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By
WAYNE KLEIN
Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto"
glimpses into the past and provides us a telling
commentary on the present. It's a visually
stunning adventure epic that even has a message at
its core (although Gibson doesn't beat us over the
head with it). Jaguar Paw and his people are
attacked and kidnapped to be used as sacrifices
for the Mayan gods. It seems that as they have
strip mined their own land to build greater
temples, they've also caused famine, disease and
death to take hold as well. Paw must escape to
save his pregnant wife and son who were left
behind and are hiding before it is too late.
The second half of the film reminded me quite a
bit of both Cornell Wilde's "The Naked Prey" and
"The Most Dangerous Game" with its cat and mouse
chase through the rain forest as Janguar Paw is
pursued after he escapes. You should be aware that
the film is in ancient Mayan with English, Spanish
and French subtitles. The film received an "R"
rating for violence probably deserved given the
graphic nature of the first half and last third of
the film.
The film provides an interesting parallel for our
modern world; the Mayans (like today) end up
destroying much of their world in pursuit of
building larger monuments to their greatness and
living out their fantasy as the pinnacle of modern
civilization. The result is famine, deforestation,
disease and death.
The sharp direction, performances, cinematography
and music allows the viewer to overlook some of
the minor flaws of the film such as the simple
story. He also clearly has an innate sense for the
power of cinema--the image and he lets the image
carry the story knowing, in a sense, that it makes
up for the weaknesses of the story itself.
Gibson's ecological parable has a corker of an
ending that comes totally out of left field (in
fact Gibson in his commentary states that the film
was originally build around this conclusion which
was meant as something of a joke. Surprisingly,
that conclusion works very well indeed).
The DVD looks and sounds stunning. While the
extras are somewhat meager (only a short
documentary on the making of the film, a deleted
scene and a commentary track by
co-writer/director/co-producer Gibson with
co-writer/co-producer Farhad Safinia)they aren't
fluff. The documentary shows the challenge that
Gibson and his crew faced in building many of the
massive sets, providing make up for a large group
of people and working largely with non-actors.
Hopefully a deluxe edition will be in the pipeline
at some point with some historical
featurettes/documentaries. While the film isn't
100% historical accurate, Gibson uses the
trappings well and incorporates as much as he can
into the film to give it a feeling of "reality".
This is a well made, visually stunning film that
deserved a far better outcome at the box office.
Sure, this film is a variation on the noble savage
theme again but Gibson does such a marvelous job
with the material that I'm willing to overlook the
cliches of the story itself. Gibson doesn't get
preachy in his message but just lays it out there
while allowing his film to do the speaking for
him. |
