My Friend Mel

I see Mel Gibson has made the news again. Calling some reporter an "#-hole" After he thought the interview was over and the microphone turned off. The reporter had made the mistake of taking up Mel's controversial anti- Semitic comments from a few years back.

What is it with all these male public figures who seem to go through some sort of mid-life crisis. Is it some sort of male menopausal identity crisis or something?  Do all men go through it?.. I wonder... is it something I and my surroundings have to look forward to?

Anyway I can understand Mel's reaction... he must be tired of having to explain himself, his mistakes and their consequences over and over again. But at the same time I can understand the media's interest .. he is after all a celebrity.

....On the other hand  it could of course be one of those clever(?) PR-tricks to promote his new film by getting extra media coverage...

It all seems though, a world away from the time he stared in the film Gallipoli, filmed in 1981. I just happened to see this film the other day and although it has aged a little it is still one of my favourite films. It contains sprinting and the emotions a sprinter goes through both leading up too, and during a race, something which was, at one time, a big part of my life. But also perhaps more importantly for us Kiwi's and Aussies it showed a little of what many of our relatives went through in that part of the world, at that time, a long way from home. An experience which all too many men didn't come home from.

More information about the Gallipoli campaign from a Kiwi perspective can be read ...here...