Apocalypto
December 17th 2007 23:16
Category: Videos
Director: Mel Gibson.
Producers: Mel Gibson & Bruce Davey.
Written by: Mel Gibson & Farhad Safinia.
Starring: Rudy Youngblood (Jaguar Paw), Morris Birdyellowhead (Flint Sky), Raoul Trujillo (Zero Wolf), Fernando Hernandez (High Priest) and Rafael Velez (King).
Produced by: Icon Productions.
Distributed by: Icon Home Entertainment.
Running Time: 138 minutes. Rating: MA 15
This DVD has an interesting feature that I have never come across before in my years of watching various DVDs, and that is that if you stop say to get up and go to the toilet or answer the phone then you restart it rather than commencing where you left of it takes you right back to the very beginning. Fortunately it did have chapter selection so when I had to do something else I didn’t have to watch the whole thing over again to get to where I had left off, but still it’s an unusual feature in a fairly recent release. Putting that aspect aside and focusing in on the movie itself Apocalypto is something that could be described as a combination of historical drama, action flick, magical realism and possibly even a morality tale with a decidedly environmentalist bent. Certainly it’s not what you’d expect from the man who made The Passion of the Christ but perhaps that is a good thing, it shows that Mel Gibson is versatile when focusing his directing and writing abilities.
Set in Central America prior to the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors the tale focuses on the young hunter Jaguar Paw and the village in which he, his family and their various kinsfolk dwell somewhere in the deeps of the jungle coastal regions of Central America. Now throughout the drama there are no place names mentioned, there aren’t even any tribal names or cultural names mentioned though the fact that all the dialogue is in Maya and certain events at the end of the movie would point towards it being in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. This is the pivotal region of Mexican history as it is where the various initial contacts between both Spanish and native cultures first occurred, contacts that would, as history shows, have substantial impact.
The action opens with a hunt being undertaken by Jaguar Paw, his father Flint Sky, Jaguar Paw’s brother and several other hunters from the village. They are chasing a tapir which naturally like any sensible animal running away from the hunters as fast as it can in order to avoid ending up in someone’s stomach. What the tapir is unaware of is that it is effectively being driven towards several traps one of which will eventually end up either capturing or killing the tapir. This whole scene of the chase through the jungle of the tapir by the hunters becomes a mirror of what is to occur later in the film.
Eventually the chase ends with the successful hunters butchering and dressing the freshly killed tapir, dividing up the spoils of their efforts amongst themselves. It’s as they are going about this task that Jaguar Paw senses the presence of others, strangers in the forest of his people, he is soon proven right and from amongst the trees and bushes emerge several frightened men. They make an exchange with Flint Sky, giving him a gift of several fish in return for some tapir meat and the rights to pass peacefully through this particular stretch of forest. As the spokesmen for the group mentions their village and country has been ravaged, by specifically what he will not say, when Flint Sky gives his permission do you finally see not a group of lone hunters but a mass migration of beaten people fleeing something so terrible that they cannot speak of it. Jaguar Paw is curious, though it seems his father feels that he has caught something of the fear of the strangers and warns him not to let it get to him and thus bring it into the village. But it is not fear that Jaguar Paw feels but a premonition of dangers to come.
It seems that the young hunter has a destiny, a terrible and in some ways tragic destiny yet one which will not be denied and the sudden appearance of the strangers in the forests of his people is a forewarning of that destiny. It is the first of several signs that the hunter receives throughout the movie, magical signposts that tell of what is about to unfold. The next sign is the story of the village elder as the villagers are all gathered around the communal fire, a tale of man and the gifts man receives from the various animals of the forest and land, a tale that has a warning woven into it which is focused on the insatiable hunger of mankind and society, a hunger that will soon prey upon the people of the village. For this is the era of history in Central America where mass human sacrifice is practised by certain cultures and tribes in order to appease bloodthirsty deities and religions. It is these very customs that brought about the ravaging of the stranger’s country and it will soon bring terror; death and calamity to the forests of Jaguar Paw’s people, for the gods of the outsiders are hungry like the man in the story of the village elder and always desirous of more and more.
The interesting aspect of the movie is that its drama is circular, those who visit carnage and destruction upon the village are destined in turn to have carnage and destruction upon them first at a personal level and then at a cultural and societal level. For this is the destiny of Jaguar Paw, as prophesised by a fever touched young girl in a village that has been devastated by plague, he will be born from water and mud, he will lead his attackers and hunters to the end of their world and they will die as this world is scoured by what is to come. Naturally those who here this prophecy think its all a bit far fetched, even after they begin hunting Jaguar Paw through the jungles of his people and slowly see the various conditions of the prophecy being fulfilled each step they take back into the deeps of his home. In fact the leader of the hunters gets a little bit miffed when one of his comrades mentions that this is all going pear shaped and introduces him to the sharp end of his obsidian knife. There is an inevitability to the drama within this movies that is only noticeable once the bulk of the story unfolds and is reaching its conclusion, yet in spite of its reaching the Apocalyptic moment there seems to be a sense not only of endings but of new beginnings, which is what Jaguar Paw himself says as he returns deep into the forests of his people.
All in all Apocalypto is a riveting tale, one that is acted well and is filled with lush sweeping vistas and exotic wildlife that makes you think however briefly that there is still wonder and beauty in the world. The acting is superb, the characters feel three dimensional and with depth. My only dislikes about Apocalypto stem from history and the actual time frame of the drama. Now Kukulcan is a Maya god and as far as I know the movie seems to be depicting various different groups of Maya; certainly Mayan priests engaged in bloodletting usually their own but are not known for human sacrifice of the kind depicted in Apocalypto and certainly not in the name of Kukulcan. Usually Mayan sacrifices allegedly involved throwing sacrificial victims in a cenote or sacred well not heart surgery. The other thing about the movie is that there is a distortion of time and space that just doesn’t make sense, at one stage there is a journey to a distant city which seems to take a lengthy time period yet the protagonist of the movie Jaguar Paw is able to return there back to his home in the blink of a proverbial eye. That just didn’t jell.
