time, Julia Roberts. Conspiracy Theory was an action/comedy/
thriller directed by Richard Donner.

The movie is kind of a mess and reviews were mixed to negative. But
the star power of Gibson and Roberts guaranteed a decent box office.

Despite making over $100 million dollars worldwide, Conspiracy Theory
was actually something of a disappointment at the box office. It
failed to cross the $100 million figure in domestic box office which
was unheard of for Gibson or Roberts. No one expected the pairing of
the two to result in diminishing returns.

In 1998, Gibson and company finally brought the Lethal Weapon
franchise to an end. Like most people, I saw it mostly out of a sense
of obligation.

Lethal Weapon 4 isn’t a bad movie. But it’s so over-crowded! Each
movie in the series added a new cast member to the Lethal Weapon
family. By the time Chris Rock joined the cast for LW4, there was
barely any room. Which was probably for the best because Chris Rock
isn’t much of an actor.

Gibson and the Lethal Weapon franchise were so popular, that even a
weak installment like Lethal Weapon 4 was still an instant hit. But
it’s probably for the best they didn’t push their luck with Lethal
Weapon 5.

In 1999, Gibson returned to his hard-R roots with the gritty revenge
thriller, Payback. Payback got bad reviews which was pretty rare for
Gibson at the time. But the movie appealed to Gibson’s action-
obsessed fan base and was a hit at the box office.

2000 was a busy year for Gibson. That summer, Gibson did more voice
work in the claymation hit, Chicken Run. And he starred in Roland
Emmerich’s dreadful film, The Patriot.

I loathe The Patriot. But then, Emmerich has never made a movie I
like. So, it’s no surprise that The Patriot doesn’t appeal to me.

The Patriot reduces the Revolutionary War to movie clichés. Gibson is
the reluctant warrior called to action against his will. (And yet
another in a long string of martyr roles for Mel).

Heath Ledger is his doomed son whose ridiculously over-the-top death
will finally spur Gibson to (crowd-pleasing) revenge. And Jason
Isaacs is a villain so evil, I’m pretty sure he ate kittens. But only
after mocking them in a snotty English accent.

The Patriot probably isn’t as bad as I am making it out to be. But
it’s pretty lousy all the same. The reviews were mixed, but audiences
came to see Mel anyway.

Gibson ended the year with the Nancy Meyers comedy, What Women Want.

Gibson played an alpha male ad exec who gets in touch with his
feminine side when he begins to hear women’s inner thoughts. Helen
Hunt co-starred as his rival/love interest. You have to wonder how
different Mel’s life might have been if he’d have paid attention!

Gibson was nominated for a Golden Globe for What Women Want. Reviews
were mostly positive and the movie was a smash. Oh, it was also my
first date with Mrs. lebeau.

Gibson kicked of 2002 with the Vietnam War drama, We Were Soldiers.
We Were Soldiers was kind of an old-fashioned war film. Most Vietnam
films cast the war in a negative light. But We Were Soldiers was more
like the John Wayne war films of old.

It came out during at the same time as a number of other war films
none of which were especially successful. But Gibson’s We Were
Soldiers managed to be a modest hit.

Gibson rebounded in a big way later that year with M. Night
Shyamalan’s Signs.

Shyamalan was still smarting over the relative disappointment of his
Sixth Sense follow-up, Unbreakable. He needed another big hit. And
Gibson delivered. Signs was Gibson’s biggest hit as an actor.

I’m guessing most of you have seen Signs and formed your own opinion.
I enjoyed seeing it in the theater. But it’s a ridiculous film. And
I can’t watch it any more without asking questions about why an alien
race which can travel through space hasn’t invented pants or figure
out how to escape a pantry.

Or why, if water is lethal to them, they would invade a planet that is
mostly water.

Hey, Shyamalan has made a lot worse, right?

After Signs, Gibson took some time off in front of the camera. He
said in interviews he was no longer interested in being a movie star.
Instead, he produced movies like The Singing Detective and Paparazzi –
neither of which were hits.

In 2004, Gibson directed The Passion of the Christ and all hell broke
loose.

What is there to say about The Passion of the Christ that hasn’t
already been said? It’s the most violent Jesus movie of all times.
Evangelicals loved it. They were bussed to the movie in droves thanks
to a clever marketing strategy.

In spite of criticisms that the movie was anti-Semitic, it was a huge
hit.

The Passion of the Christ was a high-stakes gamble. The studios
wouldn’t touch it. Gibson was forced to release the movie himself.
So when it turned out to be one of the most profitable movies of all
times, Gibson got to keep the lion’s share of the record-breaking
profits.

While the controversies behind The Passion of the Christ made Gibson a
little less popular in Hollywood, he was now more powerful than ever.
That wouldn’t last long though.

