Apocalypto

B

Directed by Mel Gibson

Mel Gibson's most recent bank busting super epic ma be disappointment to those seeking the sweeping scale of "Braveheart" or the no-holds barred controvery of "The Passion of the Christ" (though I don't know why anyone would want to relive that circus...) but to those seeking some superficial excitement (albeit blood soaked), "Apocalypto" hits the mark.

Gibson's film focuses on the rough and tumble existence of Jaquar Paw, one of the male leaders of a smile tribe of indians living in a Mesoamerican jungle who scrapes out an existence by hunting the forests around his village and helps his beloved wife rise his son. Their relative transquility is shattered, however, when a band of marauding warriors arrives and sacks their village, kidnapping the adults and bringing them back to the Mayan capital to serve as human sacrifices to appease the Sun God, Kukulcan. Jaquar Paw, fueled by a desire to see his wife and young child again, decides he has better plans than to be served up to the non-existant Sun God and plans a daring escape.

One thing Mel Gibson has always done well is make an expensive movie look like an expensive movie. "Apocalypto" is sleek and massive in scale, sometimes reminiscent of early Indiana Jones adevntures and at other times of big Cecile B. Demille epics. The scenes in the Mayan capital are nothing short of amazing, especially when you consider that almost none of it was done with the help of CGI, and I tip my hat to Gibson and his crew for even taking on such a massive workload.
Nevertheless, I couldn't shake the feeling hile watching "Apocalypto" that with such a huge budget and extreme attention to detail, Gibson's film could have been more thant what is essentially a hugely expensive, gory, action adventure that is too superficial for its own good.

Although "Apocalypto" is far from perfect, I have difficulty believing that Gibson's film wouldn't have been more critically acclaimed if he didn't direct it. Gibson's "Passion of the Christ," which many critics saw as overblown and pretentious, had soured some film critics on his work and I have little doubt that "Apocalypto," which enjoyed mediocre reviews, suffered from it.
The historical accuracy of Apocalypto is somewhat questionable. Gibson and co-writer, seemingly unable to decide why exactly the Mayan Empire collapsed, provide us with every single explanation at the same time; crops fail, disease afflicts the population, the Euros even arrive at some point. Gibson seems to indicate that even if all of these many obstacles were not tormenting the Mayans, they would have till gone the way of, well of the Mayans, due to the fact that their society had in fact began to rot away form the inside, a fact he makes quite clear by prominently displaying a quote by Will Durant to that effect at the outset of the film. Such a conclusion is no doubt a controversial one to make but at least Gibson has the guts to give an alternate view of to the decline of a great Mesoamerican Civilization that doesn't simply blame it on colonialism.