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Braveheart in Gallipoli

8.9.06 @ 12:01AM

THE REVIEWS ARE IN
Re: Hal G.P. Colebatch's The Real Case Against Mel Gibson:

Putting aside the fact -- bizarre in and of itself -- that Mr. Colebatch finds the historical inaccuracies in Mel Gibson's films far more offensive than the actor's now-infamous outburst ("a relative triviality"?), his charges against Gibson are exceptionally weak even on their own terms.

Mr. Colebatch spends most of his time damning the 1981 film Gallipoli. I have neither seen the film nor am I am expert regarding the battle it was based on, so I'll take Mr. Colebatch at his word on its historical inaccuracies. What baffles me is why he blames Gibson for this. Gibson was all of about 23 years old when he appeared in the film as an actor. By all accounts he had no other input into the film, which was written, directed and produced by others. If Mr. Colebatch finds the film offensive then he should direct his ire at those people.

Mr. Colebatch is on firmer ground in his criticisms of Braveheart and the Patriot, since Gibson did have creative control over those projects. But even here, his point isn't very strong. Neither film is presented as a true account of history but rather as Hollywood adventures inspired by true events. Audiences have known since the days of Errol Flynn not to take these films seriously.

In the case of William Wallace, there literally isn't a whole lot known, so any film about him is obliged to invent details. Gibson makes no effort to hide this either. In the audio commentary track to the DVD edition he points out many of the inaccuracies, anachronisms and inventions in the film himself. He makes no bones about taking dramatic license to make a simpler, more audience-pleasing film. So why does Mr. Colebatch take the film's history more seriously than Gibson does?

The same points can be made regarding Patriot -- a film I did not like -- but one that nobody in their right mind would watch as historical documentary.
-- Sean Higgins
Washington, D.C.

Mr. Colebatch needs to get his knickers out of a knot over Mel Gibson's movies. He goes into all of the problems of anti-British sentiment in Gibson's movies, as this is something that matters.

Mr. Gibson makes movies, not history documentaries. In any movie based on a real event, there will be liberties taken with the facts to create dramatic moments, conversations will be created to keep the movie going along at a good pace ...that's just how movies work. Anyone going to see "The Patriot," "Braveheart," or "Gallipoli" expecting to get a history lesson is a bit naive; there is a reason that fiction sells millions of copies, while histories sell in the thousands.

As for the specific contention about "The Patriot", nowhere did the movie imply that the Continental Army was fighting to free the slaves. The one slave in the movie was given by his master to fight in his master's stead. After a year of service, the slave was given his freedom. Was it historically accurate? Maybe not, but it was a dramatic addition to the movie to make the 'good guys' look even more noble. Again, that's showbiz ...deal with it!

But what I really have a problem with is the suggestion that "The Passion of the Christ" was somehow anti-Semitic, even though the author says that he has never seen the movie. He insinuates that Gibson should have somehow rewritten the Bible itself to spare the feelings of those Jews that could possibly be offended by the portrayal of Jews in the movie. The problem is that what Gibson filmed was true to the Gospels and in no way disparaged the Jews; the simple fact is that the vast majority of Jerusalem was filled with Jews, the Sanhedrin and the high priests were Jews, and they were responsible for delivering Christ into the hands of the Romans. What would he have had Gibson do, rewrite the characters so that the Sanhedrin were no longer Jewish, but maybe Arabs?

I think that it is ridiculous to blame Mel Gibson's movies for not being history lessons, or especially for "Braveheart" igniting some kind of British-Scotch animosity. Maybe, just maybe, there were already some problems there that the movie just brought to the surface. And even if that is the case, it is foolish to blame a movie for creating the problems!

Mel Gibson is an actor, and a good one at that, and while what he said was abhorrent, it certainly does not deserve all of the outrage and ink that it has gotten. Get your panties out of a bunch and let the Gibson story die the death it deserves.
-- E.D. Edwards
Stokes County, North Carolina

When I read Mr. Colebatch's piece this morning I had to check to see if my computer had inadvertently found itself at a liberal web-site. It hadn't. If we want to judge a person's life and we go by the films they have made we have what ....a statement of who they really are or we have what...Hollywood???!!! That might be a refreshing sign that all of the U.S. could forget actors and actresses (it is about time, I might add). As Laura Ingraham says in the title of her book, Shut Up and Sing, they need to entertain and not try to open their mouths to spout their thoughts.

I am tired of talking about Mel Gibson. Two incidents happened on July 28th, Mel's spouting and real terrorism on our shores, a Muslim man who used a hostage in Seattle to enter a Jewish Center and wound and kill. Which is the real threat? Why had the news media kept quiet about this incident (and many others like it?) Well, it is easier to keep people stuck on stupid than it is to really measure the signs of the time and where the real threat is coming from, radical Islam. It is time we distinguished between the real and the make believe. Or soon we may find ourselves hollering wolf about the wrong incident long enough that when the real killing comes to our shores we won't know how to respond to the REAL thing!

Any ill thoughts Mr. Gibson may have had about anyone he will answer to someday in Heavenly Court. I have enough I will answer to that I don't need to be concerned about another's sins. His real sin, the Liberal Press in Hollywood believes, is that he made one magnificent film about Christ and they cannot get over his moxy of bucking them, bucking all predictions about its failure (they did try hard enough to see the film failed), and they were proved wrong. When a person succeeds at Heavenly job, he/she must be on alert to guard their thoughts and mind from sin. Mr. Gibson knew this during the filming of the movie. He made sure he went to Mass daily and measured his behavior daily to avoid sin and temptation.

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