Mel Gibson's Sacred Rage

If you have been following the pop-news stories about Mel Gibson's phone tirades you know the ugly details of his recent decline. If you turn on a TV it is almost impossible to avoid hearing his "wounded buffalo" bellowing. First, let me say that I appreciate Mel's significant talent. He has actually had some good moments on screen and to deny that would be fallacious. Although I think the "Passion" film was a gutsy experiment, it was a horrible movie. The possible anti-Semitic posture may have been evident to some but I was more disturbed by the simple blood lust. Or blood worship. The camera is too intimate an instrument to be used so graphically without acknowledging the emotional overload.

Strangely, I actually liked "Apocalypto." I thought it was a much better film with a better message.

The main characters heroic efforts to save his family appealed to me despite the violence and overblown characterizations. The portrayal of one disturbed culture committing genocide reminded me of the Nazi devastation that Mel's dad so conveniently chooses to deny because of some irrational belief that "Jews" have caused all the world's problems. This little gem of crazy talk was revealed earlier when Mel was arrested for drunk driving. The "Sugar-Tits" phrase has also entered the culture and is repeated on cartoon shows as a punch line. Mel quickly apologized to all his Jewish friends and some forgave his drunk talk as just that. Others felt there was something darker lurking and the recent phone tapes using the "N" word now prove that point.

I think what it really proves is Mel's abject alcoholism and his virtual impotence.

A friend of mine recently described his father's explosive anger as a "Sacred Rage." That phrase was apparently the title of a book he had read once and it proved an apt description of his controlling, angry and often abusive father.

Mel has made a nice living as the hero and the lover, and as his age increases he has decided to cash in his very catholic family values for the chance to impregnate a younger woman to validate his sexual power. She may be a gold digger, status seeker and social climber but no amount of self-righteous "Sacred Rage" can absolve him of his actions. If he hit her, he is wrong. If he invokes the racial image of a group of "N's" raping his new girl he is only revealing his pathetic loss of potency.

Most men who indulge in anger end up regretting it and learn that it has a diminishing return. It is not only irrational it is ineffective. Screaming like a spoiled baby has no positive effect and creates the opposite of what you really desire. It works for a while for some (see Hitler, the gay bashing preachers with boy toys) but they all end up crashing and burning.

The "Sacred Rage" Mel wallows in is easier to rationalize when he is also egocentric enough to ignore his substance abuse. Mel needs serious rehab...a much longer rehab than Lindsay Lohan or Chris Brown. Unless he dries out his alcohol pickled brain and tries to find the source of his real fear and hostility he is doomed. And he deserves not much more than our pity.