Booze, releasing the inner child for milleniums.

I always thought that South Park episode portraying Gibson as a lunatic was a cheap shot and a nasty invention on the part of Matt Stone and Trey Parker. I don't think that anymore.

Gibson is bat shit insane.  Doesn't mean he's not talented, someone once mentioned that Jim Carrey has a very marketable form of mental illness, but, yeah, Gibson is cuckoo for Cocoa-Puffs. 

Which is a long way of saying- Yes, I think that the writer is hack who is upset his script got rejected.

Oh yeah, just because Gibson is crazypants doesn't mean that Joel "It was my hack script for Jade that ultimately gave you Caruso and his Sunglasses Of Justice, no don't thank me" Eszterhas is in the right.

I feel a great deal of pity for Mel Gibson.  I    really think the guy had some kind of mental breakdown back around the time of Passion of the Christ, and he's never recovered.   I tend to think he was trying to exorcise some inner demons with Passion, but    to no avail.     He genuinely needs help, of the spiritual and psychological varieties.  

It's a shame, but it doesn't excuse his out of    control behavior in rants like this one.    He needs to fade    away from the spotlight for a while    and     get himself right in the head, heart and soul.    Then, if his passion is still in filmmaking, try to make a comeback.    But only then.

PS -- Eszterhas has had ages to write this script, and bags of money paid towards it.   I    don't have much sympathy for him.     I should have more, but I just can't summon the     urge to care.

A HOWLING WITH RAGE drunk guy? Yeah, I guess. I guess we've all been there.

But... this seems to happen a lot.

I thought it was pretty common knowledge that Gibson is/was an alcoholic. Add to that the whole utterly bizarre crap with his dad and the Pope and his father's massive issues with Jews and, well, yeah. The ending is pretty inevitable.

Not to say he's not talented, he is.  I have to admit I thought it was hilarious to read the reviews of Apocalypto that were all but but but it's so violent!  Yes.  Because what the Mayans are known for is the peace and calm that permeated the Mayan society. It's shocking to read that a movie about the Mayans could possibly contain any violence.

I was waiting for the phrase "authorities believe that alcohol was involved".

O/T Doom....or maybe anti-Doom:  Greek town creates alternate currency (link to BBC Youtube clip which incorrectly labels it a bartering system)

Back on topic:  Eszterhas, you can have your script back, but first you will blow me!

Gah, here's the link  http://tinyurl.com/7e9c9pe

Joe Eszterhas - not a household name.

But now he'll be known as Mel Gibson's tape guy.

So he's got that going for him.

The flail scene in Passion of the Christ is more than just a filmmaker trying to give an accurate portrayal of what Christ would have gone through.   It is a filmmaker's     brutal,    public      self-flagellation,     done       in an attempt to atone for       past sins.    I really believe that.

In other words, Mel has issues.  Lots of issues.

45....I have to admit I thought it was hilarious to read the reviews of Apocalypto that were all but but but it's so violent!

I doubt that the Aztlan/LaRaza  activists  liked that movie either. ....They would have us believe that the Aztecs and Mayans were 'peaceful' people and that their ancestors deserve to take over the Western US states. 

Posted by: BlackOrchid at April 19, 2012 11:06 AM (SB0V2)

I love the movie "Crumb"; what a dysfunctional family.  I still like Crumb more than the prick Harvey Pekar whom I've met before he went to Hell.

Posted by: Captain Hate at April 19, 2012 11:13 AM (4atNB)

Please don't sugar coat the rest of your posts here CH.  LET IT OUT!!

Posted by: wheatie at April 19, 2012 11:16 AM (+5U+B)

You forgot that they were all vegan Gaia    lovers who never polluted or disturbed nature's balance.  *solemn nod*

One Hollywood narcissist disagrees with another Hollywood narcissist.

Who cares?

Ummm yeah, South Park?  Cheap shot?  Seriously?  (Tilts head like Kyle in the 9/11 conspiracy episode)  You are surprised they took a cheap shot?

These are the same guys who portray Sally Strothers as Jaba the Hut.  Streisand is a robot trying to destroy the world through the power of some ancient stones, only to be stopped by Sidney Poitier and Robert Smith of the Cure.  Rob Reiner is a giant pile of goo.  Need I go on?  Snookie?  Tom Cruise?  The nation of Canada? 

