Over the weekend Marcia and I watched Mel Gibson’s “Apocalypto”.
The following is the synopsis of the movie, written by Anthony Pereyra, posted on IMDB:
In the twilight of the mysterious Mayan Kingdom, a young warrior known as Jaguar Paw has been captured and taken to the great Mayan city, where he faces a harrowing end. Driven by the power of his love for his wife and son, he makes an escape to rescue them and ultimately save his way of life.
Given Gibson’s work on “The Passion of the Christ”, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this. The movie seemed to have an aura about it even before it was released. It had seemed that Gibson had lost it, and was doing something so totally different and crazy. Frankly, I was a little worried that this was going to be something that was just so “out there” that only hardcore artistic movie goers would appreciate, if at all.
This is almost exactly what the movie wasn’t. Sure, there is a true artistic vision about the movie. But it was something that I could truly appreciate. There was so much emotion, and so much background given, and it was done with hardly any words at all. The is subtitled because all the actors speak in a Mayan dialect. And even when there is dialog, it’s sparse. But it was all overcome, or maybe better said, purposely shown through the scenery, the actions of the characters, the emotion on their faces, and the atmosphere of the moments. It was amazing that so much could be done with so few words.
Some have accused Mr. Gibson of really getting into filming scenes of bodily mutilation. Given the immense gore that was shown in one scene of “The Passion …” I could somewhat agree if just focusing on the scenes in this movie. But some where held back. Not that I would be giving away much, but two times in this movie a person is sacrificed by someone stabbing them and removing their heart. The scenes are done that the actual mutilation is implied. You see the movements made and the end result, but not the gore in the middle.
I had read where Robert Duvall said that “Apocalypto” was one of the best films he has seen in the last 25 years. Well, I don’t think it was that good. However, I certainly see what was great about the movie. I am sure there were quite a inaccuracies regarding the Mayan civilization. And there is a solar eclipse that happens way too fast. But that’s the magic of movies for you. And this movie has quite a few moments that show the good side of that magic.
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