Liam Neeson Under the Cosh

Written By: - Date published: 9:35 am, February 5th, 2019 - 119 comments
Categories: crime, Deep stuff, film, International, journalism, Media, patriarchy, racism, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, violence against women - Tags: , ,

British actor Liam Neeson has made an extraordinary confession in an interview with the Independent news site.

Promoting his new film, Cold Pursuit, Neeson has claimed that many years ago, he spent a week or more hanging around bars late at night hoping to get into a fight with a black man who he could kill with a cosh.

This was in response, Neeson says, to the news that a family member had been raped.

“She handled the situation of the rape in the most extraordinary way,” Neeson says.

“I asked, did she know who it was? No. What colour were they? She said it was a black person.”

Neeson goes on to say that he went looking for a confrontation:

“I went up and down areas with a cosh, hoping I’d be approached by somebody – I’m ashamed to say that – and I did it for maybe a week, hoping some  ‘black bastard’ would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could … kill him.”

Reflecting on his rage, Neeson is contrite:

“It’s awful. But I did learn a lesson from it, when I eventually thought, ‘What the fuck are you doing,’ you know?”

 
Neeson in ‘Cold Pursuit’ (Lionsgate)

Neeson also talks about his upbringing in divided Ireland.

“I come from a society – I grew up in Northern Ireland in the Troubles – and, you know, I knew a couple of guys that died on hunger strike, and I had acquaintances who were very caught up in the Troubles, and I understand that need for revenge, but it just leads to more revenge, to more killing and more killing, and Northern Ireland’s proof of that.

All this stuff that’s happening in the world, the violence, is proof of that, you know. But that primal need, I understand.”

It’s that ‘primal need’ that is central to this news story. Liam Neeson has made a career out of playing revenge seeking macho men with a ‘particular set of skills’.

His films, the Taken series and various lookalikes on planes, trains and automobiles, have at their heart a man putting things right with a bit of the old ultra violence. Clearly it’s a fantasy that many men buy into, if the box office receipts are to be believed.

At it’s heart, the male revenge movie genre is flawed thinking. The answer to male violence is not more male violence.

However, I suspect that the racial aspect of Neeson’s story will dominate the news cycle.

His admission that for a week or more he wallowed in race profiling in the vain hope of meting out vengeance on a random person for the sins of another is going to be the obvious headline.

His career may suffer as a result, and maybe it should.

However, the wider point Neeson makes is important.

There is something primal in male psyches that makes the irrational acceptable in the moment.

This is Neeson’s argument. Men, even famous men, are capable of self absorbed, ego driven violent fantasies. And many, many times, the fantasy becomes the reality.

It’s a shame that his revelation will make the headlines for the sensational race aspect, not the fundamental truth Liam Neeson was trying to bring to light.

And that truth is that violence is inherently a male problem.

An irrational, primal problem.

 

UPDATE: Liam Neeson on Good Morning America expanding on the incident:

 

119 comments on “Liam Neeson Under the Cosh ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Gosman 1
    5 February 2019 at 10:16 am

    Why should his career suffer when he admitted that his actions were wrong and the feelings behind them were wrong? This seems to be a case where we should commend a personality for speaking up about a dark element of their past.

    • infused 1.1
      6 February 2019 at 6:48 pm

      Because in this pc gone made, woke, snowfake, rape culture climate we currently live in, everyones out for blood.

      It’s fucking ridiculous.

    • D'Esterre 1.2
      7 February 2019 at 12:10 pm

      Gosman: “….when he admitted that his actions were wrong…”

      Well, in fairness to him, he didn’t actually do anything exceptionable in the end. Man carries weapon, goes looking for trouble: well, hold the bus…. He wouldn’t be the first, won’t be the last, I’m sure of that! And trouble didn’t find him; luckily for him, doubtless.

      It seems to me he’d have been better to have kept shtum about this whole episode. Though a member of this household thinks that he may have done this purposely. He wants to scupper his Hollywood career, on account of he’s tired of all those crappy revenge movies it foists on him. It’s a point of view…. And it’s long years since “The Mission”, which wasn’t at all crappy.

  2. Gabby 2
    5 February 2019 at 10:30 am

    Are mothers more likely to treat their sons violently than their daughters puty?

    • greywarshark 2.1
      5 February 2019 at 1:52 pm

      Really trying to make females out to be superior to men when it comes to violence is counterproductive. I think men are more violent but having a league table is not what we want to get out of a discussion. It is looking at controlling the violent
      tendency, the self-righteous ‘They asked for it’ and ‘I’ll show them’ coursing through someone’s mind and body – a red rage.

      • pingau 2.1.1
        5 February 2019 at 5:28 pm

        greywarshark … just reacting here – any statement that refers to “females” and “men” is a big red flag to me on attitudes to males and women.

        • Brigid 2.1.1.1
          5 February 2019 at 5:35 pm

          Indeed

        • pingau 2.1.1.2
          5 February 2019 at 5:42 pm

          greywarshark … agree with your point though.

          • greywarshark 2.1.1.2.1
            5 February 2019 at 8:00 pm

            Yes its hard not to be sensitive about gender matters and I try not to let it be too exposed mostly but sometimes it is too far. In my life I have known people with a male family member that has murdered, or been murdered through ownership and control attitudes to women they were involved with or friends with. An elderly aunt was raped. It’s six degrees of separation.

