If you were to believe everything you saw in Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto, the Mayans were bloodthirsty brutes whose own moral decay brought about the downfall of their civilization, its near-disappearance from the world map and its exploitation by the Europeans.
And because of these generalizations on Gibson’s part, Apocalypto fails as a social commentary on the Mayan civilization and instead works just as a great action movie. Want any substantive character or plot development? You won’t find much. Instead, what you will find is a thrilling film that is beautifully shot, but stumbles on the meaningful message it so desperately wants to deliver.
Since his 2004 film, The Passion of the Christ, his recent drunken antics and his not-so-nice – or exceptionally offensive, take your pick – words and actions toward the Jewish community, Gibson hasn’t garnered the greatest reputation in the pop-culture world. But Apocalypto was pegged as Gibson’s latest gasp of glory in Hollywood – a grand, sprawling epic with political and social undertones comparing the downfall of the Mayan civilization to the status of American society today.
While promoting the film, Gibson drew parallels between the Maya and America, saying, “The precursors to a civilization that’s going under are the same, time and time again. … What’s human sacrifice if not sending guys off to Iraq for no reason?”
Obviously, Gibson wants Apocalypto to make a strong statement, similar to what The Passion was meant to do. And the films do share various elements: Apocalypto is filmed entirely in the Yucatec Maya language, the way The Passion used only Aramaic and Latin, and Apocalypto uses a large cast of unknown actors, as The Passion did. But Apocalypto was shot mainly in Catemaco and Paso de Ovejas in the Mexican state of Veracruz.
But the films are entirely different as a whole, as Apocalypto is just an adventurous chase movie. The film starts in a peaceful Mayan village, where the young man Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood) hunts with his father, Flint Sky (Morris Birdyellowhead); loves his pregnant wife Seven (Dalia Hernandez) and his young son, Turtles Run (Carlos Emilio Baez); and fears for the future of his community. Even though Flint Sky tells his son, “Fear is a sickness. It will crawl into the soul of anyone who engages it,” Jaguar Paw’s worst nightmare comes true as a savage war band from the urban capital of Mayan civilization attacks the village on the hunt for human sacrifices to its sun god.
Children become orphans and the village men and women who aren’t murdered are enslaved as prisoners for the war band to take back to the Mayan urban center. Flint Sky is savagely murdered before Jaguar Paw’s eyes (Sky’s last words: “My son. Don’t be afraid.”) by a Mayan who then renames him “Almost” for nearly saving his father. Jaguar Paw is then taken prisoner and must leave his wife and child behind in a small cave.
What follows is an hour-long trek through the Mayan wilderness as the villagers are bound together and demoralized by the slave-herders. The scenery is beautiful, and Gibson’s flare for the surreal hits home when the group encounters a young girl afflicted with smallpox. In one of the creepiest scenes of the film, the girl tells the band of prisoners in a Satanic voice, “Would you like to know how you will die?” and prophesies the Mayans’ downfall: There will be the “blackness of day” and a man “who brings the jaguar” will “scratch you out and end your world … He’s with us now.”
Conveniently, about a full minute of eye contact between the girl and Jaguar Paw follows, making it very clear for anyone watching who will bring about the civilization’s destruction.
Fast-forward through the band reaching the Mayan capital – the women are sold as slaves, babies are bathed in sacrificial blood, lots of fun stuff goes down – to the male prisoners being painted blue and marched up a pyramid to be sacrificed to the sun god, i.e. having their hearts ripped out of their bodies Mortal Kombat-style while they are still alive, then being beheaded and having their bodies pushed down the pyramid to a cheering crowd below.
But lo and behold, an eclipse saves Paw from death (“blackness of day,” anybody?) as the head priest decides the sun god doesn’t need more sacrifices. As a result, Jaguar Paw and the rest of the prisoners are allowed to leave the capital and are led to an open field.
There, their slave leader, Zero Wolf (Raoul Trujillo), tells them the field separates them from their homeland and the villagers are allowed to run for their freedom while their captors attack them. If the villagers make it to the other side of the field, a “finisher” captor is waiting with a stone ax to kill them – and in this case, the finisher just happens to be Zero Wolf’s son, Smoke Frog (Israel Contreras).
In true James Bond-like glory, Jaguar Paw manages to kill many of his enemies while reaching the end of the field nearly unscathed, and even though he is struck by one of Zero Wolf’s arrows, is able to stab Smoke Frog in the neck. Smoke Frog dies in Zero Wolf’s arms, and as Zero Wolf aims for revenge, the chase part of Apocalypto really begins – with nearly half of the film over.
Even still, the going gets good. As Jaguar Paw runs with an actual jaguar and jumps over waterfalls, Zero Wolf and his band remains close behind. And as the little girl’s prophecy unfolds, the slave-herding Mayans realize the omen is coming to fruition and because of this one villager, their civilization is crumbling before their eyes – and they are powerless to stop it.
Some more things happen in Apocalypto – Do the pregnant Seven and Turtles Run live? Does Jaguar Paw avenge his father’s death, or does Zero Wolf end up avenging his son’s? – but at its heart, the film only works as an engaging, violence-packed adventure.
And yes, the violence is grotesque, rivaling The Passion in its graphic nature and overuse: Bloody, decaying heads on poles; bloody, decaying heads bonucing down the pyramid; bloody, decaying sacrificial bodies stacked by the dozens in the Mayan fields. There is enough violence to make a viewer physically ill, and although some is necessary to make Gibson’s point about the crumbling morality of the Mayans, he pushes too hard.
But there are good points to Apocalypto, mainly due to solid performances and beautiful cinematography. As Jaguar Paw, Youngblood – a Comanche and Cree American Indian – is intense and grabs the screen every second of the film, first with wide-eyed idealism and then with a fierce determination to save those he loves. And as Wolf, Trujillo tempers his character with a fatherly love that turns into revenge-seeking ferocity.
The cinematography is nothing to disregard, either – the Mexican scenery is full of lush jungles and breathtaking waterfalls, and Gibson knows how to grab attention, especially during the scene where Jaguar Paw and his fellow prisoners are waiting to be sacrificed on top of the Mayan pyramid. The powerful Mayans overlooking the executions – including the head priest, shaman, king, queen and their ghoulishly obese baby – are bedecked in intricate costumes and horrifying masks, all calmly observing the gory religious rituals they think will keep them in power.
Somehow this scene, with its corrupt rulers, helpless prisoners and fervently blood-hungry crowd, is the most terrifying of the film and the one that best depicts Gibson’s hopes for Apocalypto. The downfall of the Mayan civilization wasn’t simply caused by the invading Europeans, Gibson argues, but also because the community was crumbling from the inside out from its own savage rituals and internal conflicts. Gibson implies the civilization’s only hope lies in men like Jaguar Paw, who are bent on preserving life rather than ending it.
“My name is Jaguar Paw, the son of Flint Sky. … This is my forest, and I am not afraid,” Paw yells to Wolf, refusing to surrender his community to their bloodlust.
But Gibson suggests this idea too late in the game, and it becomes too insignificant after two hours of adventure. So go see the incredibly well-done action movie that is Apocalypto, but don’t expect too much – the film doesn’t live up to Gibson’s hopes of dramatic grandeur.
Contact reporter Roxana Hadadi at roxanadbk@gmail.com.
