Mel Gibson has been doing a lot to destroy his career these past few years. A lot has been happening publicly, a lot is documented - so I guess it's a fair bet to assume that yes, Mel's screwed up more than a little. He calls himself passionate, others might call him nuts or downright psychotic ... I don't know about all of this - but, as mentioned, that's lots of public information on this.
The above means that Gibson was set up as the clear villain in this piece. The moment the Eszterhas letter surfaced it seemed only natural to assume that everything laid out in great detail in the nine pages was only confirming public perception. I read the articles - a day later I read the nine pages ... and that got me thinking.
Joe Eszterhas is a pro - people love him, people hate him, I don't care what you think about his movies - he's a pro. I've read some of his scripts - the man can write and write well. This goes through my head as I read his nine page letter - the letter that was crafted, as stated by Eszterhas, for Mel Gibson's eyes only. Reading it, however, I couldn't help feeling that Eszterhas didn't write with Mel Gibson in mind as his audience. The whole thing is repetitive and goes into great detail to illuminate the reader as to situations and locations. Aside from what the letter is about, I'd have to say that this particular writer did a lousy job because he didn't write for his intended audience and because he rambled. As he'll be the first to tell you - crisp is gold - we're all screenwriters here - seriously now - it's our very craft to boil nine rambling pages into an air-tight half pager, right?
I'm not going to go into religious aspects. For all we know, everything may have happened exactly as described by Joe Eszterhas (in which case, as mentioned above, the worst one could say is that he messed up as a writer). We also do know that Gibson messed up severely over time. What I'm wondering is simply - and I'm thinking about myself in a similar situation - if I had been a pro of Eszterhas caliber, if all he claims really did occur, would I have continued working with a hateful human being such as the described Gibson? Would I have allowed my family to be around that person? Would I have spent precious years of my life near such destructive karma? To all of the aforementioned - hell no!
At this point Gibson has replied. A crisp letter, a bit more than half a page and if he's written it himself then I must congratulate him for his obvious talent. And if some PR person wrote it for him - well done, too! He may be a mess of a man - but on the merits of the letters alone I'd have to say that Gibson's the clear winner here. What are we left with? Nothing for now. But I do have an idea ...
Let's stop all the he says he says crap. Let's forget about recordings that may exist. Lets even forget about the studio that's allowing this mess to continue. I'm saying - if the nine page letter managed to find its way to The Wrap - let's hope the same thing happens for the Maccabees script! May it surface - then we can read it and then we'll be the judge on the merits of the script - because that's what it's about, the script, the story, the film.
So, give us the script and take your issues elsewhere.
