Apocalypto Musings, Or: Judging Films Before They Come Out Based Solely On Whether Or Not You'd Have Him Over For Dinner

This is a subject I've talked about at extreme length in a variety of settings, so...screw you! I'm talking about it again!

My friend Julie recently joined a Facebook group called "Boycott Apocalypto and Mel Gibson." While it is a group of a mere 14 members, it echoes sentiments I've been hearing for a few months now. That sentiment is...Mel Gibson's a dick, don't see his movie. First part, definitely true. But guess what? For every person in Hollywood who actually says something massively offensive, there's a solid hundred or so who have good enough publicists to get them to keep their mouths shut. And Tom Cruise is a perfect example of this. For the longest time (I'm talking two decades longest time), Tom Cruise was America's poster boy. EVERYONE loved Tom Cruise. Even if you didn't really like him, you still loved him. Don't deny it. Nobody even cared that he's a scientologist, which yes, has been of public record for many many years. Yet all the while, crazy was brewing inside of him. Michael Richards is another fine example (though I'm less surprised that he's a little off, and he was more suffering from a case of "that guy's still working?" when all that started).

Anyway, point is, you're supporting dozens, maybe even hundreds of crazy people every time you go to the movies. Actually, Sylvestor Stallone put it best - "The truth be known, I am insane with long, horrible fits of sanity. Now, if you can make insanity work for you, that's actually called creativity. If you can't, that's called a menace to society."

Additionally, trying to rally together a boycott of anything is the dumbest course of action ever. Better course of action? Get a lot of people of various backgrounds and opinions TO see the movie, and have a discussion afterwards. Don't wanna spend the cash? Then shut up and stick with yelling "Mel Gibson is a dick," which everyone kinda knows anyway (although this whole drunken yelling thing was blown way outta proportion - if I had a dollar for every dumb thing I've heard someone yell while drunk, I'd have a few weeks of good solid restaurant meals). Just don't associate that with his work. I've known a number of people I hate the living hell out of (you can change "hate" to "greatly dislike" if you're one of those people who, for reasons that are beyond me, can't stand the word), but who I will admit are damn good at what they do (Rob Kodadek being the one that most immediately springs to mind).

I don't really care if you see Apocalypto or not. Hell, feel free to say it's probably a crappy movie. I think it looks pretty badass. But don't be one of those people whose first thought in weighing whether or not to see something revolves around People Magazine's cover story. You're not going there to be their best friend. You're going (I hope) to see something creative that'll make you feel or think or (if you're lucky enough) both.

P.S. There is a subargument to the boycotting of Apocalypto that claims Gibson took advantage of Mexican labor in the making of the movie. I don't know the whole story (who does?), but the only thing I heard of that one could interpret as such was this LA Times article that stated he often called for extras and other crew people to get to the set at 1 AM to be in make-up and so forth, only to, hours later, roll by and tell them they won't be needed for the day. The way the article has it, though, is that the people were still paid for their time, it's just that labor in Mexico is much cheaper than in America and Gibson's rich enough to not give a damn how much it costs him. So I guess he really inconvenienced them, but "took advantage of" might be a bit harsh. Also, shooting a movie like this is not easy under the best of circumstances, and things are bound to change when it's essentially one guy running the show.