Posted on 12/08/2006 4:56:23 AM PST by Dr. Scarpetta
Mel Gibson is sicker than we thought.
As his new film "Apocalypto" makes clear, he's not just a drinker and a raving anti-Semite, but a man with a grotesque appetite for human suffering and an enormous talent for exploiting it.
There was great violence in "Braveheart," too, but it was cloaked in historical context. And the stripping of Jesus' flesh in "The Passion of the Christ" had the cover of Scripture. But "Apocalypto" exists solely as an action-adventure and a deft cinematic demonstration of man's capacity for cruelty.
This is the true passion of Mel.
If you can take unflinching views of throats being slit, heads being caved in, a man's face being eaten by a panther, beating hearts torn from men's chests and decapitated heads bounding down the steps of a pyramid, you're in for a first-rate spectacle of inhumanity.
"Apocalypto" is set in the final days of the crumbling Mayan civilization, when drought and disease have driven warriors farther into the Mexican rainforest to collect natives for the sacrificial altar. As no one knows better than Gibson, the gods must be appeased.
One captive is Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood), a gentle hunter/gatherer who hides his pregnant mate and child in a dry well before being led away. At the temple atop a massive stone pyramid, Jaguar Paw is about to meet his maker - or the Mayans' maker, or at least the priest's knife - when fate intervenes.
A total eclipse of the sun convinces the priest that the gods' thirst for blood has been sated, sparing Jaguar and the other captives. But not for long. They're taken to a field and told to run for freedom while Mayan warriors shower them with spears and arrows.
Somehow, Jaguar clears the gauntlet and races into the jungle toward home and his family, with a band of angry, tattooed spear throwers hot on his trail and a tropical storm brewing overhead.
Is Gibson making some kind of comment about the inhumanity of non-Christian cultures - first the Jews, now the Mayans? "Apocalypto" suggests that the pagans are about to be tamed, if not have their souls saved, by Gibson's Catholic forebears rowing ashore from the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria.
More and more, Gibson's personality problems seem beyond the scope of movie reviews.
In any case, "Apocalypto" is the real deal as a jungle thriller. Its digital cinematography is gorgeous, its makeup and costumes are stunning, and its mostly nonpro cast - speaking in obscure Yucatec and translated with subtitles - is as authentic as the jungle of Veracruz where the film was shot.
Now that "Apocalypto" is being seen, four months after Gibson's arrest and tirade in Malibu, some in the media are asking whether Hollywood can forgive him by bestowing an Oscar.
What an ironic possibility! This is a movie dedicated to bloodlust (forget the gods, can the audience's thirst be sated?) and not the sort of thing Academy voters typically honors with awards.
An Oscar would not be forgiveness; it would be blindness.
My, my. This reviewer has a bloody axe to grind, eh?
So portraying a bunch of heart-eating savages as ... well, a bunch of heart-eating savages is wrong? Do these same "critics" condemn "Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part MMCCCXXIIV" or "Saw?" Or is gore only wrong when it serves a conservative filmmaker?
If you can find the time, I recommend 'The Nativity Story' instead of this movie.
Lets just say they weren't the friendly Mertz family living next door........
After a pair of flawed Oscar-hunting epics, Martin Scorsese has returned to the gritty, violent mob drama that has always been his strong suit, and the result - "The Departed" - is his best film since 1990's "Goodfellas."
With young stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon finally fulfilling their promise, and wily veteran Jack Nicholson adding another indelible character to his rich gallery, "The Departed" gets off to a ripping start and doesn't let up until its third or fourth twist ending.
One can quibble about too many endings, and about a love triangle that belongs in another story. But no one can complain about not getting their money's worth. "The Departed" is a movie-movie of the first rank.
Would I want to live next door to people who would buy tickets to see Apocalypto and afterwards report that they enjoyed the movie?
Wouldn't Mayans have been able to accurately predict when eclipses would occur? We are supposed to believe that all of a sudden one happens without them knowing and surprises them enough to alter their ritual practices. Is there any historical evidence for this or is it all from the mind of Mel?
You're right. Hollywood USUALLY does love violence and R-rated movies. I'm at the point where I avoid them. Besides 'The Nativity Story,' I also recommend 'The Queen.'
Why does the author of the review assume that this is NOT an accurate historical portrayal of the Mayan culture?
actually north american indians were a mixed bag. There were vicious tribes, so-so tribes, and peaceful tribes. Of course the PC left doesnt' do nuance, so they have to make them all sit around singing Kumbaya.
They were able to predict eclipses. But you're spoiling the fun with facts.
I learned more about the reviewer than the movie from this review.
I suggest Mr. Movie Reviewer find a good shrink and a good priest/minister/rabbi of his choice.
"Most Mayans, Aztecs, Incas, and North American Indians were all peace loving perfect cultures."
Yes and they never ran herds of buffalo over cliffs to cut out only the tongues and they never started massive forest fires to facilitate travel.
Maybe he knows that it isn't accurate.
They weren't sweetness and light but this portrayal gets plenty of details wrong.
If being an anti semite and saying this movie shows how Bush sacrifices our sodliers in a war that's wrong...that's a conservative?
nah, Mel just makes snuff films for the massess. the guy is an arrogant self centered violent-loving jerk.
I'm really sick and tired of people justifying this garbage with that phony justification. What's next? Mel doing a movie about the Nazi's and showing people slow roasting in some oven for 15 minutes, or 60 minutes of Gestapo torture, in 'exciting', high-def detail?
Or, to paraphrase Chuck D from the rap group Public Enemy:
"The Hater taught hate-- that's why we (sic) gang bangin'"
Hey, I had to close my eyes during BraveHeart, and I have NOT watched the Passion, and I don't expect to go to this movie.