          • Chris 2.1.1.2.2
            5 February 2019 at 10:29 pm

            The feminists in the 1970s who argued that mean should be farmed had a point.

  3. greywarshark 3
    5 February 2019 at 10:30 am

    There is a shared problem of tendency to violence between the genders. That is the making of bad, sudden, not-thought-through decisions that cast aside previous settlements that reduce tensions between people, neighbourhoods, countries. We have seen this in Ireland fighting the British. The tensions increase and violent events arise, then tensions increase exponentially, controls become hard then callous, and up go the never-forgotten violent behaviours.

    Brexit is almost certain to be a move of aiding and abetting violence again in Ireland. The ineffective, irresponsible Conservative government of the UK and their figurehead Theresa May are deliberately sticking to a collision course of breakdown in orderly civil life which will lead to stress and soon to violence. The effect on Ireland’s political and civil stability will be great. And both genders are involved at the coalface, which gets dirty. And politicians of both genders are even dirtier in encouraging retrograde political exercises as in this withdrawal from the EU.

    It may be possible to trace outbreaks of violence, individual and societally endemic, to bad leadership over society’s culture which women have had an unwitting and unrealised role in sustaining. Stopping parents from smacking children is an outward symbolic decision but does not prevent the thinking and role-modelling of people in society that carries the ‘violence virus’ on through the generations. Anger and violence are inherent in our natures, as TRP says they are ‘primal’; it is how we express them that is the defining factor of the level of civilised behaviour and thought control that we have achieved.

  4. francesca 4
    5 February 2019 at 10:44 am

    I have to say I think violence is a human problem
    Nobody gets off the hook
    Female fantasy revenge violence is also celebrated in Hollywood by Uma Thurmans character in Kill Bill
    And innate male violence is deliberately cultivated and rewarded by every country’s military, exploiting young males to a large extent to become cannon fodder in the service of commercial opportunity
    We women , if we truly deplore male violence should be campaigning to banish war.

    • D'Esterre 4.1
      7 February 2019 at 9:58 am

      Francesca: “I have to say I think violence is a human problem”

      I agree; and evolutionary biology backs up that view. Selection pressures apply equally to males and females; we are much more alike than different. Sexual dimorphism means that women are in general smaller and weaker, and therefore less able to use physical violence to injure men. But it doesn’t at all follow that some women don’t use physical violence against men.

      Testosterone levels certainly are a marker of difference between males and females. But females also have testosterone: just generally at lower levels than men. Except possibly intersex individuals.

      TRP says the following: “And that truth is that violence is inherently a male problem.”

      For reasons adduced above, that cannot be right; and court reports make this point almost every day. Some people argue that male violence is a primal problem, whereas women are enculturated to be less violent. That cannot be right, either; if females are subject to cultural pressures, so are males. And vice versa: if males aren’t subject to cultural pressures, neither are females.

      I recommend Sarah Blaffer Hrdy’s book “The Woman that Never Evolved”. In that book, she explored some of these issues in relation to females. It was published in the late 1990s by Harvard University Press.

  5. Siobhan 5
    5 February 2019 at 11:17 am

    I actually can’t recall a male on male fight in the school yard, the street or a bar, that wasn’t accompanied by at least one female screeching at the top of her lungs, in full blown blood lust.. “Get Him!!! Get Him!!Effing Get Him.’

    • greywarshark 5.1
      5 February 2019 at 11:31 am

      Siobhan
      I remember one example of a very pretty young woman who seemed to have the males round her in thrall and she would be on the sidelines watching them demonstrating their raw maleness to her in violent incidents.

    • Rapunzel 5.2
      5 February 2019 at 8:11 pm

      I don’t recall school brawls at all – but then I also do not recall anything other than the rare case of illiteracy, just some kids who liked to read more than others, I do recall mid ’70s Bell Block Hotel with the great NZ singer Mark Williams and band and grabbing all I could of the back of my newly acquired husband’s clothing from behind and sitting on the floor to dissuade him that joining is a general fracas was a wise thing to do. Likewise my brave sister-in-law sorting out some louts who started up on the streets of Tauranga, Some things may have changed but generally I have only known women who have sought to keep the peace unless the mentality was not up to understanding how commonsense that is. Whether you like it or not I have known men of all walks to resort to some sort of macho bravado when the mood took them.

      • Descendant Of Smith 5.2.1
        6 February 2019 at 11:39 am

        Bell Block Hotel where I got (glass) jugged in the head by some wanky protester in 81 cause I had my club rugby jersey on. Apparently I was on the wrong side.

        It’s the side thing that is kind of the point. Violence is a tribal and a learned behaviour evident in both men and women.

        Gang culture in New Zealand is one area where this is both highly experienced and deliberately taught. Judith Collins concept of doubling down is an equally deliberate and horrible manifestation of violence. The division of the public through labelling into bludgers and deserving is simply another form of encouragement for such violence. Us and them.

        Liam Neeson is clearly making the point that in that strong culture of tribalism, of division into us and them, that it’s all so easy to slip into that way of thinking. That violence and revenge becomes normalised.

