‘A pocalypto” is the first movie in years to begin with a tapir hunt. Then again, it’s also the first movie in years filmed entirely in the Maya language, and the first movie in a long time to feature an underwater birth at the bottom of a well.
You can’t say that director Mel Gibson shies away from challenges. After all, his previous film was in the ancient language of Aramaic, and it made a billion dollars.
“Apocalypto” will have a hard time matching the success of “The Passion of the Christ,” and not merely because of its director’s recent drunken monologue about Jewish people. This is a brutal, violent, relentless movie. And yet, it delivers on its goals.
The film is set in pre-Columbian times, somewhere within the Mayan civilization. We begin in the jungle and meet the members of a small tribe, including the young hero Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood). His village is overrun by warriors, and Jaguar Paw is taken captive along with other able-bodied men.
After a harrowing jungle march, they arrive at a city, where a grisly fate awaits them. Seems the folks in charge need to perform a few human sacrifices to keep the population (otherwise beset by famine and disease) happy.
This sequence is a spectacular one, with grand altars and endless staircases just right for severed heads to roll down. (Did I mention that “Apocalypto” is the first movie in years to feature a shot from the perspective of a newly chopped-off head?)
For its exciting latter half, “Apocalypto” becomes a chase film. Gibson holds nothing back: javelins, quicksand, snakes, waterfalls, a beehive full of angry hornets. Well before “Passion of the Christ,” Gibson had proved that his taste for cinematic violence was zesty. Here, the blood flows freely and the body parts fly.
Gibson is adept at quickly sketching characters and building audience sympathy (or enmity). We instantly like the big, comic Blunted (Jonathan Brewer), Jaguar Paw’s friend. And the two main villains, played by the formidable Raoul Trujillo and Rodolfo Palacias, are truly horrible.
The movie’s great to look at, too (it was mostly shot in Mexico), and the costumes and makeup are wild. Cinematographer Dean Semler, who did “The Road Warrior” with Gibson, does wonders with digital video (you can tell it’s not film in a few quick-moving, slightly smeary shots).
Amidst all the action – and the film feels like a nonstop, 137-minute race – Gibson creates moments that haunt. The spooky appearance of a little girl prophet, or Blunted’s wordless last looks at his mother-in-law (a relationship previously used for broad comic effect), are really effective.
These are the subtlest moments in a big, brawny movie that feels pretty insane overall. Gibson has talent, but “Apocalypto” plays like the unleashed obsessions of an overheated brain. Of course, this is probably why the film works. Calm rationality isn’t always the best tool for a filmmaker.
Rudy Youngblood is Jaguar Paw in “Apocalypto.”
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