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Mel Gibson, Conservative

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6/27/00 3:25 p.m.
Mel Gibson, Conservative
As if he needed defending...

By Ben Domenech, NRO Contributing Editor

s is well known, NRO (and NR) stands firmly as the undisputed defender of all things conservative. Which is why it was shocking to read not one, but two articles this week that referred in unabashedly negative terms to that wonderful conservative champion, Mel Gibson.

First there was Rich Lowry, who termed Gibson's latest film "patriotic schlock" (albeit good schlock), and found the actor's performance unimpressive. Then there was Michael Graham, who wrote a piece for NRO praising The Patriot's lead figure, Francis Marion, while deriding Gibson's work ("I loathed Lethal Weapon"). It's Graham, though, who commits the penultimate sin: He admits that he "Didn't even bother to see Braveheart."

Didn't see Braveheart? That's like saying you never read Conscience of a Conservative, or didn't get around to voting for Reagan!

For the sake of any other poor souls out there who missed it: Braveheart is the magnificent, big-hearted, epic tale of 13th-century Scottish rebel William Wallace, who builds an armed populist resistance to the tyrannical rule of English King Edward I (Patrick McGoohan) after the death of his wife. The film manages to simultaneously tell a powerful personal story and track the path of a brash revolutionary movement, climaxing in a moving larger-than-life series of amazing and tragic battle scenes (including the best-to-date onscreen use of pointy sticks). Gibson directed and starred in the 1995 film, which won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Director, and Cinematography; soon after its release, conservatives were praising Gibson's creation, quoting Wallace and Robert the Bruce as brilliant freedom fighters and heroes in the fight against governmental intrusion. Braveheart has already earned the stature of a modern classic, occupying many of the millennial "greatest films" lists, and rightly so.

Gibson's film career has been full of great work — from the campy fun of the Lethal Weapon series and Maverick, to the edge-of-your-seat suspense of Ransom and Conspiracy Theory, with impressive performances in the underrated Gallipoli and The Man Without a Face, and darker roles in the cult favorite Mad Max and the violent Richard Stark noir of Payback. Gibson is by all rights one of the most successful actors of his generation, which makes his openly patriotic sentiments all the more welcome at the multiplex.

Gibson isn't just a good conservative because of his work onscreen — married to his wife Robyn for 20 years, a devoted Catholic and father of seven children, Gibson has distinctly avoided the pull of the Hollywood scene, speaking out on the importance of family and faith in modern culture despite being routinely named as one of the "Most Beautiful People." In a recent interview, Gibson criticized the "culture of divorce" that plagues celebrities: "There's nothing more important than your family . . . If you ruin that part of your life, what's left? Work, money, screwing around? I see a lot of people living like that who tell themselves they're having a good time, but if you look under the surface, you only see corpses masquerading as human beings." Gibson added, "It's my duty to be a good husband and father, and that's probably the only thing in life that I take seriously."

A good actor, a good father, and a good conservative — Mel Gibson is a rarity worth hailing in this day and age.

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