Summer of 2006 is when Mel’s hard living finally caught up with him.
I’m sure you all know the details. DUI. Hate-filled rant. “Sugar
tits”. Your basic melt-down. Gibson did the usual Hollywood
apology. His publicist released statements promising Mel would go to
rehab. Blah, blah, blah.

Some speculated that Gibson’s career was over. But the truth is,
audiences will excuse a lot of bad behavior. Before you could say
“Charlie Sheen” Gibson’s career was back on track.

Gibson’s scandals were still fresh in everyone’s mind when Apocalypto
came out later that year. It was a violent movie in a foreign
language about an ancient Mayan civilization. In other words, a tough
sell. Many expected audiences to stay away in droves – especially in
light of Gibson’s antics.

And yet, audiences showed up. The reviews were primarily positive and
Apocalypto was a hit. In spite of behavior that would have killed
most Hollywood careers, Gibson was being given a very generous second
chance.

In 2010, Gibson returned to the big screen in a leading role for the
first time since Signs in 2002. The move was another dark, edgy
action movie, Edge of Darkness.

Based on a BBC mini-series, Edge of Darkness got mixed reviews. It
wasn’t a hit for Gibson. But it didn’t bomb either. If anything, it
can probably be viewed as a minor victory in that audiences didn’t
seem to be holding his scandals against him.

And then came the tapes. If you have listened to the Gibson tapes
from the summer of 2010, odds are he said something that offended
you. He said something to offend everyone!

There were allegations of domestic violence. More racism – just in
case you had any doubts.

Personally, I didn’t listen to the tapes – although they were
available everywhere. As a rule, I’m not interested in a celebrity’s
dirty laundry. I avoid it if at all possible.

I don’t care about an actor’s personal life, political affiliation or
religious beliefs. I try to judge an artist by their work, not by how
they live their lives.

With Gibson, I find this to be nearly impossible. Even though I
avoided the tapes, I’ve seen some of the content excerpted. And it’s
vile.

At a certain point, you just can’t look at the guy without thinking
about what he said. That’s where I’m at with Gibson. I can’t suspend
my disbelief to accept him as a character. All I see is a rich,
racist alcoholic. One who most likely has some pretty serious rage
issues.

The Beaver was a casualty of Gibson’s scandals. The film about a man
who can only express himself through the use of a beaver puppet was
directed by Gibson’s friend and Maverick co-star, Jodie Foster.

At the time Gibson was cast, the general consensus was that Foster was
throwing a lifeline to her friend when no one else would take a chance
on him.

Filming was completed in 2009 and it looked like The Beaver might
weather the storm of Gibson’s DUI. But when the tapes broke, The
Beaver got put on a shelf. Foster still came to Gibson’s defense.
But when The Beaver was finally released in 2011, it was a bomb.

The movie is actually a pretty fascinating train wreck. (You can read
my review here.) Even without the scandal, I don’t think there is any
way it would have been a hit. But because of the tapes, we never got
a chance to find out. The Beaver was DOA.

Gibson was supposed to make his post-scandal comeback in a cameo in
The Hangover 2. Actor Zach Galifianakis protested.

Eventually, the media picked up the story and soon Gibson’s cameo was
cut. Personally, I think it had less to do with keeping the stand-up
comic happy and more to do with the fact that people were cheering him
for opposing Gibson.

The cameo in The Hangover 2 is a relatively minor bump in the road for
a career as long as Gibson’s. But it’s a telling sign of how far
Gibson has fallen. At one point, he was bigger than the A-list. He
was beyond the studio system. He thrived even without the studios
backing him. And now, he can’t even get a cameo in a summer movie.

Gibson’s return to the big screen was finally supposed to happen in
2012 with the Mexican-themed comedy/action film, Get the Gringo. But
Gringo, which Gibson co-wrote, could not get a theatrical release in
the US.

Despite getting largely positive reviews, Get the Gringo was released
direct to video. Gibson tried to put a positive spin on this
development, “We’re just in a different era. Many people just like to
see things in their homes….I think it’s the future.”

It may be Gibson’s future.

Gibson also made headlines in 2012 for a movie that never got made.
Gibson had teamed with infamous Basic Instnict screen writer Joe
Eszterhas to make a film about (of all things) the Maccabees.

Given Gibson’s anti-semetic statements, the announcement that Gibson
was planning to make such a movie was met with controversy. But
Gibson and Eszterhas could not get along. Once again, tapes of
Gibson’s rage leaked to the public. The studio pulled the plug on the
project and Eszterhas wrote a book called Heaven and Mel about the
experience.

In 2013, Gibson will finally make his return to the big screen. He
has a cameo in the Machete sequel, Machete Kills. The film is loaded
with stunt casting like Gibson, Lady Gaga and Charlie Sheen. It’s
hard to imagine Gibson’s cameo having much of an impact on his current
exile.

Of all the Hollywood careers I have chronicled so far, Gibson’s fall
was the farthest. And he brought it all on himself.