that era of Mel Gibson was really wack, especially in retrospect of that event... when for a brief moment, Americans saw he was a crazy, racist asshole.
he was totally a household name, bankable property and had recognition as a director with his own production studio (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icon_Productions) cranking out flicks constantly.
recently, I rewatched a movie from just before Braveheart that I had completely forgotten. it is an extremely weird movie based off an even weirder book that is even stranger for being something Mel Gibson read and said, "hey I want to option this, direct and star in a movie about it." I got real weird catholic pedo vibes from it.