The mystery of the tropical unknown, a second Dark Continent, is exploited in Mel Gibson's brutal and beautiful "Apocalypto". A quote at the beginning of the film states that before a mighty civilization can be destroyed from without, it must first destroy itself from within. Based on the journals of Spanish explorers of their findings on the Yucatan Peninsula, we are presented with the grand and horrible Mayan civilization on the brink of collapse. Famine and pestilence have brought the people to their knees and the only way to appease the gods is with human sacrifice.
Rudy Youngblood plays Jaguar Paw, a warrior in a small tribe. He is strong, well liked, the epitome of a hero, but he is afraid. An encounter with another tribe who describe their lands as having been ravaged sets him on edge until his own group is massacred by the encroaching Mayans. Men are bludgeoned and speared to death, women raped, children abandoned, but Jaguar Paw and his agile mind hides his wife and child in a stone pit. Taken prisoner to be sacrificed in the capital, however, his family is left is left to die. Jaguar Paw must make his escape and return to save those he loves.
Gibson has received a lot of criticism for the sadistic nature of the stories he presents and this is no exception. There is a raw, forceful eloquence to the picture he paints, but it is barbarous, unfeeling and needlessly gory. I cannot say whether or not the story is an accurate depiction of the life of one of these tribes; I doubt that there are many who could say with confidence, but I do know what I feel and I feel he was patronizing these people. There seemed a sick fascination with contorted faces and emaciated bodies clothed in bones and pelts, smeared in blood.
Shot in the forest but with no small amount of CGI landscapes, Gibson also used many Mayan people, mostly untrained actors, to fill his roles. There is a certain quality to the filming of these people that gives the illusion of authenticity, but it probably goes no further than just that--illusion. Everyone in the film is tattooed with self inflicted scarring on their faces and bodies, all donning gauged noses and ears and lips. They look fearsome in their headdresses and loin cloths, but I felt uncomfortable with the spectacle.
It is stunning and nobody can critique Gibson's storytelling ability. Technically, he knows how to make a film. It is simply uncertain to me whether this film is a story worth telling. The establishing sequences of the little village seem forced, there to tease us into sympathize with false camaraderie and familial bonds of love in order to juxtapose it to the ruthless and one-dimensional savagery of the Mayans. There was no real sense of what these two cultures were about and what made them different. The Mayans were caricaturish in the bloodthirsty spirituality and Jaguar Paw's village was a defensible good.
Gibson seems to enjoy stories about inhumanity for the sake of their dark morbidity. There was no real compassion here, it was glorified violence. His pre-modern Christ figure is an infallible and seemingly immortal earthen god, reborn from the mud to purge the world of evil and save those worth saving. The film took a condescending approach to its examination of an entire group of desperate people seeking their religion to save them, and I found that hypocrisy infuriating. The director has sacrificed genuine human compassion and a balanced approach for spectacle to purport his own beliefs.
The film is certainly a fully realized vision of a world entirely foreign. Much credit must be given to scenic designers and costumers for their exquisitely detailed execution of this immense thriller. Gibson's messages are suspect, however, and it is for this reason I do not approve of this blatant and violent film.
2/4
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