Cheap shots is kinda what they do, it's why they've been in business as long as they have. 

Mel Gibson:  "This script sucks.  You are fired."

Eszterhas:  "Mel Gibson is anti-semitic."

Eszterhas is using the Garafalo defense:  If you disagree with me you are a racist.

You can't just take the position "We'll figure it all out in the second, third and fourth drafts." Then, um, just skip directly to those drafts. No one profits from a waste of time script in which there are no problems solved and no insights or cool parts.

The exception to the rule:   every   g-ddamn Star Wars prequel.

Posted by: weft cut-loop at April 19, 2012 11:28 AM (Ck8hC)

==========================

Funny shit right there...

/yawn...

This is nothing... F'n A... I'm from the OLD Pre PC Navy... should of heard my first CPO!

I hope Gibson does make the Macabees movie. For all his problems, he's a great actor and director.

It's an interesting subject that I would like to see in a movie.

Posted by: ace at April 19, 2012 11:28 AM (nj1bB)

Yes, well, he's a muttering psychopath that has entertained me richly over the years, Ace. I don't think I'd go camping with him, though.

I don't know enough about the inner-most thoughts inside Mel Gibson's head, to know if he is truly 'anti-semite'.....or simply fed up with the liberal Hollywood jews who control everything, and support liberal anti-American politicians.

I mean, how can all these high-powered Hollywood jewish folk keep supporting Barky....since he has been so anti-Israel? ....It makes no sense.

112 -

Ok, I see your point.  I've listened to their commentary on the episode, I'm sure, but don't remember exactly what they said, but I thought maybe they hinted at that very thing.  That they were basing their portrayal on things they either knew or heard at the time, but were not common knowledge. 

I will say this though, as long as they have been doing what they do, there are very few circumstances where they went too far, in the sense that they ripped on somebody who didn't earn it somehow.  Honestly though, as much as I have no interest in the Jersey stuff that is all over the tv, I think it's possible that might be one exception.  I mean, Snookie, I know nothing about her other than that she's on tv and she's from Jersey, but I have a hard time believing she did anything to deserve being portrayed as she was.  Maybe she has, but whatever it is, it would have to be pretty darned bad. 

Posted by: WalrusRex at April 19, 2012 11:35 AM (Hx5uv)

I fail to see the issue here.

I>>sn't he a huge Three Stooges fan? I think he just loves that corny humor.

I kind of think he was sorta playing himself in the Lethal Weapon movies.

A little bit unbalanced, heavy drinker, on the edge of becoming weird recluse who lives alone watching Three Stooges or slapstick comedies.

Posted by: kbdabear at April 19, 2012 11:35 AM (Y+DPZ)

Oh yes, he gets his lunacy honestly no doubt.  But as others have pointed out he's a talented nut.  I mean Jesus fucking Christ, how long of a career did that fat turd Brando have despite being a worthless pos who was horrible to his own fucking children and every delusional skirt he used as his own personal cum dumpster?.

>>>I do love Mel in Payback. One of my favorites.

That is an overlooked movie. It's nothing special, but I always watch it when it's on tv.

Posted by: Captain Hate at April 19, 2012 11:40 AM (4atNB)

I thought you meant Hemingway for a second there. Same MO.

Imagine if Wallace just yelled "We shall fight for our freedom! Freedom! Yah, freedom! Whoo-Hoo! We shall have freedom, and we shall lay the groundwork for the moderal social welfare state!"<<<<<

Yeah, but Ezsterhaus ALSO put in (holds clenched fist in air with head lowered).

That's what we like to call POWERFUL IMAGERY, ace.  Jeez, what a freaking nitpicker you are.

Posted by: kbdabear at April 19, 2012 11:35 AM (Y+DPZ)

===================================

The real scary part about Hutton Gibson is that my Brother in law looks up to this loon.  He's met him and he speaks very highly of him.  BTW, my bil is a whack job as well.  Holocaust denier, 2nd vatican council and all that.  Truly crazy.

150 As much as Mel gets ripped for being anti-Semitic, in his films at least you could make a stronger case for him being viciously anti-British. Braveheart might be entertaining, but as history it's horribly inaccurate. And don't even get me started on that Patriot flick. Yeesh!

