Mel Gibson: The Legacy of a Freedom Friend

Actor, film director, producer, screenwriter Mel Gibson has been called everything from ultraconservative to very liberal. His film accomplishments include a remarkable run of box office hits, including Mad Max, The Year of Living Dangerously, The Bounty, Lethal Weapon, Braveheart, The Passion of Christ, and Apocalypto. Gibson complimented filmmaker Michael Moore for his documentary Fahrenheit 9/11.

On the other hand Gibson said President Bill Clinton was a "low-level opportunist" and someone was "telling him what to do" in a July 1995 interview with Playboy magazine. In the same interview, Gibson argued that men and women are unequal as a reason against women priests.

In 2004, he publicly spoke out against taxpayer-funded embryonic stem-cell research that involves the cloning and destruction of human embryos. In March 2005, he condemned the outcome of the Terri Schiavo case, referring to Schiavo's death as "state-sanctioned murder." He also questioned the Iraq War in March 2004 and later said that the "fearmongering" depicted in his film Apocalypto "reminds me a little of President Bush and his guys." Gibson does not fit neatly into anybody's pigeonhole.

Lew Rockwell has put together a nice freedom legacy of Mel Gibson movies, here.