It's Hard to Hate Mel Gibson

I mean, don't get me wrong...I somehow have managed to summon the strength to hate him, for his crazy politics, his desire to push his fringe religion deeper into the public sphere and his blatant anti-Semetism.

But he's been in some kickass movies. I just watched Gallipoli the other day again, and it's an incredible achievement. A beautiful, tragic film with a great, loose, extremely charismatic Gibson performance. And he's a pretty funny guy.

Consider the trailer for Mel's new film, Apocalypto. It's a story set in the dying days of the Mayan Empire. The film certainly does look unique and visionary, although it's hard to tell what's actually going on in the movie from this quick-cut trailer clip. One interesting thing about this trailer...Mel has inserted a subliminal shot of himself into the clip, too fast to see with the naked eye.



It's there...I swear it...You have to watch the thing frame-by-frame. Go about 3/4 of the way in...There's a shot of a guy being trapped in a net, then you see a close-up on his eyes, then everything goes black for a moment. After that cut, there's a very fast successful of brief clips from the film. This is the first of those clips.

When you actually see it for yourself in the trailer, it's pretty funny, and you have to admire the guy for throwing something goofy-looking like this into the advertising for what looks like a very serious movie. I can't see Terry Malick putting a photo of himself in a silly hat and suspenders into a rough cut of The New World just for a laugh, to see if anyone would notice.

Extra special thanks to Cinema Blend for the heads-up on this strange development, and for grabbing the photo. Mel just gets loopier every day.