Actor, director, producer, and unashamed Catholic Christian Mel Gibson is well known across the globe both for his successes, and his very public mistakes.

Originally from the United States, the Gibson family emigrated to Australia when Mel was 12 years old. The young Mel knew what he wanted to do as a career and he studied acting at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney. His first starring role was in a production of Romeo and Juliet. 

Mad Max

Mel’s film breakthrough came in 1979 with the dystopian, apocalyptic Mad Max. The movie was filmed mostly in the Australian outback. He also starred in two sequels: Mad Max 2 (1981), and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985). 

Early in his career director Peter Weir cast him as one of the leading roles in the World War I drama Gallipoli (1981). Even from his first major roles, Mel was getting very favourable reviews from film critics. New York Times film and theatre writer Vincent Canby likened him to “… the young Steve McQueen… I can’t define ‘star quality,’ but whatever it is, Mr. Gibson has it.” Other notable early movies include The Bounty (1984), The Lethal Weapon series of four films, and Braveheart (1985).

Icon Entertainment

In 1989, Gibson founded his own movie production company, Icon Entertainment. It was created to be “an alternative to the studio system”. Studios generally need to raise funds for movie projects, which can be a painstakingly slow procedure. Film Director Atom Egoyan praised the company’s creative independence and risk-taking stance saying, 

“Mel’s dream was to create an alternative to the studio system and make films free of interference. He’s been able to use his celebrity status to set up a really viable company. Icon is able to take risks that studios won’t broach.”

The Passion of the Christ

Gibson directed, produced and funded the film The Passion of the Christ (2004). Upon release the movie received very mixed critical response. Some loved it, others loathed it, but none of them could ignore it. 

The film follows the passion and death of Jesus Christ (played by Jim Caviezel), with the final few seconds revealing the risen Christ. 

All of the dialogue in The Passion of the Christ is in Aramaic, Latin, and Hebrew with subtitles added before it came to the cinemas. 

Funding for “a film about something that nobody wants to touch”

The wisdom of creating the production company Icon Entertainment became clear well before filming began on The Passion of the Christ. Mel began production without securing outside funding or distribution. Explaining why he could not get backing from the Hollywood studios he said, 

“This is a film about something that nobody wants to touch, shot in two dead languages!”

But the unwilling Hollywood financiers were likely kicking themselves when The Passion of the Christ grossed $370,782,930 in the US and $611,899,420 globally, well surpassing any movie that Gibson had starred in! 

In the US alone it became the seventh-highest-grossing film of all time and was nominated for three Academy Awards.

God’s Grace

Mel recognises that he is a ‘fallen’ human being entirely dependant upon God’s grace and that this is the state of every human being. It is the very reason he made The Passion of the Christ. He wanted the world to see what Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had done in order to open a doorway to heaven for fallen mankind. 

During an interview with Fox News about his film Father Stu (a joint project with fellow Catholic Mark Wahlberg, also with a Christian theme) Mel was asked whether one of the movie’s messages was concerned with receiving God’s grace in the midst of human suffering. He replied: 

“Everybody’s got a boulder, man,”and everybody’s got to drag something around. And of course, something’s going to come by and knock you down at some point in your life, now or later. And how do you stand up from that, you know? How do you not only stand up but find the purpose in that? There’s a purpose for all of this. So, it’s looking for that purpose.”

He continued, 

“I think if we’re too-self involved, I think if your head’s too big… it’s an easier target to get hit. And if your ego’s not that healthy, if you actually realise there’s something greater than you and find a bit of humility, you’re not going to get hit as hard. Even if you do get hit… you are going to realise that there’s a purpose in it, and you’re not the most important thing in the world and that there’s a way to deal with that stuff and almost be grateful for it.”

Mel said another theme of the film is that “it’s never too late to fix stuff.” He added that as the father of nine kids, he hasn’t been a perfect parent, but he realised that, “you can kind of go back and fix stuff you missed the first time around. The sooner you realise there’s something bigger than all of us, the easier it’s going to be in your life.”

“The Resurrection”

Two decades after The Passion of the Christ, Mel started work on the sequel “The Resurrection”focussing on the life of the resurrected Jesus up until his ascension.

 

Story by Ralph Burden

Photo by Jeff Turner. Photo attribution: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

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