The Gibson Effect

A few weeks back, I wrote about the travails of Kramer. He has gone on national TV, met with black leadership and veritably prostrated himself, begging for forgiveness. So far, no sale. The test will come if Michael Richards emerges with a hit performance in anything, if even given the chance.

But we don't have to wait. The test is here for us and Mel Gibson. His new film, which I shall not name, has begun to receive glowing reviews from a number of critics. The movie is said to be a fascinating look at an extinct civilization with several innovations. He brings the viewer deeply into the first-person experience of a small pre-Columbian tribe of hunter-gatherers being conquered by a larger and far more sophisticated civilization. Like all of Gibson's films, this one is violent. The violence, one can argue, is in service of the story. Let's let it go at that, because I'm not concerned with violence in film at the moment.

The test is put to us who vowed never to patronize Gibson's films due to his statements and positions. Here's the opportunity to step up to the plate. The opportunity for non-violent protest ranges from not seeing the film or naming it to advocating against it, openly boycotting it, or condemning the movie and its director.

For many years, Richard Wagner's was not played in Israel, due to the influence of his ideas in the philosophical underpinning of the Third Reich and his Anti-Semitism. Hitler endorsed Wagner for his solid Aryan credentials and values, and that was enough to demonize him for others. I don't profess to know the story about Wagner, but I do know that the political ban was lifted in Israel some years ago and among a number of musicians due to the beauty of the music. Wagner is not entirely to my liking, and there still is something about the legend that puts me off. But I have experienced the wonder of his music, its spirituality, expressiveness and universality.

A more recent and controversial case involves German maestro Wilhelm Furtwangler. During World War II, he continued to work in the Third Reich. There have been books and a play, examining whether he collaborated with the Nazis or sought to protect the many Jewish musicians he once led in the Berlin Philharmonic. There are many who would not listen to or purchase anything by Furtwangler but I cannot count myself among them. Apart from inconclusiveness about his position, his music-making was extraordinary. He had a unique ability to make music breathe with an elasticity of tempi and dynamics. His performances of Beethoven and Schubert are not interpretations. They are living things. I have sought out his music because it is special. I know little else like it.

Ezra Pound, brilliant and original American poet, turned virulent fascist, was spurned for his views. Eventually, he was found to be insane, a perfect out for those who want to embrace the poetry and reject the man. The list goes on - writers, painters, musicians, dancers, film-makers, whose political views are detestable but whose artistic views are brilliant, if not sublime.

Do we make exceptions for genius or great craft? Maybe when it happens in our own time, without distance to ameliorate an artist's corrosive behaviors or views. Can we maintain the discipline and rigor to throw the scamp out, great work or not?

I won't see the Gibson movie, for fee or free, and I encourage others to do the same. Gibson shouldn't get a pass because he is a more gifted artist than Michael Richards. Whatever he has to say can be retold to me by someone else, even if it is less fresh, distinct and original. It's the least - and I mean the very least - that I can do.