December 08, 2006

Historigore! Mel Gibson creates a new film genre. "Within the first five minutes of the movie, someone eats a testicle. At the time, this graphic display was shocking and repulsive (Gibson employs very able FX people), but somewhere after the heart chewing and around the second beheading, I longed for the halcyon days of the testicle appetizer. We were so young then. " Somedays I just love the CBC.
posted by fimbulvetr 17 years ago
  • Monkeyfilter: the halcyon days of the testicle apetizer
  • "Gibson has found a society where bloodlust is institutionalized, where a man can say: “I am going to peel his body and wear his skin,” and you think: “Well, it is Tuesday.”" Well, guess I won't be doing that today then. Blasted Fridays. I was looking forward to a nice, fresh, human-skin coat for the cold walk home.
  • KAPLA!
  • Um, hi everyone, look I just wanted to sort of peep up here and mention that Mel Gibson is FUCKING INSANE. Seriously. Ann Coulter-level-insane. Bzzzrt! NNnk! NNk! WeEeeEeeeeoooooooo:*pop!* fvvft! fvvft! HABhaganahagah! Woo! Woo!
  • I really don't see what makes you think that. A fine, upstanding citizen, is Mel. So what if he has a few small obsessions and odd proclivities? Who among us does not? Yep. Perfectly normal. Yep. You know, maybe human-skin coats on Fridays are not such a crazy idea after all. It is -10C out there today after all.
  • Okay maybe that's a bit harsh. It’s always a good idea to separate an artist’s life from his work, but Gibson’s films are so intensely personal — he writes, directs and funds them himself — that there doesn’t seem to be any separation. His very Catholic obsession with the body and its mortification smothers his stories, and his anger and inability to find peace (“What do you think you’re looking at, sugar tits?”), seems to be crippling his work. Every shredded organ is a wasted moment where he could have slowed down and trusted viewers to imagine the horror, rather than thrust it upon them so bitterly. If Apocalypto tells us very little about ourselves, it says far too much about Mel Gibson’s demons, the ones he should exorcize in a therapist’s office, not on screen. But just a bit.
  • It is a scene to rival the great old school epics like Ben Hur and Cleopatra, albeit as imagined by an asexual Bob Guccione. Good point. Caligula was a half-decent picture before they pornolized it. (the internet is great because I don't have to keep a straight face while typing)
  • Bah. Self-involved moviemakers going into therapy only gives us unfunny Woody Allens.
  • "Anyone who can’t take the spatter isn’t welcome at the crucifixion" Ha! I was seriously criticized by some acquiantances when I joked about his 'Passion' to be nothing but a religious-themed Lethal Weapon sequel. Maybe now we'll see the truth about BatshitInsane Mel. The 'blooper' frame on the first trailer to this film, the one showing him grinning amid some actors characterized as Mayans soured me to this film, but I'm really curious as to what a big-budget film about those ancient civilizations will look like. Maybe I'll walk out, or laugh out loud, or came out the theater wearing the skin of the first one that answers his cellphone during the showing, who knows.
  • Personally, I had no interest in seeing it before, but I'm definitely up for it now. There's nothing quite so fascinating and revolting as a massive Hollywood ego-trip and its flames of burning money. Plus, I'll be able to say 'igry' a lot.
  • Some friends of mine refer to "Passion" as "The Whuping of the Christ". Appropriate, considering that is all it is.
  • "FREEEEEDOOOOMMMMMM!"
  • It seems to me that if you make hundreds of millions of dollars off of a very bloody period piece in an extinct language, then it might not be such a bad idea to try to do the same thing. We don't call Steven Spielberg insane for making science fiction movies. Why should we call Gibson insane for trying to repeat a winning formula?
  • Spielberg covered a wide range of genres, with a great deal of crappy movies, but some real good ones as well. In contrast Gibson has consistently made overly violent ridiculous tour de gore movies, shrouded in the title "drama," purely for the sensationalism. "The Passion" was crap, and I imagine this one will be as well.
  • A good friend of mine refers to "Passion" as "The Jesus Chainsaw Massacre."
  • Is Apocalypto a feature-length version of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Under the Bridge" video (screenshot)?
  • Why should we call Gibson insane for trying to repeat a winning formula? Oh, he's crazy all right. Crazy like a fox. A rabid, vicous, insane fox. With scabbies. And Mange. You heard it here first folks.
  • Too bad.
  • Alba gu bra!
  • Exactly. The Spanish and Portuguese are having an insane problem with rabbits. Psych wards in the west are closing down or being scaled back whilst there is an epidemic of odd films. If we forget the bigger picture, it might disappear. If we ignore the wider context it might go away. NO! Only failure can be found along that path. The bigger picture and the wider context never goes away. Everything else does, but not the rabbits or odd films.
  • Tell me about the rabbits again, randomaction.
  • A rabid, vicous, anti-semitic, alcoholic, brutally violent, insane fox.
  • Ok..Rabbits are cute. And I is loves them all.
  • GAAHHHH!! NOOO!! Not the rabbits!! Anything but the rabbits!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • Meh, since when did exploitation films become such a terrible sin? I'll probably see this.
  • That chick has hary nipples.
  • exploitation film?
  • Hey, it's what dogmatic assholes do, sugar tits.
  • More historigore? A Movie Only a Spartan Could Love