Wednesday 26 July 2006

When You Put It Like That...

Not Coming To A Theatre Near You's review of Lethal Weapon:
Is it possible that Mel Gibson is the world’s most conflicted, self-hating homosexual? There’s the rampant, uncontrolled homophobia, a good first sign. Then of course we have his celebrated obsession with flagellation and torture, a good Catholic boy’s desperate atonement for some unnamed, unforgivable sin. In this film alone he gets to use the word ‘fag’ more than once, refers to lesbianism as ‘disgusting’, shows his naked backside, gets brutally tortured and finally beats Gary Busey almost to death, the hapless bad guy pinned betwixt Gibson’s heaving thighs until he cries for mercy. Hell, even the title is questionable. It all points to a man wrestling not only with special forces terrorists but with his very nature, an apocalyptic battle, God and parentally instigated notions of propriety duking it out with Gibson’s deepest desires. Let it go, Mel! Don’t live a lie! We will all be forgiven in the end, even you.

2 comments:

Ten-Bob Dylan said...

In much the same way that every guitar solo ever recorded during the 60's is alleged at one time or another to have been played by Jimmy Page - surely all films made in the eighties were gay... and I don't mean that in the gay=bad Chris Moyles way. Or maybe I do. I don't know - I'm confused now.

Paul said...

Well, I guess a lot of the bigger eighties movies -- Die Hard, The Untouchables, Scarface, etc. -- were about sharply dressed manly men wearing slightly too much make-up and hair product sticking things into each other...