Apocalypto Review
by [email protected] (dnb AT dca DOT net)December 14th, 2006
APOCALYPTO
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2006 David N. Butterworth
** (out of ****)
After the controversy that surrounded his last film, the insanely brutal "'Passion of the Christ," it's nice to see Mel Gibson toning things down a bit in "Apocalypto." In the opening sequence, for example, an unfortunate tapir is skewered, disemboweled, castrated, and dismembered. But hey, it's only a poor odd-toed ungulate after all, not Jim Caviezel!
P.E.T.A. might frown upon such goings-on but moviegoers who were outraged/incensed/disgusted by Mel's "'Passion'" will likely turn the other cheek.
That said, it's not long before the Mayan hunting party at the center of this Old/Lost World (Mexico, 600 years ago) chase flick themselves become the hunted, when a neighboring tribe of bare-chested, pierced-nosed, and war-painted warriors attack their encampment, slaughtering many and turning those unlucky enough to survive into sacrificial offerings.
What is it about Mel and his penchant for half-naked men being pummeled, pierced, and bled to death? Certainly the tapir-hunting Mayans have a good chuckle over one of their denser members' inability to sire a child, first tricking him into eating
unpalatable "sweetmeats" and then recommending he rub some magical herb "down there" in order to encourage potency but "Apocalypto" isn't exactly a comedy is it? What's *wrong* with a nice comedy, Mel, or maybe a musical? Do we really need to see more graphic violence and disturbing imagery simply--or so it would appear--for its own sake (or as an indictment of the war in Iraq--what-evvah)?
Populated by a half-naked cast of unknowns, "Apocalypto" features a smattering of "savages" with names like Flint Sky, Smoke Frog, Cocoa Leaf and, as the film's leading man, Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood), a strapping young thespian who flees this brutal, bloody kingdom to avoid his destiny as a human sacrifice high atop an imposing Mayan temple. The characters all speak Yucatec Maya so, much like "The Passion of the Christ" (in which everyone articulated either via some form of Aramaic, Latin, or Hebrew), the subtitles come thick and fast. You've got to give Gibson credit, I suppose, for taking that kind of risk at the multiplex. Or maybe it's Mel's producers who should get the credit? Or maybe Ang Lee ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") already took--and secured--that risk for him/them?
"Apocalypto" didn't move me. It didn't enthrall me. It didn't even titillate me. All it did was convince me that Mel Gibson appears to have found his niche, as the Grande Dame of Brutally Realistic Semi- Mythological Epics. I thought I was all done (at least for the time being) with watching Mayans getting a run for their jungle money after last week's "The Fountain" but apparently not. What's next, I wonder? I hear the Greeks and Trojans were a little edgy, as were the Vikings, Attila's Huns, and the Surrealists (those Jacobites had their nasty moments too).
In the interim we're saddled with "Apocalypto" (translation: "I reveal"--it's all Greek to me). Fortunately, although I hate to admit it, I had to leave before the film's "gripping, twisty conclusion" to pick up my kids so I was spared the scene of a jaguar chowing down on a native's face.
After the tapir incident, P.E.T.A. will probably call that even.
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David N. Butterworth
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