Apocalypto (2006)

               Apocalypto            

NETFLIX SYNOPSIS: Oscar-winning director Mel Gibson moves on from biblical fare to tackle the end of the Mayan civilization in this gripping action-adventure set just before Spain’s conquest of Mexico and Central America in the 16th century. When an invading force threatens his peaceful existence, a courageous native risks everything to protect his way of life — even if it means leaving his beautiful mate and unborn child behind.

REVIEW: Apocalypto begins and ends w/a hunt, the first by the tribe for a wild boar to feed themselves, the last for a man, by men, for pure sport and, ultimately, revenge. The entire long last act of the film is taken up by that hunt thru the jungle and it’s one of the most exciting and beautifully photographed survival sequences I’ve ever seen. There are extraordinarily filmed scenes, as when a black jaguar chases the hero (named “Jaguar Paw”) as his former captives are also chasing him and they all converge in disaster for the hunting party; another scene has Jaguar Paw trapped and immersed in black quicksand and he emerges from the depths looking like a demon covered in mud; soon afterward he fashions 3 poison darts out of thorns and frog (yes, frog) venom and as he runs thru the jungle w/the thorns held in his teeth like fangs, covered head-to-toe in the black mud, what does he resemble so much but the jaguar? Perfect - Primal Man.

There are so many great, unusual scenes one could go on and on: Trapped in a deep hole, a (pregnant) mother stitches up the cut on her child’s leg by putting black ant’s heads to the gash, then when they bite down and close the wound she snaps off the body so only the head remains holding the flesh together. Later as torrential rains flood the hole and she’s holding her young son above her she goes into labor, the baby is birthed into the water that is about to drown her. At one point during the hunt several characters jump over a waterfall and seem to fall forever, tiny specs against the vastness of the mighty nature of the fall. In the savage Mayan sacrifice sequence an eclipse takes place and covers them all in night and the Sun-worshipers see it as a hopeful sign that the plague and drought that has sickened their civilization is coming to an end, but it really foretells their destruction by the Spanish explorers.

The look of the characters is fascinatingly baroque, their facial tattoos and adornments both beautiful and repellent. And the performances of these actors in their barbarous manifestations is superb. I thought every one of the main characters had charisma, especially Raoul Trujillo as Zero Wolf, the leader of the Mayan hunting party, he has the makings of a star. I don’t think it’s any small acting feat for a modern actor to be convincing as an extremely primitive version of ourselves. Everyone of them is indeed believable to the point that, reading the cast list and seeing that one of the main actors has a name like “Jonathon Brewer”, it comes as something of a shock.

Am I the only person who thinks this is an absolutely beautiful, thrilling adventure movie?

NF Rating: 5 Stars, baby!

Harold

~ by kymberg on May 12, 2008.