If all the movie represents is a lot of pretty scenery and well executed action sequences, there would be nothing distinguishing about Apocalypto. Apocalypto's final third is an unrelieved adrenaline rush. Some viewers may feel exhausted when the movie is over.
Lasting nearly 45 minutes, it maintains a high level of tension and includes many of the expected obstacles from this sort of jungle adventure: waterfalls, quicksand, and hostile animal life. The second part of the film encompasses the forced march to the city, ending with the selling of women into slavery and the preparation of men for sacrifice. We are given a glimpse into village life before everything comes apart in one of the most uncompromisingly vicious sequences in any movie released this year. The film begins slowly, allowing us to get to know a small group of characters. Will enough people put aside their aversion of subtitles in order to make this profitable?Īpocalypto is divided into three sections, as is true of many movies (both traditional and non-traditional). Because of this, a cynic could argue that Gibson has made the most expensive art-house action movie of all time. Aside from the aforementioned violence, the only thing Apocalypto has in common with The Passion of the Christ is that both are subtitled. This movie is about heroism and overcoming odds. (While in the comparison game, it would be unfair to ignore the Aussie post-apocalyptic chase movie Mad Max, in which Gibson starred before his Hollywood career ignited.) Although the plot of Apocalypto is considerably different than that of Gibson's Oscar-winning picture, the spirit is much the same. There are more similarities to Braveheart than The Passion of the Christ. This is not a movie for the faint of heart.
There's still plenty of blood and gore, including at least one instance in which the slitting of a throat is shown in unbroken detail. Gibson makes it clear what's transpiring, but he doesn't feel the need to subject the audience to that. It is worth noting that some of the most heinous crimes, such as the rapes, occur off screen. Like two of Gibson's previous movies, Braveheart and The Passion of the Christ, Apocalypto doesn't avoid depictions of brutal, graphic violence. At the end of the journey lies the great temple and the prospect of being sacrificed to appease the Sun God. Jaguar Paw is able to lower his wife and son into a hole in the ground before he is captured and exposed to a forced march through the jungle.
The armed men torture, kill, rape, and maim. The village's peace is shattered when a war party arrives from the center of Mayan civilization. Flint Sky (Morris Birdyellowhead) has ten children. Still, Jaguar Paw has a distance to go to match the size of his father's family. Jaguar Paw has gotten off to a good start: his wife, Seven (Dalia Hernandez), has given birth once and is pregnant with a second child. Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood) is a young warrior living in a peaceful village where hunting and making babies appear to be the primary occupations. Instead, it's a high-octane adventure that concludes with one of the most intense extended chase sequences in recent movie history.Īpocalypto is not assigned a date, but since it concludes with an image of the arriving Spanish, one can assume the year is 1519. However, Apocalypto is not a political tract or a dissertation about why the Mayan age came to an end. Over the next 2 1/4 hours, he provides glimpses into the degeneracy of the Mayan society on the eve of its encounter with the Spanish conquistadores. Gibson's theme (which is only partially developed), as revealed in an opening caption, is that all great civilizations fail when they begin to rot from the inside. With Apocalypto, Mel Gibson has proven it's possible to create a compelling action/adventure film in almost any setting.
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