I was just commenting on how the writer "excused" Braveheart and the Passion because they were historical, and wondering if he was saying that this WASN'T historically accurate.
I'm not a big fan of blood and gore, even for historical purposes. I don't watch beheadings on the internet either, and I can't watch unedited images from 9/11 with people jumping to their deaths.
THAT WAS THE CULTURE OF THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICAN before the "evil white man arrived." It was not pretty. The "native american" cultures were brutal. tyrannical and stone-aged...
Ping to Guennie. Here is the first review I have seen and the reviewer shares our opinion.
This movie is probably a real good depiction of how savage these people were.
Newly published research shows that Indian hunters in California decimated bird populations and ate some species into extinction.
In a report certain to cause California hippy heads to explode, archaeologist Jack M. Broughton wrote that from 2,600 to at least 700 years ago, native people hunted some species to local extinction, and wildlife returned to "fabulous abundances" only after European diseases decimated Indian populations starting in the 1500s.
Broughton combed through an ancient Indian garbage dump on the shores of San Francisco Bay over a seven year period and found significant bird population declines.
Broughton, from the University of Utah, says his study challenges “a common perception about ancient Native Americans as healthy, happy people living in harmony with the environment. That clearly was not always the case. Depending on when and where you look back in time, native peoples were either living in harmony with nature or eating their way through a vast array of large-sized, attractive prey species.”
I guess you didn't see the widely acclaimed and richly rewarded movie of "Schlinder's List" by Spielberg...it got pretty close to that in many scenes...
Wonder if the person who wrote this is Pro-Choice?
In general, more native Americans where hostile to people not of there tribe or tribal association then neutral or friendly. The great European invasion on balance did more to bring humanity to North America through trade, large scale agriculture and peaceful monotheism than the existing eye for an eye justice, slash and burn agriculture or wandering existence could have ever of accomplished.
My theory is that not only is Gibson fascinated with violence, but he also gets a kick out of luring people who otherwise wouldn't see a violent movie to watch his stuff.
First we had "Braveheart" and "The Patriot", which got a whole bunch of conservatives into the theaters to watch his stuff. (And I was one of them, although the violence in "The Patriot" repulsed me, and it was NOT historically accurate.) Then he made "The Passion," and got millions of Christians into the theaters to be traumatized by the violence he showed in exquisite detail.
Now he is done with excuses pretty much, but his talk about "human sacrifice" in Iraq sort of makes me think he is after the crunchy granola anti-violence crowd.
There is something wrong with him, and it is starting to show on his face. He needs some sort of help, and no one is apparently (until this reviewer) prepared to tell him that he is not playing with a full deck.
"My theory is that not only is Gibson fascinated with violence, but he also gets a kick out of luring people who otherwise wouldn't see a violent movie to watch his stuff."
Humandkind is violent and violent at any point in history.
I plan to see it and make up my own mind.
Quite true. However, we are supposed to try to overcome this as civilized people, not wallow in it.
I visited Tikal in Guatemala and got the same lecture I think. For such an 'advanced' civilization they certainly had a strong bloodlust, and the practice of human sacrifice was commonplace.
Oh, and they were long gone by the time the Spanish arrived.
The Europeans also brought Christianity.
Yes they were very big into the calendar and timekeeping. Some of their temples are laid out to track the years, i.e. when is the solstice. I'm sure they would have known an eclipse was coming.
It's a rip-off of A CONNECTICUTT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT!
You said: "Only White Christians are prone to violence and hate."
As opposed to say, Muslims who are the religion of peace.
Have seen both "Apocalypto" and "Nativity". The latter was very dull. Mel's film is fantastic, easily the best film I've seen in 10 years.
The so-called "ancestors" who are screaming racism over "Apocalypto" describe Mayans as if they were Hare Krishnas. It is just ridiculous. It was one of the most brutal savage regimes in human history. Unfortunately for these liars, the Mayans also carved their own brutality in stone for history to see.
What about "One Night with the King"?
I never got to see 'One Night with the King.' Do you recommend it?
great point
Are those guys prescient or what?
What did you especially like about Apocalypto?
I want to see it, but will have to close my eyes from the gore, is it easy to it coming?
If the barbarity of Communism could be captured it would make this movie pale.. And the barbarity of Islam is untold also.. Islam first makes a conquered people grovel before it savages them on many levels.. Ask the Maronites in Lebanon and the Copts in Egypt.. and the Armenian..
Maybe thats Mel's intention.. throwing a glass of cold water in peoples faces.. i.e. "get real folks"..
"...throats being slit...decapitated heads..."
Hmmm, sounds like the Daily Muslim News.
Offensive in a movie, but not in real life,eh?
Once again, its ok to be offended and outraged by
PAST atrocities, but not by the ones happening NOW.
Mayans aren't threatening us. A combination of
Islam and our own cowardice is.
Can't blame Mel for THAT bloodthirst, now can we?
At first, I thought that was a movie about a homosexual, and I didn't want to go, then I found out it was about the Queen of England, so I reluctantly went to see it. HATED IT! I thought it to be a boring rehash of the Diana fairy tale in real life of the late 20th century, seen from the otherwise unknowable eyes of the Queen herself. The guy that played Tony Blair was such a sissy I couldn't believe it. I couldn't stand the boredom, and I couldn't fall asleep, so I left and saw something else.
I haven't seen it, but everything I heard about it from people whose opinions I respect indicated that it was a good movie.
It is not nearly as bad as they say. They are trying to sell newspapers. The head bouncing down the steps is not graphic at all.
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