        A young family member, not yet in his teens, was killed through a senseless stupid act. I was horrified to find some of his family members imbued in New Zealand’s gang culture, talking about killing the 12 year old responsible. Sometimes you wonder if our society is completely fucked.

        I and the public know
        What all schoolchildren learn,
        Those to whom evil is done
        Do evil in return.

        September 1, 1939
        W. H. Auden

        • Rapunzel 5.2.1.1
          6 February 2019 at 2:43 pm

          Make no mistake – I have two grandsons one ten and one 16 and I have very real concerns – fears of “letting them out won’t do a thing – that they could as part of their fairly normal activities end up in the “wrong place at the wrong time”.
          I have had daughters and have granddaughters too, while having concerns for them also they do not in all likelihood have the same finality as young men face especially at a time when they least understand the “dangers”.
          The fact I believe is that males more often end up on “sides” as you mention, my comment was that I do not believe females are in normal circumstances as prone as males are to engage either in a “bit of biffo” or worse.

  6. marty mars 6
    5 February 2019 at 11:27 am

    It is racism. Would he have gone out hunting for a white person would he fuck. What color was the perp? Wtf. All the male revenge stuff is a red herring imo.

    • Gosman 6.1
      5 February 2019 at 1:34 pm

      I think that is one of the points he is making. I don’t think he’s trying to say his actions weren’t in any way defendable.

    • Descendant Of Smith 6.2
      6 February 2019 at 12:25 pm

      Clearly racist when he second question out of his mouth was What colour were they?

      It’s an interesting question though as to whether he would have if it was a white person.

      I suspect if the victim said it was a Protestant he might have gone looking for a Protestant. Protestant was clearly a learned notion that they were the other tribe.

      What if she said they had red hair? Are our tribal notions of red heads as being different to us sufficiently ingrained that you might seek revenge against one? What about a homeless person, a beneficiary, a businessman in a suit or an immigrant?

      Spend some time this Waitangi Day celebrating with people who are clearly not you. It’s the best thing we can do.

  7. Sabine 7
    5 February 2019 at 11:53 am

    so the answer for him was to stalk some men innocent of any crime, so that they would ‘start’ something that would allow him to ‘kill’ them.

    that is white male privilege in action and personified.

    There is no revenge in wanting to kill someone simply because they are of the same race the perpetrator is. that is just an excuse to go out and hunt for a kill.

    Idiot should have kept his mouth shut.

    • Gosman 7.1
      5 February 2019 at 1:42 pm

      Why? He’s stating his actions and thinking were wrong. Why should he not admit he was wrong?

    • bwaghorn 7.2
      5 February 2019 at 5:42 pm

      So no white man was ever beaten or killed by a black man just because he was white ??
      Get off ya high horse.

      • Sabine 7.2.1
        5 February 2019 at 8:28 pm

        https://www.google.com/search?q=white+man+beaten+to+death+by+a+black+man+because+he+was+white&oq=white+man+beaten+to+death+by+a+black+man+because+he+was+white&aqs=chrome..69i57.12792j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

        my simple google search brought up nothing, but then it might be US centric return of links – who btw all talk about white people randomly killing black people – and you might have a better chance of finding a racist killing by a black person in South Africa.

        In saying that at cursory glance is something that is not on the top of the news google throws at me.

        but please feel free to show me the black people that are known to stalking white people with the intent to kill said white people and getting away with it.

        As btw, this white man Liam Neeson just admitted he did stalk with intend to murder and essentially either just logic’ed himself out a really dumb idea or chickened out because he figured that he was not cut for prison. Either way he took the right decision for that innocent person of color and himself.

        and please, leave my horse out of it.

      • marty mars 7.2.2
        5 February 2019 at 8:40 pm

        jeez you have no idea at all – embarrassed for ya waghorn

    • infused 7.3
      6 February 2019 at 6:50 pm

      lol white privilege… what the fuck are you guys smoking these days? He said he would have ‘killed’ anyone, and his ass would have been locked up for it.

  8. McFlock 8
    5 February 2019 at 1:09 pm

    Lots to think about, there.

  9. Siobhan 9
    5 February 2019 at 1:10 pm

    Context.

    Liam Neeson has done some work for Amnesty International, back in 2015, fronting a pro choice (abortion) ‘Repeal The Eighth’ campaign. I suspect he is therefore quite supportive of Amnesty campaigns, and they have/are trying to draw attention to the chronic racism problem in Northern Ireland.

    https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/northern-ireland-levels-racism-should-shock-us-our-core-says-amnesty

  10. Sanctuary 10
    5 February 2019 at 1:12 pm

    Apparently this all happened “many years ago” to a woman “he knew well”.

    I didn’t come down in the last shower and to me that looks like a load of unverified bullshit from someone with a movie to sell.

    • McFlock 10.1
      5 February 2019 at 1:21 pm

      What, you want her name and address so you can ask her if it really happened?

      As publicity stunts go, this one’s a bit risky, no? Just as likely to end up in a mass boycott?

      • Sanctuary 10.1.1
        5 February 2019 at 2:24 pm

        “…What, you want her name and address so you can ask her if it really happened..?”

