Apocalypto

“Apocalypto” is a lot of things: morality tale, underdog chase film, Bush-whacking political allegory, National Geographic special, acting docudrama entitled, “When Amateurs Attack: Incredible Performances at Rock Bottom Prices.”

Rudy Youngblood, Dalia Hernandez, Mayra Serbulo

At least some of the natives are restless. Whether it’s history on film or just Gibson himself, the expected issues have crept up with the release of “Apocalypto”. When historical fiction and film butt heads, scholars dust off text books and brains, comparing the best of their knowledge with an interpretation. The arguments go deeper than I have the time to research. The jist? The late Mayan civilization depicted in the film was far from the gore-happy crew that actually was. Architecture and various decorative details supposedly differ as well, some preceding their actual existence by hundreds of years. Mayan and the more historically violent Aztec civilizations are merged for convenience sake, and the Spanish missionaries and conquistadors….a few centuries early by some accounts. Scholars have come to play, an anthropological oversight committee with an academic agenda…moral too, to set the recored straight. That’s their job. To all others, whether potentially damaged by the film’s inaccuracies or not, that’s show biz. Not to defend Gibson’s interpretation, but one could always use the film as a springboard….and read again, as antiquated a form of information gathering as it is.

Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood) is likable enough from the start. The son of the tribal chief Flint Sky, JP proves himself to be both a capable hunter and practical joker during the opening tapir (big honkin pig) hunt. But a run-in with a similar forest clan driven from their territory tests JP’s mettle, and confidence. Flint Sky senses his son’s worry and offers him some wisdom. It’s a mixture of “be strong” and “fear is contagious.” Don’t contaminate the others. Only self-destruction will come from it: a prophetic piece of advice alluded to in the film’s opening quote. Soon the bad men arrive. Zero Wolf (Raoul Trujillo) leads them, a hulking mass of Middle-American muscle and the animal bones that cover it. His son, Cut Rock, accompanies the raid to learn the ropes (forced oppression is best learned in the field). Their relation provides a darker parallel to our father-son heroes. The tribe is quickly rounded up and brutalized by the band of heavy-handed city dwellers. The women are violated, the men beaten and tied, and the children left behind. Jaguar Paw hides his wife and child in a stone pit before himself being captured. Flint Sky is murdered by Middle Eye, the token adept weasel, foreshadowing an eventual showdown with Jaguar Paw. It keeps the tension high.

The remainder of the film is neatly divided into two sections. A: Country Mice are captured and brought to the city. B: Country Mouse JP runs his ass back home. Part A is as difficult a journey as it should be, raising the stakes for Jaguar Paw’s eventual escape. Not surprisingly, the urban Mayan stronghold is presented as the day’s modern sin city, corrupted by slavery, overindulgences, and make-up. A plague has faithfully swallowed the season’s crops, and the forest dwellers are needed as sacrifices to the sun god, Kukulkan. Theirs is a religion infected by notions of eternal grandeur, less respectful of life in general than to their own lives in particular. When JP and the gang finally arrive, they’re greased down with whatever blue paint was stockpiled from “Braveheart”, then served up in bloody offering. It’s a fascinating scene, as unsettling and memorable as any previously served up by Gibson. Supposed inaccuracies aren’t even considered. It’s only engaging. Part B is the road home. Without giving away details, astronomical intervention twists the story in a new direction, into a fierce chase wound up tight…a tense piece of tense filmmaking even on a laptop. JP comes into his own here, and restores the dignity of his people in no small part due to the viciousness of everything that came before. One can only guess whether Mayan “facts” were vilified solely for the purpose of giving JP a reason to run faster, to give him a more terrifying adversary. Regardless, it works, though here Jaguar Paw is the surviving martyr that Gibson’s “Christ” and Wallace never were. Though he takes his share of lumps.

“Apocalypto” is a lot of things: morality tale, underdog chase film, Bush-whacking political allegory, National Geographic special, acting docudrama entitled, “When Amateurs Attack: Incredible Performances at Rock Bottom Prices.” It’s also about beginnings and endings, the inevitability of each, and the ways to react to them. To quote a million sources, “The End…it’s not a matter of if, but when, and more importantly how.” Through Jaguar Paw, Gibson gives a respectable answer.

Rating :
Reviewer : Colin Moore