The story of Mel

Greetings and Salutations.

Holy Week is fast approaching which means that the Lion of Lebanon will be spending more time in the church in one week then most people do in their lifetime.

Because I am a devout Maronite Catholic, I was asked to be on my church's youth committee, we arrange a number of events for the youth ranging from social activities to missionary activities to spiritual activities.

Tonight we are showing Mel Gibson's masterpiece: The Passion of the Christ in the hope that those attending will gain a better insight into the true meaning of holy week.

Personally I am a fan of the movie, although very gruesome and graphical, it is the most realistic depiction of what Christ went through leading to his death. the movie also explores other themes which are important such as Truth and the meaning behind it.

As stated before I am a movie buff and am a fan of Gibson the director and actor (and not of the man). Although good his movies are gaining the reputation of being frightfully historically inaccurate.

His first venture into directing was Braveheart, which he also stared in the lead role. I don't think there is a human being alive who has not seen the movie or is not aware thereof, so I wont be giving a brief description.

However, during the actual Scottish Wars of Independence, the Scots won a significant battle at: The Battle of Stirling Bridge. Where the actual William Wallace and his army engaged the English on the narrow bridge which nullified their vastly superior numbers. Wallace and his army held the bridge the whole day by fighting conservatively and suffering few casualties. In Braveheart this battle is just dubbed: The Battle of Stirling and does not involve a bridge. The tactics used during this movie battle were tactics similar to those which the actual Scots used in the later Battle of Bannokburn.

After this he had a long hiatus as a director while he concentrated on his acting career. In fact his next movie, The Passion of the Christ, came some nine years after Braveheart in 2005.

He used the four gospels written about the life of Jesus very accurately and of the three films he directed, this is the one with the least historical inaccuracies. However, there is one mistake which can be identified.

The movie starts with Jesus, played by Jim Caviezel, praying in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of his betrayal and handing over to the Jews. In the movie, while praying, Jesus is tempted by Satan. None of the actual gospels make reference to this.

Granted, this could have possibly been the case, but when you only have gospels as a historical reference point, then you will be critiscised for being historically inaccurate if you deviate there from.

His final directorial movie, to date, was Apocalypto. The movie is set in Mesoamerica at the height of the Incan and Mayan empires. A troop of Incan's invade a village on the border of the Mexican rain forest, kill almost everyone in the village and take a number of captives back to their homeland. A warrior escapes, makes a run for the border while being pursued by his captors. He kills all but tow of them and gets home in time to save his wife and two kids.

The movie makes alot of references to human sacrifice and the bloodthirsty nature of the Mexican Indians. Although there is sufficient proof that human sacrifice did exist at the time, there is still no documented evidence that the Mayans themselves participated in such rituals.

For many these historical inaccuracies are unacceptable and many refuse to watch these movies because of it. But because of the aims of the movie, which is to get asses in seats, one has to exercise some measure of creative license in order to make the movie appealing to the public. If one takes: The Lord of the Rings into account. If Peter Jackson stuck to the book 100% the three movies would have been well over five hours long.

After the Passion of the Christ, Mel lost his damn mind. He make very anti semetic remarks when a Jewish police officer pulled him over for a DUI charge. He also got very very drunk one night and phoned up his now ex-lover Oksana Grigorieva and had a full go at her over the phone using quite possibly the most unacceptable language alive even by my standards, and I swear like an Irishman at the best of times.

Follow the link below to have a listen at the full conversation.

http://www.worstpreviews.com/headline.php?id=18288&count=0

To end off, my feelings towards Mel are exactly the same as towards Michael Jackson and Freddie Mercury. I don't agree, or support, what the man does in his personal life. But give the mans acting and directorial abilities the respect and credit they deserve.


Footnotes:

-In David Gemmells Tory Trilogy, he makes reference to a battle involving the Bridge of Pathia where one of his antagonists Argurios holds the bridge for the greater part of the day against vastly superior numbers. This bears similar reference to the actual Battle of Stirling Bridge.
- Peter Jackson holds the record for one of the longest movies ever made. His adaptation of King Kong is a cool 3 and a half hours long. Indecently the longest movie ever made is Gettysburg which is over four hours long.

All's fair in Love and War.

Good news to all the Shalafain massive! I am in a better space, so the postings should be back to their impeccably high standards once again.

My girlfriend inspired this topic last night and we felt that it would be a excellent topic to explore.

We all know the saying “All’s fair in love and war” but what does that really mean?

It means that when you are desperately in love with a person, you only see yourself with that person, and you are prepared to go the extra mile for that person, and you will die for that person, and…well you get the point, but as soon as everything goes PETE-TONG (See Shalafain dictionary for definition) the gloves come off, and there is no semblance of the once strong love.

The biggest example of this concerns a certain Mel Gibson, who is fast going down the route of Tom Cruise in religious matters. For a number of years, 30 to be exact, Gibson was married to Robyn Denise Moore with whom he had one daughter and six sons.

Since 2000 the couple had been separated with Mrs Gibson filing for a divorce citing ‘irreconcilable differences’, now this is turning out to be the most expensive divorce in history.

Basically, the US courts ruled that Mrs Gibson was entitled to half of everything as Mel was a relatively unknown actor when they got married and he built up his wealth with her as his support.

What is this wealth you ask? The movies Mel has acted in have grossed more than two billion dollars in the US alone, he has an avid interest in real estate investments, with multiple properties in Malibu, California, several locations in Costa Rica, a private island in Fiji and properties in Australia.

All lovey dovey when you together and happy, but don’t piss them off. They will take you to the cleaners! Believe that!

Another famous divorce concerns a certain Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills. Who he married after a whirlwind relationship.

The marriage lasted just over five years before Mills started referring to McCartney as: a boring old fart.

The fact that McCartney never had many friends perturbed Mills, she was also upset with the fact that they lived on a very secluded estate in Peasmarsh. But the real breakdown of their marriage, according to Mills, was the actions of McCartney’s daughter Stella who she described as a: ‘psycho little bitch’. During the court case it was leaked to the media that McCartney was often drunk, smoked cannabis, stabbed her with a broken wine glass, pushed her over a table, and pushed her into a bathtub when she was pregnant with their daughter.

Bear in mind that while the two were married, Mills would tour with McCartney and be seen next to him at every public appearance, she also granted very few interview to protect the families private life. But you see, Paul pissed her off, so the knives came out!

Mills initially asked for £125-million, she stated that she needed about £360,000 for personal security, £175,000 for her daughter’s security, £176,000 a year for clothes, and the ownership of four home’s, one in Beverly Hills, one on Long Island and two in England with a combined value of £5,700,000 as well as £8 million (up to £12,500,000) to buy a home in London, £3 million to buy a home in New York, and £750,000 to buy an office in Brighton, England, for Mills’ sister. She also asked for £1 million for legal expenses, £650,500 a year for donations to charities, £650,400 a year to run seven properties with staff, £500,000 a year for holidays, £186,000 a year for chartered helicopters, £43,300 a year for a chauffeur, £20,000 a year for a caregiver, and £191,150 a year for "professional expenses". Mills unexpectedly asked for £40,000 a year for wine (although she rarely drinks alcohol) and £30,000 a year for equestrian activities. In the end she got £50-million.

Now I can understand how Moore was entitled to half of Gibson's wealth because most of his wealth was made during their marriage. But how the Hell did the psycho judge give Mills £50-million?

At the end of the day the male species are ill advised to underestimate the ruthlessness of a woman scorned. Although she loves you and cares for you during the good times, if you piss her off sufficiently, shell take you to the cleaners. Believe that!