        Well thats the point, innit? Who is base enough to go prying and how would they find out anyway? So the whole thing is completely on his word.

        And I am just not of a disposition to take anything like that at face value, especially when an obvious bit of commercial self interest is involved.

        • McFlock 10.1.1.1
          5 February 2019 at 2:43 pm

          It sure doesn’t paint him in a good light. I hope he got a PR bonus if it was made up.

          • Sanctuary 10.1.1.1.1
            5 February 2019 at 2:49 pm

            Might not be totally made up, he might have known someone once who was raped – it is unfortunately a common crime. He may have entertained thoughts of revenge even.

            So he might have an experience on which he can construct an elaborate gilding of the lily for a dark confession that just so happens to coincide with his new movie release…

            Call me a cynic, but there you have it – follow the money, as they say.

            • McFlock 10.1.1.1.1.1
              5 February 2019 at 3:51 pm

              First there has to be money in it to follow. That could go either way, for a start.

  11. Drowsy M. Kram 11
    5 February 2019 at 1:52 pm

    Sixty-six year-old Liam Neeson (the voice of Aslan) “rose to prominence when he starred in the title role in Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award-winning film Schindler’s List (1993).” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liam_Neeson

    The recent self-disclosure of his (historical) racist thoughts and actions, on learning that someone close to him had been raped, seems strange and unnecessary. Maybe he felt that good could come of the disclosure, maybe it was a bizzarre act of self-promotion, maybe a bit of both, or something else entirely.

    Fortunately, as far as we know no direct harm resulted from Neeson’s (re)actions then – hope no harm comes from his decision to reveal this information now, because (as we know) revealing past wrong-doings (however inconsequential) does not always play well.

    Neeson appears to be an accomplished and well-rounded (see Siobhan’s comment @9) and accomplished individual, albeit not to everyone’s taste.

    • McFlock 11.1
      5 February 2019 at 3:46 pm

      This latest movie seems to be more of a “Death Wish”-style revenge flick than most of his previous films. It’s possible that preparing for the role made him reflect on his past actions.

      It does seem to come from a place of genuine self-reflection and regret, and it’s also a capsule of a whole bunch of ills in our civilisation: racism, toxic masculinity, the effects of war upon people surrounded by it.

      Hmm.

  12. vto 12
    5 February 2019 at 2:50 pm

    TRP, where in that interview is the evidence for your conclusion that this shows that violence is a male thing and not a female thing?

    • te reo putake 12.1
      5 February 2019 at 2:57 pm

      Um, pretty much every word of the interview, VTO. Plus, y’know, life.

      • Gosman 12.1.1
        5 February 2019 at 3:12 pm

        Just to clarify – A single male expressing regret about how he reacted to a traumatic experience a friend or family member suffered through decades ago is somehow indicative to you that violence is a male not female thing. Is that correct?

        • te reo putake 12.1.1.1
          5 February 2019 at 3:15 pm

          It fits the pattern, yes.

          • Shadrach 12.1.1.1.1
            5 February 2019 at 3:48 pm

            In the context of Gosman’s question, what pattern?

            https://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/sep/05/men-victims-domestic-violence

            • vto 12.1.1.1.1.1
              5 February 2019 at 4:06 pm

              Those stats don’t surprise .. And that is for physical violence only. It would be interesting to see what the stats said if verbal violence, psychological violence, social violence, and any other non-physical violences were included.

              I don’t think men and women are too different – both rise to anger and rage as easily, both do dumb things, both say bad shit, both can be mean as…

              I think a greater issue is our punitive culture relative to other worldly less punitive cultures

              2c

            • te reo putake 12.1.1.1.1.2
              5 February 2019 at 4:19 pm

              The pattern of male violence.

              • Shadrach …
                6 February 2019 at 12:45 am

                You didn’t answer the question. I asked about the context of Goodman’s question, which essentially challenged you to clarify that you assert “that violence is a male not female thing.” As the stats I quoted clearly show violence IS also a female thing, do you agree there is a pattern of female violence?

                • Lucy …
                  6 February 2019 at 10:32 am

                  Sigh didn’t think it would be long before the women are violent too came out. The main problem with the story for me is that Liam had a friend who had been raped, and what did he do – not comfort her, not learn about how to help a rape victim he went out to try and beat someone up. Way to go for empathy and support! What we really want our men to do we go through the most horrific thing and they are totally absent.

                  • Shadrach …
                    6 February 2019 at 10:39 am

                    How do you know he didn’t do empathy as well? And how do you know what all women want from ‘their’ men in that situation?

                    • arkie …
                      6 February 2019 at 10:41 am

                      edit: shadrach comment was edited after i replied.

                    • Lucy …
                      6 February 2019 at 1:47 pm

                      Because I like at least 30% of women have been in the situation when I needed something so was talking from my experience. He didn’t do empathy because rage and empathy tend not to co exist in humans. Anger is mostly a very consuming emotion so angry people tend to be angry 24 hours a day. Most humans when they are hurt by someone want soft words and sympathy and a person who will let THEM rage if they need to. But they need someone who will be there for them not someone who is out walking the streets hunting for an object of anger.

                    • Shadrach …
                      6 February 2019 at 6:30 pm

                      So you are assuming he didn’t do empathy, but actually you have no idea. Your experience is your experience. It does not qualify you to speak for all women.

