Mel Gibson names the three key ingredients for making a great movie

Mel Gibson is a name that inspires a lot of different emotions. The American-born, Australian-raised star has enjoyed great success both in front of and behind the camera but has also amassed a string of controversies as long as your arm, in and away from the world of cinema. 

Less-desirable actions to one side, there’s no denying that Gibson knows how to make a movie. As an actor, his performances in Mad Max and Lethal Weapon are nothing short of iconic. As a director, he brought the world Braveheart, Apocalypto, and Hacksaw Ridge. There was also the small matter of The Passion of the Christ, but there’s no need to dwell on that for too long. 

All of this makes Gibson’s opinion on filmmaking worth having. In 2002, he spoke to the BBC about his upcoming appearance in M Night Shyamalan’s Signs, where he shared this nugget of wisdom about what makes a great movie. “I think films have to do three things,” he said. “They have to entertain, to educate, and, if possible, take you to a higher plane. I think this film does all three, and that’s the earmark of a great film.” 

Regarding this project, Gibson admitted that getting involved took him no time. “When I read the script, I saw straightaway that it did all three,” he said, referring to his previously mentioned tenets. “It took me about three seconds to give Night a call and say, ‘Let me do it’.” Obviously, what’s written in a script can be very different to how a film actually turns out, but luckily, this wasn’t a problem. “I wasn’t in the least disappointed,” Gibson said of the on-set process. “It only got better as we went along.”

Signs, Shyamalan’s fifth film, stars Gibson as Graham Hess, an ex-priest-turned-farmer who discovers a series of crop circles in his fields. This turns out to be the opening salvo of an alien invasion of Earth, which Hess and his family must survive. Signs proved to be a big hit and continued Shyamalan’s rise as a new force in directing. Conversely, it marked the beginning of a drought in Gibson’s acting career, as he started being much more selective with film roles afterwards.

The production of Signs was shrouded in secrecy, something Gibson was asked about during this interview. “Night is very, very protective of his stories,” he said, revealing that the director’s cousin drove to his house to personally deliver his script. “Hollywood being Hollywood, industrial espionage is rife, and you don’t want to get too vocal about what you’re doing because, in a heartbeat, someone will use it. It’s brutal.”

After some time in the wilderness, Gibson seems to have brought his career back on track. He recently returned to the director’s chair to make Flight Risk, an airborne thriller starring Mark Wahlberg. His 2016 war movie, Hacksaw Ridge, was a major critical darling, scoring an Oscar nomination for ‘Best Picture’ and landing Gibson the coveted nomination for ‘Best Director’. 

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