Still these points aside Apocalypto was a well made and enjoyable film, for those who are even a slightly bit queasy I would advise against watching it, for those with stronger stomachs enjoy…
Producers: Mel Gibson & Bruce Davey.
Written by: Mel Gibson & Farhad Safinia.
Starring: Rudy Youngblood (Jaguar Paw), Morris Birdyellowhead (Flint Sky), Raoul Trujillo (Zero Wolf), Fernando Hernandez (High Priest) and Rafael Velez (King).
Produced by: Icon Productions.
Distributed by: Icon Home Entertainment.
Running Time: 138 minutes. Rating: MA 15
This DVD has an interesting feature that I have never come across before in my years of watching various DVDs, and that is that if you stop say to get up and go to the toilet or answer the phone then you restart it rather than commencing where you left of it takes you right back to the very beginning. Fortunately it did have chapter selection so when I had to do something else I didn’t have to watch the whole thing over again to get to where I had left off, but still it’s an unusual feature in a fairly recent release. Putting that aspect aside and focusing in on the movie itself Apocalypto is something that could be described as a combination of historical drama, action flick, magical realism and possibly even a morality tale with a decidedly environmentalist bent. Certainly it’s not what you’d expect from the man who made The Passion of the Christ but perhaps that is a good thing, it shows that Mel Gibson is versatile when focusing his directing and writing abilities.
Eventually the chase ends with the successful hunters butchering and dressing the freshly killed tapir, dividing up the spoils of their efforts amongst themselves. It’s as they are going about this task that Jaguar Paw senses the presence of others, strangers in the forest of his people, he is soon proven right and from amongst the trees and bushes emerge several frightened men. They make an exchange with Flint Sky, giving him a gift of several fish in return for some tapir meat and the rights to pass peacefully through this particular stretch of forest. As the spokesmen for the group mentions their village and country has been ravaged, by specifically what he will not say, when Flint Sky gives his permission do you finally see not a group of lone hunters but a mass migration of beaten people fleeing something so terrible that they cannot speak of it. Jaguar Paw is curious, though it seems his father feels that he has caught something of the fear of the strangers and warns him not to let it get to him and thus bring it into the village. But it is not fear that Jaguar Paw feels but a premonition of dangers to come.
It seems that the young hunter has a destiny, a terrible and in some ways tragic destiny yet one which will not be denied and the sudden appearance of the strangers in the forests of his people is a forewarning of that destiny. It is the first of several signs that the hunter receives throughout the movie, magical signposts that tell of what is about to unfold. The next sign is the story of the village elder as the villagers are all gathered around the communal fire, a tale of man and the gifts man receives from the various animals of the forest and land, a tale that has a warning woven into it which is focused on the insatiable hunger of mankind and society, a hunger that will soon prey upon the people of the village. For this is the era of history in Central America where mass human sacrifice is practised by certain cultures and tribes in order to appease bloodthirsty deities and religions. It is these very customs that brought about the ravaging of the stranger’s country and it will soon bring terror; death and calamity to the forests of Jaguar Paw’s people, for the gods of the outsiders are hungry like the man in the story of the village elder and always desirous of more and more.
The interesting aspect of the movie is that its drama is circular, those who visit carnage and destruction upon the village are destined in turn to have carnage and destruction upon them first at a personal level and then at a cultural and societal level. For this is the destiny of Jaguar Paw, as prophesised by a fever touched young girl in a village that has been devastated by plague, he will be born from water and mud, he will lead his attackers and hunters to the end of their world and they will die as this world is scoured by what is to come. Naturally those who here this prophecy think its all a bit far fetched, even after they begin hunting Jaguar Paw through the jungles of his people and slowly see the various conditions of the prophecy being fulfilled each step they take back into the deeps of his home. In fact the leader of the hunters gets a little bit miffed when one of his comrades mentions that this is all going pear shaped and introduces him to the sharp end of his obsidian knife. There is an inevitability to the drama within this movies that is only noticeable once the bulk of the story unfolds and is reaching its conclusion, yet in spite of its reaching the Apocalyptic moment there seems to be a sense not only of endings but of new beginnings, which is what Jaguar Paw himself says as he returns deep into the forests of his people.
All in all Apocalypto is a riveting tale, one that is acted well and is filled with lush sweeping vistas and exotic wildlife that makes you think however briefly that there is still wonder and beauty in the world. The acting is superb, the characters feel three dimensional and with depth. My only dislikes about Apocalypto stem from history and the actual time frame of the drama. Now Kukulcan is a Maya god and as far as I know the movie seems to be depicting various different groups of Maya; certainly Mayan priests engaged in bloodletting usually their own but are not known for human sacrifice of the kind depicted in Apocalypto and certainly not in the name of Kukulcan. Usually Mayan sacrifices allegedly involved throwing sacrificial victims in a cenote or sacred well not heart surgery. The other thing about the movie is that there is a distortion of time and space that just doesn’t make sense, at one stage there is a journey to a distant city which seems to take a lengthy time period yet the protagonist of the movie Jaguar Paw is able to return there back to his home in the blink of a proverbial eye. That just didn’t jell.
Still these points aside Apocalypto was a well made and enjoyable film, for those who are even a slightly bit queasy I would advise against watching it, for those with stronger stomachs enjoy…
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