                  • te reo putake …
                    6 February 2019 at 10:58 am

                    Hi, Lucy. Thanks for that comment. It exposes one of the difficulties about Neeson’s statement, which is that it was only a few brief sentences.

                    He didn’t go into detail about other aspects of his response, which I truly hope involved being empathetic and supportive to the victim.

                    I suspect we’ll get a fuller explanation from Neesom in time and I see that he was on TV overnight talking about it. If I can find video of that interview I’ll add it to the post.

                    In the meantime, the NY premiere of the film he was promoting has just been cancelled, so I think this matter has a long way to run yet.

                  • Chris T …
                    6 February 2019 at 6:36 pm

                    “The main problem with the story for me is that Liam had a friend who had been raped, and what did he do – not comfort her,”

                    How exactly do you know he didn’t?

                    What we have is a snapshot of 40 years ago.

                    We don’t know what else he did, or even what the whole conversation to do with the perpetrator was other than a couple of questions of many he may have asked that lead to his ugly pointless wandering around.

                • te reo putake …
                  6 February 2019 at 10:50 am

                  Shadrach. No, I do not believe there is a pattern of female violence. I do believe there is occasional random violence from a minority of women. The vast majority of violence in our society is from men. That’s the problem and no amount of weasely quibbling or whataboutism will change that.

                  • Shadrach …
                    6 February 2019 at 6:32 pm

                    The majority of violence is from men. But the ‘vast majority’? Did you not read the Guardian piece?

                  • Shadrach …
                    6 February 2019 at 6:47 pm

                    In 2015/16, 13.6% of men in England and Wales stated they had been victims of domestic abuse. This is the equivalent of 2.2 million victims. For every three victims, two will be female and one will be male.
                    1 in 6 men suffer domestic abuse in their lifetime. (Compared to 1 in 4 women.)
                    Between 2004/5 and 2015/6, there was a sevenfold increase in the number of women convicted of perpetrating domestic abuse.*

                    https://www.hertsdomesticabusehelpline.org/blogspot-domestic-abuse/domestic-violence-against-men

                    What was that about Weasley quibbling? What was that about ‘ocassional random violence’?

                    • infused …
                      6 February 2019 at 6:58 pm

                      don’t let the facts get in the way of this white ‘male privilege’ bullshit that’s so popular today.

  13. SPC 13
    5 February 2019 at 3:37 pm

    That the person who did the wrong was black, rather than Moslem, a man, (if the vigilante was a woman) or gay, means that the story will be blacks being offended by his racism – when this is a really is a story about the anecdotal/one incident informing opinion about an entire group of people.

    Thus how easily a minority, particularly a new minority, gets a reputation based on the deeds of the few – and dissemination of reports about this.

    In Europe and Trump’s USA this has lead to a resurgence of nationalism in opposition to immigration, and also to government being ultra PC in management of crime reporting about immigrant groups. Basically where the people and government lose trust in each other.

  14. gsays 14
    5 February 2019 at 4:21 pm

    10 out if 10 for honesty from Nesson.

    As for for violence being a male thing, I disagree.
    Violenceice takes lots of forms, generally in the way that the perpetrator feels most capable.
    Physical, mental emotional, financial…

    A story from a few Jamboree ago.
    The adult leadership group were asked if there could be a female only patrol for the camp. We said yes.
    For the first three days they were sensational, but cracks were forming.
    Fourth day during a raft building exercise, the group broke down.
    They limped through the rest of the jamboree.

    At a debrief a month later with our scout group youth, one lass made the observation “When a girl hurts you, you stay hurt.”

    None of this is to deny the shocking damage that men do, it is a societal issue and we can all pull out socks up.

  15. Tiger Mountain 15
    5 February 2019 at 4:29 pm

    Mr Neeson has dropped himself well in it here, on the face of it…but am guessing that those outraged by his claim about revenge fantasies on black men might not be regular customers of his bone crunching style films, and those that lap them up like the proverbial–will be going “on-yer Liam!”–jingle tills again…

    but life is not that simple, and Neeson seems to have other interests, historical knowledge, and good intents, apart from pulverising people on screen, but it is disappointing that he has publicised this as while not a regular Neeson watcher, I was hoping for “The Grey 2”!

  16. Sabine 16
    5 February 2019 at 4:55 pm

    it might just be a PR Stunt it might be self reflection, it might even be an event that had him honestly going, hola dude wtf are you doing.

    but,

    suppose he would have found a victim for his revenge fantasy
    suppose he would have been able to incite this victim into a fight with him
    suppose the police – irish – white – male – (i am guessing at the time it would have been a predominantly white, irish, male force) were called to an incident of two male fighting – one white one black/brown,
    who would have been the one to pay the full bill? who would have gone to prison for a longer term, who would have been roughed up more by the coppers, and who would have received more compassion? the white lad wanting to revenge the rape of a friend, or the brown fullah who was at the wrong place at the wrong time?

    Who would end up paying the full bill of Liam Neeson revenge fantasies?

