Don't remake 'The Wild Bunch', especially with Mel Gibson directing

I think it's a good rule of thumb that you shouldn't try to remake movies that is already really great or near perfect (*cough* Ghostbusters *cough*).

There are, of course, exceptions. I really admire Steven Soderbergh's take on Solaris.

I think Jonathan Demme's version of The Manchurian Candidate, while it is not even close to approaching the original's greatness, a totally watchable thriller. There's True Grit, Scarface, a few others I can get behind. But by and large, I believe if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

So I was particularly displeased to learn that in their infinite wisdom Hollywood has apparently greenlit a remake of director Sam Peckinpah's seminal western The Wild Bunch, with the disgraced but somehow still viable Mel Gibson at the helm.

I suppose there is no stopping this project, unless of course a warranted #MeToo backlash occurs and audiences with short memories remember the fact that Gibson is on the record as someone who has physically abused women and has casually used racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic rhetoric, both in public and in private.

Frankly, I don't care that artists I like and admire like Will Ferrell and Danny Glover, appear to be cool with Gibson now. And I don't care that for years he was a compelling presence as an actor in the Lethal Weapon and Mad Max franchises especially.

The man doesn't deserve this opportunity -- and from a purely cinematic, cultural point of view he's all wrong for it.

Far too many people have misunderstood and under-appreciated the legacy of Peckinpah's 1969 western. It is more famous (or infamous) for its prolonged, bloody climax, in which our heroes, and countless others, perish in a sustained hail of slow motion bullets. It is an undeniably unforgettable sequence but its power is not derived from its gore, it's effective because the movie has taken great pains to set up the camaraderie and emotional stakes of its characters.

Gibson has demonstrated an almost obsessive preoccupation with the excruciating details of intense violence -- all of his films are linked by his consistent use of visceral horror to hammer home his points without on scrap of irony.

His wildly overrated Oscar-nominated war film Hacksaw Ridge was a case study in his distinct brand of blunt force trauma. The human elements of that film were ham-fisted and hokey, and all of the relationship scenes seems to be there simply to justify the inevitable bloodletting of the second half.

Sometimes, like in his action epic Apocalypto, Gibson's taste for blood can be undeniably infectious, but The Wild Bunch always had more going for it than tough guy posturing. It was really an elegy for a certain kind of honor-bound outlaw, and it was also a film thoroughly for and of its time, it couldn't possibly have the same effect if it came out today, and I'm not sure what could possibly be added or enhanced by trying to update it for today.

Perhaps a version with women or people of color would be a breath of fresh air, but clearly Gibson has not demonstrated the cultural sensitivity to take that on, so what I expect to see is a dumber, bloodier version of a film that has been rightly held up as a genre high water mark.

Meanwhile, I remain confounded by why Hollywood has chosen to forgive Gibson, especially considering the fact that he's never expressed any real remorse for his past behavior or seemed to demonstrate any growth since a series of widely publicized outbursts seemed to derail his career a little over 10 years ago.

For me, I will always remember his 2010 interview with a reporter who happened to be Jewish, back when he was trying to launch his first comeback -- when the journalist politely tried to reference his past transgressions, Gibson snapped at him, asked him if he "had a dog in this fight" and was generally indignant about the fact that he was being held accountable for things he had indisputably done and said.

Needless to say, I don't believe he's changed, or deserves a second chance. His whole career was chance enough. And this Wild Bunch remake? Well, I certainly hope it never sees the light of day, and if it does I hope people see it for the creatively and morally bankrupt project it will inevitably be.

If Bill Cosby's downfall has taught us anything -- it's that we can't cling to people's work forever -- at a certain point they need to pay a price for their transgressions. When is Mel Gibson going to pay his?