\n<\/p>\n
The movie trailer<\/a> hit heavy rotation on N.F.L. playoff broadcasts and elsewhere earlier this month. A pilot played by Mark Wahlberg is flying a federal agent and a government witness in a tiny airplane. But the pilot, it seems, is actually a hit man sent to kill the witness. Chaos ensues.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t watch it,\u201d the trailer promises in all capital letters. \u201cYou experience it.\u201d<\/p>\n None of the actors, including Wahlberg, are identified by name \u2014 the agent is played by Michelle Dockery (\u201cDownton Abbey\u201d), the witness by Topher Grace (\u201cThat \u201970s Show\u201d) \u2014 and the filmmaker is alluded to simply as \u201cthe acclaimed director of \u2018Braveheart,\u2019 \u2018Hacksaw Ridge\u2019 and \u2018Apocalypto.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The movie poster<\/a> is similar: Wahlberg\u2019s is the only name in large type; the top promises, \u201cFrom the award-winning director\u201d of those three films; and only at the bottom, in far smaller type, is the director\u2019s name: Mel Gibson.<\/p>\n Gibson \u2014 who won the directing Oscar for \u201cBraveheart\u201d and was nominated for \u201cHacksaw Ridge\u201d \u2014 was also of course once one of Hollywood\u2019s most bankable actors. He is also the same person who in 2006 made antisemitic statements to a police officer who had pulled him over for speeding (Gibson pleaded no contest to drunken driving and apologized for the statements), was heard on tapes leaked in 2010 shouting racist remarks at his then-girlfriend and this past fall stated<\/a> that Kamala Harris has \u201cthe I.Q. of a fence post.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Gibson\u2019s return to the director\u2019s chair for the first time since \u201cHacksaw Ridge\u201d nearly a decade ago coincides with the return to the White House of President Trump \u2014 who last week named<\/a> Gibson and two other notably conservative entertainment-world figures, the actors Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight, as \u201cspecial ambassadors\u201d to Hollywood. In that light, \u201cFlight Risk\u201d provides a case study in how the culture industries will navigate a political reality in which conservatism feels culturally ascendant, yet the most successful mass products invariably have something for everyone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n By all indications, \u201cFlight Risk\u201d is an apolitical, tightly paced thriller best viewed with popcorn accompaniment. (Reviews are not yet available.)<\/p>\n \u201cThis movie looks more like he and Mark are having fun,\u201d said Russell Schwartz, a veteran theatrical marketer and professor at Chapman University, adding that it appears to be \u201cnot a diatribe, it\u2019s just a good, old-fashioned B+ or A- action movie.\u201d<\/p>\n Gibson has done limited press promoting the movie. He appeared on the prime-time Fox News show \u201cThe Ingraham Angle\u201d and the conservative cable network NewsNation (disclosing<\/a> that his family home in Malibu, Calif., had burned down in the recent fires).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n A spokesman for Gibson referred an inquiry to Lionsgate, which is distributing the film. Lionsgate declined to comment.<\/p>\n Gibson also appeared this month on \u201cThe Joe Rogan Experience,\u201d the hugely popular podcast whose host became a prominent player in last year\u2019s presidential campaign after Trump appeared as a guest on the show and Rogan endorsed Trump in the days leading up to the election. Rogan attended Monday\u2019s inauguration ceremony inside the Capitol.<\/p>\n On the show, Gibson discussed his conservative Catholic beliefs (he rejects the Second Vatican Council<\/a>) and his thinking on evolution. (\u201cThe Darwin thing? I don\u2019t really go for it.\u201d) He said he has three friends whose Stage 4 cancers were gone after they took holistic cures.<\/p>\n Gibson also promoted \u201cFlight Risk\u201d in broadly welcoming terms. \u201cIt\u2019s a hoot,\u201d Gibson said, adding, \u201cI just want people to have a nice little ride.\u201d<\/p>\n Gibson\u2019s strategic press appearances could market to filmgoers who find his politics appealing without alienating others, said Casey Kelly, a professor of rhetoric and public culture at the University of Nebraska. It \u201cmakes the content seem taboo, countercultural, rebellious,\u201d he said, \u201cwhich is really appealing to young men.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing anti-woke is a brand more than it is content,\u201d Kelly added. \u201cMel Gibson\u2019s films aren\u2019t anti-woke. It\u2019s a way of making a name for yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Fred Cook, a public relations veteran who is a professor at the University of Southern California, said it was common for a movie to be marketed as different things to different audiences. Trailers for \u201cJoker: Folie \u00e0 Deux,\u201d he noted, often elided the extent to which last year\u2019s sequel to \u201cThe Joker\u201d was a musical.<\/p>\n \u201cThey just didn\u2019t play up that aspect of the movie, which is a huge factor, because they didn\u2019t think it would appeal to people,\u201d Cook said.<\/p>\n Gibson\u2019s planned next film might be more challenging to market so carefully. He has said he plans to start production soon on a sequel to his 2004 blockbuster \u201cThe Passion of the Christ,\u201d by some measures the most successful independent movie of all time, which was criticized<\/a> for anti-Jewish tropes.<\/p>\n The follow-up, in which Gibson says Jim Caviezel will reprise his role as Jesus, will concern the Resurrection and more, Gibson told Rogan \u2014 from \u201cthe fall of the angels to the death of the last apostle.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou have different goals,\u201d Gibson added, contrasting \u201cFlight Risk\u201d with this new project. \u201cThe next thing I\u2019m going to tackle is more profound for me \u2014 it\u2019s going to take more out of me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n