    So, is he really sorry? Did he really understand just how toxic he was in his youth? Just how much he could have fucked up an innocent mans life while he would have had good chances to walk a way unharmed? Are his movies an extension to himself or just a nice repetition that pays him millions of dollars and a comfortable live? Who knows,

    but i know
    that by at least acknowledging that after a week some part of his brain started to work again (as per his own admission) and he stopped what he was doing. And that was the day he Liam Neeson stopped being a life and death threat to the colored male population of his hometown.

    As for those that want to again say both sides do it? Please, bring up a story where a white women said that she was stalking some brown dudes to revenge a friend that had been raped. And then please bring up the stories of the white men that have been raped – as Sanctuary so nonchalantly states a ‘common ‘ crime, by some random women. – And i don’t say that women can’t sexually abuse men or women, they can. And still i would guess that rape of women and of men is more often then not the crime committed by a man.

    And if you can’t do that, why not just realize that this story is a story about male violence by an actor who literally makes million of dollars being a white male violent dude for the pleasure of many many movie goers – and this is a guess of mine – the majority being young male. Cause exploding cars, and shooting big guns, and getting to save the damsel in the end.

    And then just to go back to the both siderism, show me the movie/s where one women can play that role again and again and again irrespective of her age. 🙂 I mean we had Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood, Liam Neesom, Tom Cruise (mission accomplished), the Bourke dude , etc etc etc etc. Hundreds of times the same movie the same script the same everything other then the female lead who seems to stay always just around 25. 🙂

    So while all humans are capable of violence it is still something that is more accepted when men do it then women, more women die at the hand of men then men, more men die at the hand of other men then women, an awful lot of women die at the hand of an intimate partner or ex, and all of that is true.

    As for the boyscout story…….when men hurt you it hurts you for a life time. Ask any women who was raped.

    • McFlock 16.1
      5 February 2019 at 5:15 pm

      Yeah can’t disagree with any of that.

      Jodie Foster’s done a vengeance-vigilante flick, and Jolie did a female James Bond style role, but those movies are few and far between compared to the regular release of male shoot ’em ups every week or two.

      And yeah, Neeson could have murdered someone, he wanted to.

      So how do we acknowledge and treat people who were in that dark place and then acknowledge and reject that perspective, regardless of whether they actually committed a major crime? And stop others going into that zone?

      • Sabine 16.1.1
        5 February 2019 at 6:59 pm

        The first thing i would ask,

        did you go WTF becuase you were afraid of going to prison, or did you go WTF because you realised you were about to kill someone who has not raped anyone? Someone who would be dealt with harsher by the police then he himself? the one is an act of self preservation, the other is an act of understanding that i am creating trouble

        My step father raped me. He also beat my brother to pulp at any given time. he was and still is an abusive fuck today.

        Both my brother and i thought about killing this man, many many times, my brother almost did. One day he – all of his 2.05 m and 120 kg lost it and he started beating this man and only because others pulled them away did he not kill him.
        the next day he moved far away. for the same reason i ran away. He – this man who hurt us – and non of us will ever forget the hurt – is not worthy the sacrifice of our life and years in prison. Vengeance would not make us whole again, would not bring back the ones we were before the abuse started, would not take away the fear, the loathing, the self loathing, the hate, the self hate, the anger.

        And most people don’t ever live out their ‘vengeance’ dreams, so to me there is more to this then just ‘ oh a friend got raped, so i wanted to kill men like him’, i would say he was full of anger – and maybe this came from the troubles – and hate even, and really did not think.

        how to deal with him? Tell him to retire. No more vengeance movies for you. No more making money of misery, as all these movies are just about misery. And they glorify misery. Because at the end of the day, non of these guys full of vengenace find happiness. How could you? you just shot up criminals and non criminals alike (ever wondered how many bystander die in these good guy gets bad guy movies), and with every dead body your soul dies a wee bit too. So don’t make these movies anymore, and start teaching about toxic masculinity and how these type of movies are full of shit.

        • Drowsy M. Kram 16.1.1.1
          5 February 2019 at 8:22 pm

          Didn’t realise that ‘Cold Pursuit’ is a remake of the 2014 Norwegian movie ‘In Order of Disappearance’, which screened in the 2014 NZ International Film Festival – not a bad movie, for all the splatter.

          Would Neeson still be allowed to do the occassional ‘Schindler’s List’-type flick? Perhaps that’s simply beyond the man now.

          Within the next five years, age may take him out of contention for most action/violence movie roles. Then he can go back to voice work for children’s movies – Lego, Narnia, et al, and narrating doco films, e.g. The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition (2000).

          I knew someone who thought that Dame Edna Everidge was a real person. Can Neeson really be as one-dimensional as some of his acting roles, and this most recent reveal, might suggest, Consider, for example, ‘Love Thy Nature’ (2016), or indeed ‘Love Actually’ (2003).

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liam_Neeson_filmography

          • Sabine 16.1.1.1.1
            5 February 2019 at 8:49 pm

            when i say retire it is of that action movie shoot them all to smithereens type thing he does now. I mean these movies bank him hard cash, so i can see the attraction. But they are just stupid in the end, and they got boring in the 70 with the Charles Bronsons Death Wish series.

            He is now rich enough, savy and worldy enough to do what he wants, and he can certainly do better then kill em all movies. My 2 cents.

