In my opinion here is what is at stake, besides the downfall of a Hollywood hero…
Assuming all those tapes are true and not faked — it’s a red flag relationship. But here is the important thing about that. There was an editorial the other day by an agency Mel Gibson helped. It’s here at this link.
This morning I read what might be one of his own editorials here at this link…
If anything good can come out of this situation it will be up to Mel Gibson “the Hollywood Star” to do it. Here is why.
He has always played the heroic characters as long as I can remember, starting with Mad Max. Braveheart and Patriot are the last two films I saw. Right now Hollywood doesn’t have a lot of those “heroic” characters in terms of role models.
One of the most distressing things in the whole meltdown is to watch a star fall. He isn’t the first and he won’t be the last. What the public is seeing is the “shadow side” of Hollywood.
What women see is the man who did something like that to them, once. Believe me, there are millions of women who can identify. So, my guess is that many women are thinking, “Oh no, not you…” Not Braveheart…
The way I see it is that Gibson has gotten out of a very long marriage, had a torrid affair and all of a sudden has fathered a child elsewhere. The new relationship appears to have come to a bitter and tragic end. You can hear the desperation on those tapes underneath all the anger.
This sort of relationship dynamic is a two sided coin for therapists. In these kinds of cases you work with the clients “apart” because of the volatility that gets constellated. It’s not a matter of taking sides and who did what to the other.
What will matter most is what legacy Gibson leaves on film. And it is a good thing he can make his own. It’s almost as if a giant wound has been opened on a subject Hollywood hasn’t really covered since Fawcett did “The Burning Bed.”
I thought of the movie “A Star is Born,” this morning. There aren’t that many, you know? There really aren’t. He’s one. The kinds of films the tail end baby boom grew up on were morality tales in a sense? Hollywood hardly makes those anymore.
Here is what I hope can happen. I hope once this mess gets settled, Gibson can make a film that shows the dynamic going on in films like The Burning Bed from a male perspective. What would be even better though? Would be to show it from a gay perspective too. And cross culturally. Because given the economic pressures in the country today this is on the upswing, overall.
There is nothing on earth like the power of film as a teaching device? Almost nothing. That’s Hollywood’s gift to humanity.
VALENTINE BONNAIRE - WRITER 