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In defense of Riggs

Ok, so he hates jews. Does that make him a bad person? I mean, really?

Maybe a little?

I don't think it matters much that Mel Gibson hates jews. I wrote him off as swivelheaded crazy a long time ago when he started making movies about cool guys that get tortured to death (way to flog a dead martyr, Melvin). So, his daddy thinks that the Holocaust didn't happen or thinks that it wasn't quite as awful as everyone believes. So, he thinks his wife is going to Hell for backing the wrong horse. So, he's an awful suicidal drunk and calls female police officers "Sugar Tits." He's buggier than a bums blanket and deep down, we all kinda knew it didn't we? So why are we surprised?

Is it because he's gorgeous? I mean absolutely freakin' handsome?

Is it because he's a Christian?

Is it because he's rich?

Is it because he's politically conservative?

For me, it's because he's being Riggs.


Think about it - Riggs was a loose cannon, weeping over the loss of his wife, bottle in hand, gun in mouth - ready to embrace the oblivion by painting the back of his head on the back wall by his beach side home. In that moment of indecision where Riggs gathers the strength to put down his gun and make it through one more night, it wouldn't seem out of character to suddenly say something negative about the jews, would it? (Gary Busey played the guy that killed Rigg's wife and has just played a jewish doctor in "Valley of the Wolves: Iraq." In this movie, he cuts out and sells the organs of prisoners of war. Doesn't this, by a twisted extension of logic, give him a reason to dislike the Chosen People?)

This sort of disconnect, the sort of weird feeling that maybe the actor isn't that far from the character, isn't anything new. Nick Nolte walks that fine line alot with his special brand of "aggrevated crazy." Remember when they picked him on that same stretch of Malibu highway - unshaven and hair akimbo - and he just looked like he flipped his lid? Well, he hadn't - he was just working on the Hulk movie. Or a little of both?

Anywho, Melvin Gibstien done screwed up good and oddly enough, here's a place where leaders in the Jewish community are shining - they're forgiving him. They have his platinum covered balls in his hand and instead of crying foul and using him as a whipping post, they're saying "If you're sorry, then we forgive you." And damage control or not, Mel's doing the right thing by asking for atonement and going through and calling Jewish Hollywood agents and telling them that he was sorry for acting like a dick.

See how this works Tom Cruise?