The Good
Mel Gibson, love him or hate him, knows how to make movie.
The Bad
I’d be curious to see what other scenes didn’t make it into the final film.
Apocalypto tells the simplistic, primal tale of Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood) trying to save his family amidst the end of the great Mayan Civilization. After his village is rampaged buy a fierce tribe, Jaguar Paw hides his family in a cave and is taken to be sacrificed. Amidst scenes of beheadings, and hearts being pulled out of people’s chests, Jaguar Paw manages to be spared his fate and he even escapes. Thus begins one of the greatest foot chases in modern filmmaking, where we get to see Jaguar Paw’s ingenuity win out against much bigger and stronger foes. Mel Gibson has made a highly engaging story that gives you all the history you need, while providing one of the most viscerally entertaining films in recent years. Stripped away of all artifice, this movie manages to develop both it’s characters and story through the action.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
Casting complete unknowns was the best way to bring this motion picture across. I could list out all the cast members, but even I wasn’t sure who was who. (Truth be told, until I sat down to type up my review, I didn’t know that the main character’s name was Jaguar Paw). However, this lack of recognition is precisely why this movie works as much as it does. We can’t come to something like this was any preconceived notions. If we saw Tom Cruise decked out in war paint, we would never fully believe that he had anything to lose. Afterall, he is Tom Cruise. All the characters in the film embody certain types that we have come to expect in our cinema experiences. As I mentioned, Gibson has stripped this story down to it’s most classic, bare form. At times I felt as if I was watching a documentary, and seeing as how we get to see a lot more than we probably want to (this film is brutal and not for the faint of heart), I felt captivated by the situations the characters faced.
Features
Becoming Mayan
This very stylized featurette features Mel Gibson and Writer/Co-Producer Farhad Safinia discussing aspects of this movie’s story and production. Gibson talks about trying to do things in Apocalypto that hadn’t been done before, how he wanted to look at the way the culture lived as well as their ceremonies. Also discussed is how viewers have to buy into this world from the first frames of film (no doubt the reason why unknowns were cast), and how both Safinia and Gibson wanted to show both how brutal and sophisticated Mayan society was. Overall, this is a pretty comprehensive featurette, however if you want more information click here and here for interviews that we did with these gentlemen.
Deleted Scenes
Mel Gibson and Farhad Safinia are both present on this track. A lot of what they say is actually covered in the section above, but more interestingly I think this track shows how close these two men are. They start off making jokes, laughing and it continues like that all the way through. They mention how a lot of the actors in the movie had never seen a film in their lives, Gibson discusses using the Genesis Digital Video camera to lens the film and they both lament on how hot the temperatures got on certain shooting days. Later on, they discuss how they put the script together and how sometimes, due to lack of records, they had to create situations that may or may not have happened.
Video
Widescreen - 1.85:1. Enhanced for 16x9 Televisions. Having seen this movie in its incomplete form on a video projector in the Icon Productions offices and now on DVD, I was amazed at how awesome the picture quality was. Everything about this release seems like it was done for artistic effect. Gibson and Co. really pushed the limits of color here and in doing so have made a movie that looks incredibly rich. The actions scenes play very fluidly and every scene has the look of a highly detailed painting. Even its Standard form this DVD seems to have captured the “major motion picture” aspects that the director was going for.
Audio
DTS 5.1 Digital Surround Sound. Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Original Mayan Language Track. English, French and Spanish Subtitles. Much was made of the fact that this movie was in another language. Once again, this seems like it was more of a device to pull us into the story. That said, it really forces a viewer to pay more attention to the images, and also count on the audio for a different kind of information. This movie really works well in that department because it never milked movie moments. It presented this story, backed up by ambient effects and the film’s score, to really bring home this DVD watching experience.
Package
Jaguar Paw moves towards us as hoards of people chase after him on the front of this moody, smoke filled, darkly colored front cover. The back features some shots from the film and a shot of Gibson directing. There is a description of what this movie is about, a Bonus/Technical Specs list, as well as a cast list. Buena Vista has done a good job keeping the look of this packaging as mysterious as the artwork that was used for this film’s release.
Final Word
The look of Apocalypto was also pretty startling. Quite simply, they just don’t make movies like this anymore. No doubt parts of it are in CGI, the fact that I wasn’t able to differentiate what was and wasn’t (and really didn’t care to), speaks heavily to Apocalypto’s ability to pull it’s viewers. Mel Gibson has made a classic foot race through the jungle, and it is the unknowns that help create the greatest tension. However, Jaguar Paw seems quite at home here, and just when you think he is going to be overwhelmed by the situation, he shows you how some aspect of his culture has given him the tools to survive.
At no point in the viewing experience did I feel manipulated. The story starts and does a very good job of making us care about all the characters. In a weird way, the dialogue is almost unimportant because by virtue of the characters body language and facial expressions, we get the full gist of what all these characters are saying and going through. All this does is help create tension because you know from the very beginning that this tribe is doomed. That their fate is a foreshadowing of what is to come for the Mayan people. At it’s core, Apocalypto is a celebration of that humanity and spirit that never goes away, regardless of what happens to a civilization as a whole. Whether it’s through advances in things like science, math, and writing, or things even more cerebral like cultural virtues, Apocalypto is a reminder that these people will always be with us.
Mel Gibson, regardless of what you might think of him personally, is truly one of the most visionary directors working today. He has shown with all his films an unbridled passion for his projects, and in doing do has taken both himself and his career to another level. Apocalypto represents a new stage and a new step amidst this artist’s amazingly complex journey.
Apocalypto was released December 7, 2006.
