'Apocalypto'
It’s not a movie; it’s a mental illness
'Apocalypto' is perhaps most sadistic film to hit theaters but Mel Gibson’s determination to portray violence transforms his production into a prophecy of impending destruction
Movie critics generally don’t delve into the director’s mental state. Nevertheless, in the case of “Apocalypto”, there’s no question – it’s not a movie; it’s a mental illness.
To Gibson’s credit as a director – and this is not intended facetiously – he has certainly managed to personalize the bloodbath.
Mel Gibson’s new film is a sadistic epic which includes practically every conceivable physical torture. Human hearts are ripped out; a warrior’s face is slashed by a jaguar’s fangs; and the bloody list goes on and on.
Mayan culture, according to Gibson, was predominantly about human sacrifices, with the heads rolling and bouncing down the slopes of the soaring pyramid-shaped temples. Deliverance comes in the form of the Spanish conquistadors, who eventually land on Central America’s shores and introduce Christianity to the natives.
'Apocalypto', the trailer
What began with “Braveheart”, the 1995 Oscar Best Picture winner, reached new heights in “The Passion of the Christ” (2004), which became one of the most significant and successful movies in recent years.
As emphasized by the frightening, historical dimensions of many scenes, the latter film is essentially a primeval religious rite, designed to induce the viewers into a state of ecstasy and authentic spiritual transcendency.
However, in the final analysis, this lofty goal is demonstratively absent from Gibson’s latest movie. Instead, “Apocalypto” remains a sadistic spectacle, which clearly displays Gibson’s nostalgia for ancient civilizations.
Salvation, O salvation
What’s truly disturbing about the film is that it cements Gibson’s reputation as a talented director who can tell a story using little more than visual images. It’s as if he’s returned to the days prior to the invention of the talkie.
Set in Central America, the characters speak the language of the ancient Mayans (similar to Passion’s Latin and Aramaic). The films stars Rudy Youngblood as Jaguar Paw, a young Mayan who experiences a surprise attack on his village, is forced to abandon his family, and is taken to a neighboring city to be sacrificed. He escapes, and, during the second half of the movie, his cruel captors pursue him.
Following the movie’s opening – in which an innocent tribesman is persuaded to bite into the testicles of a freshly-caught wild boar and then demeaned by his father-in-law for failing to impregnate his wife – the tone changes. From this point on, the Mayans are depicted as barbarians, and hence, the arrival of the European subjugators constitutes a moment of salvation for the locals.
“Apocalypto” opens with a quote by American philosopher and historian Will Durant: "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within."
Gibson and screenwriter Farhad Safina chose to portray a defining historical era (the Spanish conquest in the 16th century) from the savage hero’s personal vantage point – Jaguar Paw’s physical sufferings and flight home to his family are highly reminiscent of the Via Dolorosa scenes from Gibson’s previous film – thus transforming the film into a discussion of the individual’s insignificance within the sweep of history.
On a related note, many scholars complained about the movie’s anachronisms. While the majority of the film seems to occur somewhere between the 4th and 10th centuries, the climactic scene places the setting squarely at the start of the 16th century.
Yet, Gibson apparently sought to create a metaphor that is concomitantly historic and a-historic. A Jewish viewer, for example – although others would certainly concur – will identify numerous Holocaust references, such as the captives trekking from their village to the town and the hero clawing his way over a pile of bodies on his way to freedom.
As such, “Apocalypto” is an abstract production - with a particularly austere narrative – which renders its historical setting as a period of confusion, violence, and hysteria. Still, the film ends with salvation – as represented, of course, by the cross held aloft at the conclusion.
In other words, although viewers may be put off by the film’s stereotyping Central American villagers as bloodthirsty, one can not help but be astonished at Gibson’s determination to explore the territory on the border between sanity and madness. Ultimately, it is this resolve that generates a movie that is simultaneously repulsive and bewitching.
“Apocalypto”, as its name implies, shows a society on the verge of Judgment Day. A study of rape, slavery, torture, beatings, carnage, stabbing, decapitation, disembowelment, and much more, the film is both a colonialist-reactionary epic as well as a religious prophecy of impending doom and destruction.
