Apocalypto

Apocalypto poster Apocalypto is Mel Gibson's much-touted follow-up to Passion, in that it's done in a dead language and contains lots and lots of graphic violence and gore. However, this movie is a totally different animal. In simplistic terms this is a foal by Rousseau out of Campbell, but it's absolutely compelling. It is a literal hero's journey, with the protagonist, Jaguar Paw, on the move, on the march, on the run throughout all but a very few minutes of the film. Yes, Jaguar Paw is the straight up noble savage, and yes, the so-called high civilization of meso-America is shown to be decadent with superstition; but what's fascinating is how very recognizable these characters are as the sorts of human beings you and I might know today. I cannot remember a film that transports its audience into such a profoundly alien time and culture, without once giving way to modern sensibility. Yet the humanity of these characters, good or evil, shines through. And for once, the violence, the gore, the cruelty painted so vividly here is completely organic and inextricable from the story being told. To do less would have been to deny the truth of these lives. I admit, I did close my eyes a couple of times, and I grew up on a ranch where the facts of life were largely about the facts of death, so be warned about that aspect of it. Nevertheless, antipathy to the portrayal of violence should not be the reason you don't see this movie.

The triumph of the hero in saving himself and his family is an inspiration, even though the ending — the arrival of the white man — has been much criticized as a cheap trick. I do think it was a bit of a symbolic cipher, but within the context, within the moment of watching the film itself, it seemed to be the inevitable resolution. Don't get me wrong, the muddling of Maya, Aztec and other native traditions is a bit bothersome, but only marginally so, and only to the tedious intellectual facet of my personality. The dynamic of the story, and the pacing of the movie, carry you along so that you haven't time to do more than mentally note it for later contemplation. The authenticity and the universality of this story of people trapped in horrific circumstances, and their struggles to survive, even to triumph, more than makes up for some conflation of antique cultural relics.

Some special, technical kudos and caveats for Apocalypto: I didn't catch the credit for cinematography, but whoever shot this film deserves due respect and recognition. It's not just that this is a visually beautiful movie, at least the jungle scenes are, but the technical difficulties that must've accrued to shoot in some of the locales must've been overwhelming. What struck me most, as I ruminated on how to describe the visual elements, is that despite the continuous scenes of running through the jungle terrain, the camera work never gives you that sense of motion sickness that so much contemporary dynamic-camera technique does. On the other hand, I did watch the credit role looking for a Humane Society imprimatur, and I didn't see one. It may be there, but I didn't see it. I'm sure that Gibson was careful about animal handling, given today's standards in the film industry, and there were several credits for animatronic effects. But some of the scenes were really hard to bear because of the portrayal of hunting and killing wild animals.

As to the whole dead language issue, I found the Mayan dialogue no more troubling to follow than going to a European or Asian film where I must read the subtitles, and actually it was easier to follow than some operas I've attended sung in European languages with which I'm at least a little familiar. I believe this is because the film is so very well acted, and by people who are native to the lands in which the story is set. None of the actors had done any acting outside Mexico and Costa Rica, as I understand it, but what they do here is marvelously genuine, as though they are channeling the real lives of distant ancestors.

The story of the hero and his family and his tribe told here in Apocalypto is without doubt a universal fable of people caught up in the fall of a once-great civilization. Many are victims, senselessly so unless you subscribe to the idea of the immutable fallibility of our species. But those few who manage to survive great ordeals are truly the heroes we all need to inspire us. For most of you this will be a very difficult film to watch, but I highly recommend seeing it.