Are you saying that the British didn't engage in the sort of brutality that was depicted in those movies?

>>I don't think the studio ever had any intention of making the movie. I think they threw some development money at it as a sop to Gibson, maintaining a relationship, and at a point when Gibson needed a relationship. It also helped gibson the film would be a positive portrayal of Jews.

That's a shame. He's directed several entertaining (loosely) history based films.

I really do hope they make this film and I hope Gibson is the one to make it.

He's a great director and this is an interesitng topic.

Way off topic notice:  I just caught part of a movie called Riders to the stars.  The premise is they must go into space and retrieve a meteor for research.  On of the actors asked how do we get back.  Answer, "The rocket is equipped with wings which will extend during decent". Another actor, "you mean we land like a glider?"  

Another asks, "why don't you build an electronic brain to fly the rocket?"  Actor scientist, "To construct an electronic brain equal to the functions of a human brain it would have to be at least a mile long and would weigh thousands of tons."

I thought it interesting the writer had conceived of a shuttle in the fifties and the exponial reduction in computer size vs. power is referenced in 1954.

Posted by: nickless at April 19, 2012 11:48 AM (SH452)

169 -

Essentially, yes, that's what I'm saying. 

Ace, have you ever sold one of your screenplays?  Or do you just write about writing screenplays?

Thought so. 

Posted by: wheatie at April 19, 2012 11:49 AM (+5U+B)

Uh oh. You wouldn't be O'wheatie by any chance?

Posted by: Sgt. York at April 19, 2012 11:45 AM (8gfDb)

As much of a provincial joke as the Cleveland Plain Dealer is, he was their in-house clown because everybody knew he was a lazy load who just made shit up.  He wrote very vividly and in a readable fashion for Rolling Stone in the early 70s but you couldn't place any stock in the accuracy of it.  He probably did it to get his ashes hauled because I don't think anybody who's ever been his temporary toady would go so far as to call him even close to good looking.

Why did Gibson's project (mentioned above) on the Viking era fall through?  If he gave it the Apocalypto treatment, that would have been epic - even with Leonardo di Caprio in it.  Gibson strikes me as the one director who could really put on film the reason why Dark Age monks scribbled "Lord deliver us from the fury of the Northmen" in the margins of their hand-copied manuscripts.

And that's one area Hollywood has yet to tackle with the sort of authentic realism that it deserves - apart from The Thirteenth Warior (which was just a pale shadow of Crichton's impeccably-researched re-telling of the Beowulf saga) and maybeeeee the motion-capture Beowulf itself, there's never been any really layered look at the complexities and the violence of Dark Age Germanic and Viking culture.

I think Gibson could have pulled it off, just like I think he would be one of the most interesting choices to direct some of Robert E. Howard's work - imagine his treatment of say, Solomon Kane, or Kull.

>>>And that's one area Hollywood has yet to tackle with the sort of authentic realism that it deserves - apart from The Thirteenth Warior (which was just a pale shadow of Crichton's impeccably-researched re-telling of the Beowulf saga) and maybeeeee the motion-capture Beowulf itself, there's never been any really layered look at the complexities and the violence of Dark Age Germanic and Viking culture.

There was a decent movie on the Vikings, I think it was called Pathfinder. Not great, but not total crap either.

But you're right. I would like to see a big budget production on the Vikings.

See, that's not the Very First Thing That Pops Into Your Head, as Eszterhas' "freedom to educate our children" thing is, now is it? "And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that..." is an unexpected way and interesting way to preface the Tough Sledding part about freedom.

---

Of course even that is just plagerizing the Bard

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition:

And gentlemen in England now a-bed

Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

Posted by: Ben at April 19, 2012 11:57 AM (wuv1c)

Yeah.... huge areas of history Hollywood either has not, or no longer, will do...

I'm really waiting for them to do some Napolonic era stuff... sooooo much history there, and it does NOT have to be French Centric...

"Ace,have you ever soldone of yourscreenplays? Or do you just write about writing screenplays?
Thought so. "

(holds clenched fist raised in air with head lowered.)

Powerful, Freddie.  Fuckin powerful.

182
Are you saying that the British didn't engage in the sort of brutality that was depicted in those movies?

.........Posted by: wheatie at April 19, 2012 11:49 AM (+5U+B)

------------------------- 

Uh oh. You wouldn't be O'wheatie by any chance?

