Anti-Apocalypto

APOCALYPTO -- The Official Movie Website

"The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked." Proverbs 10:11

Letterman's in reruns this week so one night I flipped over to Leno. And there was Mel Gibson, big as life and just as smarmy, promoting his latest paean to blood and money, Apocalypto.

The movie's gore factor is by all accounts far over the top, even for Hollywood, even for Mel. But that's no surprise. He's proven he can do just about anything and still emerge commercially intact.

What surprises me--well, not really--is the advertising and entertainment industries' collective amnesia when it comes to morally repugnant behavior. And its self-serving, selective determination of what constitutes inappropriate subject matter.

Who wants to step up and compare the nanosecond flash of Janet Jackson's breast from afar to the up close and personal blood-letting, flaying, decapitating, agonizing scenes of death and torture portrayed with stunning, sickening, supposedly historical reality in Gibson's movie?

And where's the outrage over his own sickening behavior in the here and now?

Someone should have the guts to say, This movie is so graphically violent we refuse to join in its promotion. Plus, due to his equally abhorrent personal beliefs and behavior we don't wish to be associated with its producer.

If TV networks and newspapers nationwide joined in a boycott of Gibson's movie--no ads, no interviews, no appearances, no reviews--he'd face an uphill battle selling it.

But no. It's the same old quintessentially American response. Sex is sinful, violence has value. Yes, in the ad biz, Sex Sells. But in the world of entertainment, Violence brings Victory.

When the whole Mel fiasco happened, many pundits wondered if his disgraceful actions would affect attendance of his upcoming movie. Not moi.

Mel Gibson is offering the blood-thirsty ticket-buying public perhaps the most graphically violent movie in history. They will line up around the block to see it.

Mel and his pals will get richer.

And we, as a society will become even poorer.