Year: 2006
Director: Mel Gibson
Page: 946
Mel Gibson’s epic film Apocalypto is a brutal, confronting, gory action film that makes weak attempts at symbolism, meaning and depth, yet ultimately falls into the realms of melodrama, presenting a bare-bones plot that fails to offer any originality.
Apocalypto takes place at the decline of the Mayan civilisation and the beginning of the Spanish colonisation of Central America and highlights the plight of a group of villagers taken captive to be sold as slaves and human sacrifices in the massive Mayan city. What follows is one man’s efforts to escape his brutal captors and save his pregnant wife and young son.
The film, it must be said, is visually stunning. The rich greens and browns of the
rainforest contrast magnificently with the dull greys and whites of the city. Cinematographer Dean Semler achieved wonderfully rich scenes set within a wonderfully rich backdrop. The stark contrast between jungle and city was executed brilliantly. The jungle scenes have an air of prettiness and calm, contrasting with the epic scenes of chaos and confusion in the ancient Mayan city. The city is a particularly outstanding set, with huge Mayan step pyramids as well as small wooden huts and stone-built market squares. It is difficult to say how accurate the depiction of the city is, yet it is safe to say it is stunning. If the film is historically accurate, the insight into the Mayan culture and ways of life are enlightening and fascinating.
The actors (all of whom are unknowns) work seamlessly within the harsh jungle setting, as if they were really tribal villagers. The extensive make-up is impressive, with virtually all of the characters having some sort of tattoo, scarification or piercing. The extent to which the actors’ bodies are embellished is extreme, and makes up for the relative lack of clothing. Whilst the film attempts grand things, the acting itself is anything but. It is sufficient for the story, but it is by no means ground breaking work. Perhaps that is one of the perils of requiring unknown actors that can speak Mayan.
The story itself is rather two dimensional. Whilst Gibson and screenwriter Farhad Safinia weave in fairly blatant comments about humanity and society, the plot ultimately boils down to a stereotypical action movie melodrama, in which an heroic warrior must fight through ridiculous adversity to save the woman he loves. And what adversity it is. The death toll of this film is astronomical, with a character dying seemingly every other minute. To say this film is brutal is an understatement. It’s gore galore as people get stabbed, mutilated, beheaded, cut open, speared in the head, bludgeoned…the list goes on. The violence seems never-ending and you soon begin to question the necessity of so much blood and gore. Not only that it appears to paint the Mayan people as blood-thirsty savages who want nothing more than to inflict pain on others. The historical accuracy here is questionable.
When the film is not splattering the jungle with blood, there is a distinct message being shouted to the audience in a way that is impossible to miss. The film opens with the quote “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within”, and this idea of a crumbling civilisation continues throughout the film. Omens, prophecies and superstitions all become a part of the story in much the same way that they are part of the Mayan way of life. The unsubtle message continues as we see the city, grappling with famine and disease. Their people are at war with jungle villagers, whom they capture in
the attempt to sacrifice them to their god. Finally at the closing scene we see the beginnings of the conquest of Central America by the Spaniards. Famine, disease, war, conquest; the four horsemen of the apocalypse. It is blatantly obvious that this film in no subtle way deals with a societal apocalypse, and that Gibson wants his viewers to consider the contemporary analogues. The symbolism is almost frustratingly simple.
Even with the blatancy of the “message”, the film fails to deliver it well enough, and the plot still manages to fall into old action-adventure habits. The viewer is taken on a predictable ride, with the protagonist doing all he can to save his wife and child. Gibson tries and fails to add depth by setting the film in the Mayan jungle, using unknown actors speaking Mayan, and presenting a rather bland message about societal collapse. Despite all this, it is all merely window dressing, and the film is ultimately and unfortunately just an ultra-violent, under-intelligent, action-adventure film.