------------------------

Hardly. .....I'm your basic American mutt....with equal parts Brit, Irish, Scandi, Cherokee ancestry.

But I do know this.... There had to be a damn good reason for people to risk life and limb.....basically, risk everything they held dear.....and rise up to fight their British overlords.

I'm not an anti-British, anti-colonialist sort either. ....If the British had not gone out and colonized the planet the way they did, then the world would be a much different place today. ....And poorer for it, imo. So, I am proud of my British heritage.

I just think that the British may have had some people in their ranks, back in those time periods.....people who went overboard and inflamed their subjects to the point of taking up arms against them.

Posted by: Leo Ladenson at April 19, 2012 12:05 PM (mAm+G)

All screenwriters are frustrated screenwriters.

>>>Yeah.... huge areas of history Hollywood either has not, or no longer, will do...

Indeed. I still have yet to see a very good film about WW1(since the original All Quiet on the Western Front) or the Boer War. I would like to see something on both.

I remember seeing a movie(on PBS i think) called My Boy Jack. It was about Rudyard Kipling's son and he was played by the Harry Potter actor.  It was a decent film.  Also, The Lost Batallion, another made for TV movie with Ricky Schroeder was entertaniing. Nothing special, but I enjoyed it.

I think both of those eras are overdue for a good movie.

>>>But at least he is still working. He unfortunately doesn't get the director's chair anymore, but he does a lot of screenwriting (especially for TV). He was a producer/writer on HBO's "Rome," plus is developing a new series for them called "Pharaoh" (as well as a miniseries on the Aztecs and a feature film about Genghis Khan).

I loved Rome. That was a great series.

>>Indeed. I still have yet to see a very good film about WW1

Check out Beneath Hill 60; austrialian flick and kind of hard to find in the US.  Don't watch it if you're claustrophobic, though.

225.....I loved Rome. That was a great series.

Yeah, I loved Rome too. ....Even though they put history through a blender, it was entertaining....and their attention to the sets and details of daily life was really good. Very expensive to do that. ....Which is why they cut it from a 5 year run, down to a 2 year run.

Posted by: Ben at April 19, 2012 12:09 PM (wuv1c)

I enjoyed the 'Young Indiana Jones' stuff set in WW1 as well... twisted history about but fun.... but that was a few years ago...

Problem is with historical Pictures today, we have moved to worldwide audiences and as EVERYONE has some Axe to grind... it will tick off somebody...

Heck, there are reports a Red Chinese company is bying into 'Iron Man 3'... and you don't think THAT will modify any potential story line?

>>I just watched that last night. It didn't hold up, or maybe I'm just used to more sophisticated anti-war propaganda, like giant papier-mache puppet heads. The cinematography in the battle scenes was pretty good, though.

Are you talking about the original black and white one or the the 70s remake?

I thought the original holds up.  Also, it is anti-war, but really everyone should have been anti-WW1. It destroyed Europe and accomplished nothing.

It's an enjoyable anti-war story because it was a pre-Vietnam anti-war story.

Everything written about war after the 1960s is tainted by the Vietnam anti-war experience. Even Breaker Morant, a film I liked, had too much of a Vietnam-esque feeling to it.

I loved "Rome". I have both on DVD.

Of course the problem is that the set burned down.

Que mala est.

Posted by: Scott at April 19, 2012 12:16 PM (S3AFi)

Watch it Scott, Ace is putting us some variety.

Did I do OK eleven?

I have a soft spot for Mel as well, but he has "rather" abused the privledge.

But still, as a drunk, out of control guy, how bad can you feel?

Remember South Park? (the tits..the tits)

>>232 - Gallipoli

That was a decent film, but that was about a very small part of the war and only 20 minutes of the film contained actual war.

It was a perfect film in the sense that it was the pre-war and brief war experience of two men, but I'm talking about something more grand.

Something beyond just telling a story with WW1 in the background.  I did like Gallipoli, A Very Long Engagement(good French film about a woman looking for her lost love after the war), the Blue Max and a few others.

However the last few have been junk. I thought Joyeaux Noel was pretty bad. It was supposedly about the Christmas Truce in the first year of the war.

Posted by: Beefy Meatball at April 19, 2012 11:49 AM (mxnUd)

I really like the Zombie Apocalypse pic you have up.

