The trailer of a new film starring Mel Gibson has sparked debate online, including accusations of Hollywood racism, exploitation, and insensitivity, as well as expressions of support from the people who are supposed to be offended.
The film, “Force of Nature,” directed by Michael Polish and co-starring Kate Bosworth and Emile Hirsch and set to release digitally on 30 June, tells the story of a gang of thieves who “plan a heist during a hurricane and encounter trouble when a cop tries to force everyone in the building to evacuate.”
The film takes place in Puerto Rico, which was devastated by Hurricane Maria in September 2017, a category 5 hurricane that wreaked some $90 billion in damages, resulted in nearly 3,000 fatalities, and famously sparked an international political feud between the Trump administration and Puerto Rican officials, with both sides accusing each other of politicizing the tragedy and promoting waste and fraud.
Inevitably drawing comparison to that devastating natural disaster, the plot of the film centers around a category 5 hurricane slamming the island while Gibson, who plays the lead cop character “Ray,” and his daughter (Bosworth), battle the thieves, who are headed up by corrupt cop Cardillo (Hirsch).
In a follow-up post to his initial post of the trailer, Gibson notes, “For the record: this is not a Hurricane Maria film. The setting is Puerto Rico, the rest is fictional.”
Force of Nature: Trailer pic.twitter.com/gq81p0d3e7
— Mel Gibson (@MelGibsonFilms) May 18, 2020
For the record: this is not a Hurricane Maria film. The setting is Puerto Rico, the rest is fictional.
— Mel Gibson (@MelGibsonFilms) May 19, 2020
While the film looks like your typical boilerplate action movie, it immediately generated a whole lot of buzz – though not exactly the kind the filmmakers were likely hoping for.
As Digital Spy and other outlets, including Independent and Twitchy, have highlighted, Gibson’s new movie has inspired a ton of backlash from folks accusing the filmmakers of callously attempting to profit off of others’ pain – and casting the “gringos” as the good guys and the Puerto Ricans as the villains.
But while the trailer has triggered fierce blowback from social justice-minded twitterers, others, including self-identified Puerto Ricans, are reminding people it’s just a movie and no one’s seen the full film yet.
First, some of the incensed responses:
- “It’s outright disrespectful to the people who went through the traumatic experience that was Hurricane Maria, for Mel Gibson and any Hollywood company to come to Puerto Rico and make a movie where the islanders are the bad guys, and he and the white people are the good guys.”
- “Approximately 4,645 people died because of this hurricane. Approximately, because it was bad enough we don’t even have exact numbers. People buried their dead in their backyards. People were without food, water, homes, electricity, for MONTHS. This is not an okay movie to make.”
- “lmao 3,000 Puerto Ricans died after Hurricane Maria but sure let’s make a D-list movie set during the storm where the gringos are the good guys and the bad drug guys are the islanders, truly f*** offffffff”
- “Painful to see how tax breaks luring Hollywood films (and jobs) to Puerto Rico can produce films that disappear our very reality.”
And some examples of people coming to the film’s defense:
- “As a Puerto Rican, I can tell you it is. The movie is not mocking or disrespecting in any way the victims or what we endured. It’s just a movie.”
- “I’m Puerto Rican and I don’t see anything wrong if Mel Gibson does a movie that he refuses to evacuate his home in Puerto Rico… What’s the controversy of this? I love Mel’s movies.”
- “Well it not disrespectful it is the truth we have major problems with gangs situation and he’s right people didn’t want to leave their home but I didn’t see any Puerto Rican though about doing a movie about Puerto Rico.”
- “He’s an islander in the movie, correct? The cops in the movie are islanders as well, correct? Have you seen the movie in entirety? Since when do we do full movie reviews based on trailers?”
- “It is in no way disrespectful to the people of Puerto Rico. Puerto Ricans have gone through hurricanes on almost a yearly basis and recovered every time. And the bad guy is played by David Zayas a Puerto Rican actor who has played villains in his career. So get over it.”
- “I missed the part where this movie was a documentary? I thought it was supposed to be fiction for entertainment purposes? Sit back, relax and eat some popcorn.”
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