Movie review: 'Apocalypto'
Applying the same breathtaking production values and attention to detail that he did in "Braveheart" and "The Passion of the Christ,"
director Mel Gibson amplifies the violence in those films to something approaching abhorrent at the height of the carnage in "Apocalypto."
Was pre-Columbian Mayan society a savage place? Sure, at times. Does Gibson need to repeatedly show us lopped-off heads bouncing like coconuts down the towering stairs of a pyramid to prove it? Not so much.
In the vein of the dead languages featured in "The Passion," Gibson, who co-wrote the "Apocalypto" screenplay with Farhad Safinia, has his cast of unknowns talking in Yucatec Maya, spoken today only in the Yucatan Peninsula.
Also like "The Passion," the subtitled "Apocalypto" is a visual story — long stretches told through pictures, sound effects and music, without need of dialogue. Great warmth, fraternity, compassion and sly humor underlie this little jungle society, where Gibson's hero Jaguar Paw (played with fiery fortitude by American Indian Rudy Youngblood) lives with his pregnant wife (Dalia Hernandez) and their young son.
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Then showing up from the big city are invaders who, with their tattoos, facial ornaments and other accouterments, look like refugees from Gibson's "The Road Warrior." Many of Jaguar Paw's kin are slain, and he and others are captured and led on a forced march, but not before he manages to stash his wife and son away in a safe but temporary hiding place.
When captives and conquerers arrive at the Mayan metropolis, the gloves come off, along with a lot of heads. The panorama and bustle of the city are remarkably visceral, but the only sense Gibson provides of the heart of Mayan culture is that of a society of bloodthirsty lunatics.
The excess of repugnant violence continues during a frequently thrilling jungle chase as Jaguar Paw escapes. If you've ever wanted to see a jaguar bite off a man's face, this is your movie.
Shot in lush landscapes of Central America, "Apocalypto" shows us a fresh, vital, often beautiful and often terrifying world with performers who inhabit the loincloth lifestyle with ease and grace.
It's hard to know what to make of some mildly comical closing images of stiff, pasty Europeans coming ashore, a crucifix prominently displayed. What's Gibson saying? That the Mayans already are rotting on the vine, so it's just as well that self-righteous Europeans move in and start stealing their land and ravaging their culture?
Like the more laughable violence of "Apocalypto," the European arrival probably is best shrugged off and forgotten as just another weird apparition in a filmmaker's grand but cruel and twisted vision.
• HH • Fair • Rated: R (sequences of graphic violence and disturbing images) • Starring: Rudy Youngblood, Dalia Hernandez • Directed by: Mel Gibson • Running time: 2 hours, 17 minutes • Playing at: AMCG, DEST, FISH, HUDV, MONT, PALIS, ROSV, SHOW