Ace, I'm sorry if Mel is an imbiber. So many of us are.

BUT, there is a limit. Amazingly, he has continued to push the border and I am happy with that.

Australians....what could  you do without them.

I have yet to see a very good film about WW1

I think a lot of folks are confused about WWI so they don't want to tackle it.     In     WWII there    were      actual    PEOPLE and THINGS that    have stayed in the modern lexicon:      Hitler,  Mussolini, Hirohito;   Churchill, Roosevelt, Truman;   MacArthur, de Gaulle,  Montgomery;   kamikaze, Luftwaffe, RAF;       Pearl Harbor,   Iwo Jima,      Battle of the Bulge;    Auschwitz, Dachau, Bergen Belsen.

In WWI  it was such a mishmosh of    conflicting alliances that your typical modern moviegoer wouldn't have a fucking clue what's going on.     Is there a single name or event that stands out with the same clarity as "Hitler" or "Normandy?"        You might get someone who understands the significance of Flanders Fields and the reasons    for the red poppies you can get on Memorial Day,   or someone who knows the story of the Christmas armistice when    the armies came out of their trenches to celebrate together for one night.   But beyond those    examples   -- and even those are stretching it --   I'm sad to say    the closest you'll get to     a    modern      understanding of WWI is, "Didn't that start because some German guy was shot?"

0I'm sitting in McDonald's and there's a woman here who looks like Giada DeLaurentis. That can perk up your day, lemmetellya.

She won't for long.

I also believe that Mel has a very short fuse.

He strikes me as the kind of person who would be fun to party with, but not the kind of person that you want to piss off.

He's got those crazy eyes. Not the stone cold serial killer type- but the aggravated assault type.

Go look at "Fall of Eagles". It will explain all the dynastic connections and why it was do hard for them all.

No exuses, but truth as it at were.

I'm Jewish and supposed to hate Gibson but I don't. He had a drunken verbal outburst at a cop.  Nobody got hurt.

He keeps out of politics, doesn't spend his money supporting dangerous liberal pols and doesn't lecture us "Flyover Rubes".  Better than most in Hollywood, including the Jewish ones.

Sorry, crappy spelling. Fall of Eagles tells the story of the fall the of Houses of Hapsburg, Hohentaufen, and Romanov.

Patrick Smith plays Lenin. That may be all you need to know.

Hell, if you did three movies with Danny Glover, you'd be bat-shit crazy too.

232 -

Gallipoli, featuring the aforementioned Mr. Gibson!  Great, great movie about the tragically disastrous British/Austrailian invasion of the Dardanelles.

Posted by: Filly at April 19, 2012 12:00 PM (3d7iy)

Little late in the game for him to regain his sanity since he did more than his part to get the JEF elected.  Also the cheap cocksucker was flooding the airwaves in opposition to Issue 2 to curb the public unions last November with lines like "Here in Ohio, we like to look out for people who have our back".  Big fucking words from somebody who stiffed a lot of small businesses for services provided in some of his quixotic Presidential runs that didn't have a snowball's chance on July 4 of being taken seriously.  Pay your debts, deadbeat.

I'm actually impressed how deep Mel's voice gets when he's pissed. He definately has a promising future as a death metal vocalist if this acting thing doesn't work out for him.

"Good actor (if not great) and a genuinely pretty good director, too. Interesting guy. "

I think you're selling the guy a little short here on both counts. Gibson's a really charismatic actor with an impressive range (the scene in "Lethal Weapon" with him drunkenly crying over his dead wife and then trying to work up the courage to kill himself was great stuff). And he's as talented a director-particularly with action scenes-as there is.

Is he crazy? Maybe; he certainly has some serious anger issues that need addressing. He also needs to stop ranting on the phone at people; everyone's going to record his volcanic tirades at this point.

Not sure what they do now, but back in the day Marine Drill Instructor antics would have made Mel Gibson seem normal...Why?  They had eleven weeks to turn steaming piles of amphibious shit into Marines.  You're not gong to get there playing nice and hoping for the best.  Gibson is obviously a burn-out to some degree, ok to a large degree, but he has starred in and produced some of the best stuff to ever come out of Hollywood.  He's got the resume and the bank account...Most of his critcs aren't qualified to shine his shoes...