            • Drowsy M. Kram 16.1.1.1.1.1
              5 February 2019 at 9:09 pm

              Fair enough – ‘in-your-face’ movie and TV violence has escalated in intensity and volume. That trend isn’t good but will continue regardless of (the type-cast) Neeson’s presence/absence in revenge/vengence films – more’s the pity.

        • McFlock 16.1.1.2
          5 February 2019 at 9:00 pm

          It sounds a lot to me like Neeson had the same realisation you had.

          And that, many years later, what he had wanted to do at one time still gives him pause for reflection.

          • Sabine 16.1.1.2.1
            5 February 2019 at 9:53 pm

            i think it is a normal reaction wanting to extract vengeance. You hurt me i want to hurt you back.

            the difference is that i or my brother did not want to kill some man like him, but him.
            And this is where i hope he will speak out on/ reflect on was his need to extract vengeance despite not knowing who the perpetrator was and simply anyone ‘like him’ i.e. a man of color would do. I am glad he realized that he was about to fuck his live up, but more so that of an innocent bystander.

            • McFlock 16.1.1.2.1.1
              5 February 2019 at 11:26 pm

              Who do we attack when we don’t know who to attack? Or when we can’t attack that person?

              I hope he opens up more about it in a more appropriate venue. Whether his wtf moment about his future, his accidental victim-to-be, or a bigger moment of clarity about and from his youth in NI. How far his personal growth went from that point. What he’d say to that young man going out of the house “fine”, with a cosh and a secret plan. Of course she knew he wasn’t fine. That’s why she asked. But she probably wasn’t “fine” either, no matter how well she handled it for him.

              And I hope he addresses the racism of his impulse, as well.

              • Sabine …
                6 February 2019 at 8:06 am

                We don’t attack people just because we are angry. If we did, ask yourself how our society would look like. Oh i can’t kill the person who stole my car, you there in the green jumper you will do.
                And you know why we don’t murder just willy nilly? Because most of us don’t actually like murder, and because society frowns up on it.

                so really the point is would he have done the same if the person was white? Or was it easier because his victim was gonna be of color. And was the impulse racist or was it his racism that brought out the impulses. I would assume at the time it was the latte. do i believe he would do the same today, i hope not. S

                • McFlock …
                  6 February 2019 at 9:06 pm

                  Yeah, we do. Most of the massacres in the world have happened because of exactly that. We shouldn’t, but we do.

                  People do the same because of colour, religion, family name, whatever. It is a common impulse. I’m interested in what helped him overcome that impulse before he actually hurt anyone.

                  • Sabine …
                    6 February 2019 at 9:32 pm

                    I guess someone told him he would be going to prison for murder – premeditated murder.
                    If this has happened since the 90.s he would have been living in the US. He is living in NY currently.
                    Or someone told him that he had a fair chance ending up dead himself.

                    • McFlock …
                      6 February 2019 at 10:33 pm

                      The added video at the end of the post is interesting – he seems to talk about it more as just coming back down to earth and looking at what he was doing, rather than being deterred by punishment.

  17. Stuart Munro 17
    5 February 2019 at 4:56 pm

    It might do to be a little more understanding of the male role. Traditionally, violence is part of it, which is why so many of our ancestors marched off to imperial wars. Men might think that’s because, being generally larger and stronger, they represent the greater force. But the origins of the tradition are more probably that a society can survive the loss of males much more readily than breeding females. Add in the sustained popularity of revenge dramas from Titus Andronicus to Game of Thrones, and there is no dark patriarchal conspiracy here. Society exploits everyone without exception.

  18. bwaghorn 18
    5 February 2019 at 5:48 pm

    But he didn’t did he . If he really wanted to kill he would have found someone to kill . Get a grip .

    • marty mars 18.1
      5 February 2019 at 5:52 pm

      Dumb luck – probably would have got killed himself and some poor black dude would be in court and all the neeson fans barking for punishment.

  19. WeTheBleeple 19
    5 February 2019 at 6:09 pm

    Another celebrity tosser so desperate for attention and ratings he ‘confesses’ ‘his dark side’ to seem ‘legit’ for his ridiculous revenge fantasy franchise.

    Building an image. And you wrote an article for the twat.

    • Chris T 19.1
      5 February 2019 at 6:39 pm

      That is one way to look at it.

      I’d argue a pretty stupid one given he never mentioned it in his many other revenge movie promos, or in his entire 43 year career, but it is one way to look at it.

      Oh, and there isn’t a new Taken sequel out. It is a different movie

      • McFlock 19.1.1
        5 February 2019 at 7:19 pm

        And it actually seems substantially different from his other shoot ’em ups/violent flicks, which weren’t really revenge movies. Women as macguffins to repossess, yeah, but not really an actual “regular joe out for revenge because they hurt a loved one” movie.

  20. Chris T 20
    5 February 2019 at 6:40 pm

    If Mark Wahlberg can still get work after what he actually did, rather than thought one week when young, I am pretty sure Neeson career ain’t over.

  21. WeTheBleeple 21
    5 February 2019 at 7:31 pm

    Met my fair share of celebrities. For many, it doesn’t matter what you’re saying about them, as long as the topic is them. This is contrived, imo, whether based in fact or not.

