gip: it's mel!
Gratuitous icon post! A SOUTH PARK quote from their "Imaginationland" episode. And, um, Mel Gibson being crazy. He's a paranoid, bipolar, Jew-hating loon, but by God is he a brilliant filmmaker. I watched APOCALYPTO again last week; like BRAVEHEART, you do not look to it for anything vaguely approaching historical accuracy, but it's a truly magnificent action flick, with gorgeous cinematography and performances.
(Gibson and his co-screenwriter have a commentary on the movie which isn't great, but has some interesting features; Gibson points out local villagers who were cast in various small roles, and mentions their occupations.)
Looking back, the LETHAL WEAPON movies are a remarkable exercise in scene chemistry. Some actors just work off each other amazingly well for some reason. Gibson and Danny Glover are a case in point. I have no idea what their interaction is like in real life, but you couldn't find guys more opposite if you tried. Gibson's an extremely religious paleoconservative who's in church when he's not falling out of rehab or cheating on his (soon to be ex-)wife with everyone from Russian models to whores of every description, while Danny Glover is pretty much a communist who's never met a leftist dictator he didn't cuddle up to.
I kind of want to see them have an argument a conversation about acting and filmmaking, actually.
The only thing I know about Gibson and Glover is this: Glover was asked what he learned from Gibson while they worked on those movies, and Glover said: "How to say 'no' to pussy."