Mel Gibson’s New Film Is Hollywood at Its Most Tone Deaf
‘Force of Nature’ is written by White people for White people, set in an ‘exotic’ locale for maximum entertainment
“I’m staying here. I’m not leaving.”
That’s what Mel Gibson grumbles at Emile Hirsch and Kate Bosworth in their new film, Force of Nature. He delivers the lines with that grizzled, defiant, anti-authority attitude Americans seem to eat up at the box office.
But Force of Nature isn’t set in America; at least, not in the United States. It takes place in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, amid the backdrop of Hurricane Maria in 2017. It’s important to note that while the film is set during Hurricane Maria, it’s not about the devastating disaster at all. Instead, it uses the single biggest tragedy in the island’s history to tell a story about three White people trying to take down a group of criminals — criminals who are, of course, Puerto Rican.
This isn’t Hollywood at its worst. Simply, at its most tone deaf.
An action movie set in Puerto Rico during Maria completely misses the point. It tries to tell a story based loosely on our truth while excluding us from the narrative. I’m aware that there are currently Puerto Ricans who defend the film on the grounds that it…