  22. marty mars 22
    5 February 2019 at 10:47 pm

    neeson’s not a good guy, he’s a bloody actor.

    “Neeson said the alleged rape took place a long time ago and he found out about it when he came back from a trip abroad. The actor went on to use racially offensive language about the attacker.

    He said: “She handled the situation of the rape in the most extraordinary way.

    “But my immediate reaction was… I asked, did she know who it was? No. What colour were they? She said it was a black person. ”

    https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-47117177

    a bloody racist actor.

  23. ropata 23
    5 February 2019 at 11:18 pm

    So we are outraged that Liam Neeson didn’t assault anyone right? But he had bad thoughts. Too bad about his friend that was raped.

    Just a clickbait POS article trying to stir up a moral panic.

    • marty mars 23.1
      6 February 2019 at 7:33 am

      We went around with a weapon – looking for an innocent black man to kill. If that’s alright with you then that says a lot.

    • bwaghorn 23.2
      6 February 2019 at 8:04 am

      O come on no person of color has ever thought of harming or killing a white person ever . !!

      • marty mars 23.2.1
        6 February 2019 at 8:10 am

        what a scum comment on today of all days – go check your stock cos the top paddock gate is open dick.

      • Sabine 23.2.2
        6 February 2019 at 1:51 pm

        can you please link of a case of an armed black person stalking for over a week an area where he could find a suitable white person to kill and get away with it in Northern Ireland, or England.

        Please.

        chances are we all jokingly or somewhat more serious thought about killing the person who ate the last slice of cake, cut us of at the lights etc, but generally we don’t arm ourselfs, go out at night to finds someone who would ‘give us a reason, anything really ‘ for a killing.

        • bwaghorn 23.2.2.1
          6 February 2019 at 2:35 pm

          You I believe are dancing on the head of a pin in your desperate attempt to qualify your over reaction .
          Neeson’s whole point (if you believe hes being honest) is that vengeance blinded his thinking .
          Mm and you just love painting whites males as a great evil when evil can come in any colour or sex .

  24. SHG 24
    6 February 2019 at 12:02 am

    violence is inherently a male problem.

    What a load of rubbish. Women can commit acts of HORRIFIC random violence. Check this one out:

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-18/evie-amati-jailed-for-nine-years-over-7-eleven-axe-attack/10725862

  25. Pat 25
    6 February 2019 at 8:46 am

    So some not too bright guy who pretends for a living relates an incident that may or may not have happened and it garners this much angst?….FFS

    • Drowsy M. Kram 25.1
      6 February 2019 at 2:13 pm

      No need to belittle Neeson’s intelligence, profession and honesty to make your point.

      “With so many things coming back in style, I can’t wait until morals and intelligence become a trend again.“

  26. Puckish Rogue 26
    6 February 2019 at 1:47 pm

    So he thought something bad and wanted to do something very bad decades due to extenuating circumstances ago and didn’t and now says hes learnt his lesson

    This is a good thing isn’t it?

    (Unlike his recent actions movies which are definitely not a good thing at all)

    • Gosman 26.1
      7 February 2019 at 7:09 am

      Apparently not. Apparently thinking about doing something horrendous (but not actually doing it) is in itself a crime and the person who voluntarily admits to such a thing (despite doing so to raise awareness of unconscious racism and stating he is ashamed of what he thought and did at the time) needs to be shunned and shamed.

  27. pingau 27
    7 February 2019 at 8:36 am

    reply to SHG at 24.1.2 Not sure that is what the report is saying as the report seems to be be based on the lifetime experience of each individual, so the perpetrator may not be the woman’s current partner. Many lesbians have had previous heterosexual relationships.

    “Sex of Perpetrator of Intimate
    Partner Violence
    • Most bisexual and heterosexual
    women (89.5% and 98.7%,
    respectively) reported having
    only male perpetrators of
    intimate partner violence.
    Two-thirds of lesbian women
    (67.4%) reported having only
    female perpetrators of intimate
    partner violence.
    • The majority of bisexual men
    (78.5%) and most heterosexual
    men (99.5%) reported having
    only female perpetrators of
    intimate partner violence. Most
    gay men (90.7%) reported having
    only male perpetrators
    of intimate partner violence. “

  28. AB 28
    7 February 2019 at 12:16 pm

    Who is Liam Neeson and why should I be bothered?
    Does he have something to do with fillums?
    As someone who loathes celebrity in all its forms, his words are less than nothing to me.
    The world’s f*ckwittery is endless enough without his gratuitous contribution to it.

  29. marty mars 29
    8 February 2019 at 8:46 am

    Funny and accurate

    …And I said: “Don’t get uppity with me. You’re stuck on the non-conversation. You’re looking at this from the wrong angle. The meta-conversation, that all the really rational people are having, is about revenge, masculinity, sexual politics and the dark places that exist within us all. It’s really nothing to do with standing outside bars hoping a suitable black murder victim would emerge with the time-worn inquiry: ‘Want some?’ So confident am I,” I told her, “that Liam has started a conversation, that I am going to let him go on your show and talk some more. And he’s booked with Ryan Seacrest after that.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/lostinshowbiz/2019/feb/07/peek-at-diary-of-liam-neesons-agent

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.