How can this be??
Mel Gibson's movie was the number one movie this weekend?! What does this mean? What does this say about us? At best, he's a drunken idiot with poor judgement...at worst, he's a hateful racist. What does this say about us? Because it's a "creative endeavor", does that give us a pass to separate the creation from the creator? Do we really still care about Mel's creative vision?
Yesterday, I went to see Shut up and Sing...the documentary about what the Dixie Chicks went through a couple years ago. I was surprised at the extreme backlash as a result of one off-handed joke about the President. Natalie, the lead singer, even received a detailed death threat in Dallas, Texas. Radio stations across the country refused to play their songs. Country music fans held CD burning parties.
So it's OK to spew anti-Semitic garbage, but it's not OK to bash the President? Or maybe movie fans that would be drawn to a movie like Apocalypto are more forgiving than country music fans? I just don't get it.
posted by Aileen @ 2:18 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Wow. You make an excellent point.
I don't think it's as bad as you make out. Mel's movie was #1 with only $14 million at the box office, a rather paltry sum nowadays. It may have been a slow weekend for movie releases, coming halfway between the big Thanksgiving and Xmas weekends. Or, the great silent majority of moviegoers may have protested the movie by quietly staying away. Meanwhile, the Dixie Chicks have gotten the last laugh, with big album sales and Grammy nominations since the "shut up and sing" incident.
Mel Gibson is disturbed as are many people in the arts. I find him boring and wonder why he gets so much press (I could say the same thing about Katie and Tom). The Dixie Chicks, on the other hand, are really all-American, outspoken, and healthy minded. Good musicians, too.
Thanks, Patrick.
Matt- Bad enough. The fact that this movie is showing any signs of success bothers. Now the media reports it as "#1 at the box office" regardless of the actual $$ that is, and it creates buzz and momentum. I've already casually come across several blogs promoting the movie (without looking for it). And thank God the Dixie Chicks got the last laugh about what they went through, but the album sales suffered greatly in the meantime. And they personally suffered as well.
Reya- don't even get me started on Tom! :)
Ironic, isn't it?
Mel, TomKat, and even Brangelina are tiresome and overrated. And the backlash at the Dixie Chicks was about as unpatriotic as you can get, I think.
I'm proud to say I kept buying and listening to their music. I'm also proud to say, I won't be seeing Mel's latest "artistic creation."
Well, Hollywood is... inconsistent at best when it comes to shunning creative talent that has behaved disastrously. Mel Gibson is likely to pay for his drunken anti-Semitic comments for the rest of his life. Roman Polanski, on the other hand, drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl. After fleeing to France, he's continued to make movies, even to receive Academy Awards for his work. I'm not going to play the game of Which is Worse?, but it is odd at least.
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