Return of Mel Gibson

[Rev. Rye]

The fact is, he's an immensely talented actor. I never cease to marvel at the fact that he can play a role where there isn't the tiniest hint of the monster that lurks beneath the skin. He's one of the best at his craft even though he's a despicable human being. I guess the talent is hard to ignore in Hollywood.

Let's face it, he's one of a long line of artists who put out great work, but also happen to be execrable human beings. If we put every director, author, musician, or actor who turns out to be a gaping asshole down the memory hole, where would our culture be?

John Lennon apparently beat the shit out of his wives (although it seems he got better by the time Sean was born); Klaus Kinski raped his daughters and, from what I've been able to gleam, seemed to be just open enough about it (just ask William Malone) to not be arrested; William S. Burroughs killed his own wife and served hardly any jail time for it; Walter Brennan was an outspoken opponent of the civil rights movement, up to the point where he celebrated when Martin Luther King Jr. got assassinated; Roman Polanski drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl; Edgar Degas was a virulent antisemite who got even worse after news of the Dreyfus affair came out. The list goes on and on, and even longer if we include the ones whose misdeeds weren't verified. And yet, we didn't let any of them drop out of the cultural consciousness for their misdeeds. Why should Mel Gibson be any different? Maybe Signs and The Patriot haven't held up, but there's still so much in his filmography for me to say he shouldn't be stuck down the memory hole.