Gibson's really done it this time. It doesn't really matter that much that his ex-girlfriend and mother of his love-child might well have purposely set him up, and baited him into going off on a rant. She admitted, in fact, recording him for what she claimed was evidence, for her own protection against him, explaining that he had threatened her and even physically assaulted her by knocking out her teeth-a charge he has denied.
But you know, even if that could be conclusively proven to be a lie, and that she did go so far as to bait him into engaging in a rant, perhaps while he was intoxicated, its almost totally irrelevant. He said what he said, and what he said is beyond the pale.
Of course, his detractors are mainly focused on the racial slurs and the misogyny, even though they occurred in what Gibson assumed was the privacy of his own home. True, Gibson is a public figure and so is held to a higher standard, but by the same token you get a distinct impression that many of his detractors, such as Jesse Jackson, and the LA Chapter of the NAACP, would like to use this as an example of the kind of covert racism that is endemic in a large percentage of American households. And then there is the misogynistic nature of Gibson's tirade, which is receiving a great deal of attention as well.
He called her a "cunt" and declared that she deserved to be "raped by a pack of niggers", telling her that "it would be your fault". Yet, as bad as all this is, it actually pales beside a couple of other factors that aren't getting one fourth the coverage as the racist and misogynistic nature of what has been described as a thirty minute "demonic" rant.
One, their child was there, apparently in the same room, while this roughly thirty minute tirade was on-going. She can be heard clearly, crying in the background.
Two, and perhaps more disturbingly, he did threaten her, telling her he would burn down the house, adding "but first you will blow me."
I doubt this tape can be used as evidence in a court of law, or even in a civil suit, but that's almost beside the point as well. Gibson has dug himself a hole now for sure, one that all of the sensitivity training and tear-jerk apologies on all the late night talk shows and cable news channels in the world isn't going to pull him out of. In fact, that might only serve to dig the hole deeper at this point. Perhaps the best thing to do would be to just shut the fuck up and try to work out some kind of arrangement for the good of the kid involved. He has backed himself into a corner now, and the overt publicity, as well as common decency, will demand that he step up and try to make things right as far as his financial obligations to the child and to its future well-being.
His career as he has known it is probably in the crapper at this point. His next best shot at a major role might well be as a WCW wrestling villain-if he's lucky.
Without a doubt, people will go to see his next movie, or would do so if he can find a distributor, and a studio or company to finance it. He certainly can't count on financing it himself and ending up with yet another success on the level of Passion of The Christ. I hate to say it, but maybe he should just think about retiring at this point. Nothing he could ever do is likely to please the vast majority of the people he has offended here. Perhaps that is wrong, but it is probably a fact.
I would go see anything he made, and so would many others, but that is by no means an endorsement. I would buy an original Charles Manson recording, and if a museum featured an exhibit of Hitler's artwork, I would go to see it, if possible. That should not be construed as any kind of agreement or affinity for such people as they. I would simply try to judge the works of both on the basis of their artistic merits, or the lack thereof, but for the most part would view it more as an historical oddity and curiosity.
In that same spirit, while I certainly don't mean to imply that Gibson is anywhere near on the same level of monstrosity as Manson or Hitler, I can't defend this. I'm not sure how it would be possible even if I wanted to, which I do not.
