Review: ‘Apocalypto’ paints vivid picture of Mayan war

Directed by: Mel Gibson

Starring: Rudy Youngblood, Raoul Trujillo, Mayra Serbulo, Dalia Hernandez, Gerardo Taracena

Rated: R

When it comes to violence in the movies, it’s all about what the camera shows us.

Seeing the mushroom cloud of an atomic bomb from 20 miles away elicits a different set of emotional reactions than if the camera had been on the ground framing, close-up, on burning flesh, charred bodies, collapsing buildings and screaming, maimed survivors.

The sum total destruction is equal in both cases, but the viewers’ feelings about the event will no doubt be vastly different.

Anyone familiar with Mel Gibson’s work as a director knows he likes to get the camera up close and personal when it comes to violence. To his credit, Gibson never stoops to being gratuitous. His intentions aren’t to merely increase a film’s “gore factor.”

I thought the battle scenes in “Braveheart” could be used effectively as anti-war propaganda. It’s one thing to drop bombs from 10,000 feet or launch missiles from miles away, but thousands of people running head-on at each other, impaling their enemies on pointed sticks or hacking them with garden implements, is quite another story. It might give one cause to stop and reflect on the ways of war.

Gibson’s megahit “The Passion of the Christ” was accused by some of being sensationalistic in its display of graphic violence, but one only assumes that floggings and crucifixions are probably much worse in reality than they are depicted on screen.

With “Apocalypto,” Gibson (who also co-wrote the screenplay) puts in place the third piece of a trilogy that includes the two aforementioned works. In many ways, it’s the best film of the three, and while it is set against the Mesoamerican backdrop of the Mayan civilization as it was reaching its end, “Apocalypto” has a sense of 21st century relevance. It is, for all intents and purposes, a modern action/adventure morality play.

The look of the film is state-of-the-art. And while the production design inspires awe, it never feels nostalgic.

The opening screen graphic is a quote by philosopher Will Durant, originally written about the fall of the Roman Empire: “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.”

Savor those words for the few seconds they are on the screen, it’s the last time you’ll relax for the next 138 minutes.

The opening scenes are of a tapir hunt in a jungle that “belongs” to a tribe of Mayans, who live peacefully enough among their verdant surroundings. Their village is somewhat like the “small-town America” that has been depicted in film since movies began.

Our attention is drawn to the young hunter Jaguar Paw, his wife Seven and their baby boy Turtle Run.

The tribe’s idyllic world is (literally) shattered when a marauding group from a larger Mayan “city” pillages and burns the village. Before being taken prisoner, Jaguar Paw manages to hide his wife and child by lowering them into a stone pit. This situation serves as an impelling subplot throughout the remainder of the film.

The survivors are taken to their captors’ city, a jungle metropolis largely made of stone. The captive women are sold into slavery and the men are led to the top of a giant pyramid. It should be noted that all the while we’ve seen the pyramid in the background, human heads having been rolling down the front stairs to the wildly cheering crowd below.

The religious leaders, in order to appease the gods and allay the drought, plague and general malaise that has been upsetting the city’s way of life, are performing an unending series of human sacrifices.

We’ve already seen two human hearts cut out and shown to the dying “donor,” but when it comes time for Jaguar Paw’s evisceration, a miraculous sign from the gods saves him.

He manages an escape and the next chapter of the film is a chase scene that combines elements of “Run, Lola, Run,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Southern Comfort.”

Gibson never lets up on the pacing, and the work of Director of Photography Dean Semler is dizzyingly amazing.

There are many up-close (but usually short-lived) shots of blood, gore and nasty wounds of all kinds. But these are merely the physical manifestations of what is a deeper, more spiritual kind of malady.

The climax, which will not be revealed here, gives much meaning to the “apocalypse” suggested in the title. It is as chilling and unsettling as any of the bloody messes we’ve seen so far ¬– even if, to the unknowing outsider, it might appear to be benign, even a blessing.

The squeamish will surely become queasy, and even the most steadfast of viewers will be somewhat unsettled. But “Apocalypto” is not only technically executed to near perfection, it’s a powerful, compelling story expertly told.

Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician. He can be reached at info@wunderlesound.com.[[In-content Ad]]