The Greatest Trick

Making another film about an ancient culture in its original language may appear to be a risky move for Mel Gibson, but Apocalypto is something of a surprise. It’s essentially a jungle set adventure with a smattering of cerebral overtones that get buried under an avalanche of violence and gore. And boy is it gory. Mel Gibson’s two previous directorial efforts Braveheart and The Passion of the Christ were both epic bloodbaths, but Apocalypto is his most brutally violent work to date. Not that I’m complaining. Frankly I don’t think the film would have been the effective, sweaty palmed, heart-pounding experience it was had the violence been toned down. I simply note it at the beginning of this review to underline that this is most emphatically not a movie for the faint of heart.

The story begins as the protagonist Jaguar Paw (the excellent Rudy Youngblood) and his friends hunt and kill a tapir in the forest. They joke together like a bunch of high school jocks, and play practical jokes on one of their number for his inability to impregnate his wife. It’s a peculiar opening, and the grotesque pranks immediately make one think of frat pack comedies like American Pie, only set in the Mayan jungles.

Ten minutes or so later, the tone suddenly changes when a village elder tells an ominous story about man’s merciless ravaging of the Earth, which has contemporary relevance as well as referring to the impending collapse of the Mayan civilisation. This momentary pause for thought is shattered by an attack of warriors who rape and massacre several in the village. The survivors, including Jaguar Paw are captured (except Jaguar Paw’s son and pregnant wife who managed to hide). The children who weren’t killed in the raid are cruelly left behind. At this point, we’re in Schindler’s List territory, and the viewer mentally maps out a serious drama as the captives are brutally marched to a Mayan city. Here, a vast human sacrifice ceremony is in full swing which spares the audience nothing. Victims have their hearts cut out, before being decapitated and have their heads erected on spikes. When it comes to Jaguar Paw’s turn however, there is a reprieve caused by a solar eclipse (a great use of a hoary old cliché).

At this point, Jaguar Paw makes his escape and the story takes yet another drastic change in tone. As he is pursued through the jungle, the film becomes an all-out chase. Gradually the hunters become the hunted as Jaguar Paw finds new and ingeniously gruesome ways of dispensing with his enemies, all the time, trying to get back to his wife and child. And it is here that the story is at its most conventional, as every jungle peril cliché is thrown in for good measure. But this is also the most enjoyable part of the film, as Gibson breathes new life into the action-adventure genre through his undeniably unique setting.

The entire cast (mostly made up of non-professionals) are excellent, especially Rudy Youngblood. On a technical level, the cinematography, production design, editing, sound and visual effects are all terrific, and James Horner’s unusually low-key music score compliments the action well. But it is Gibson who remains the star of the show. His lavish, unsubtle, but undeniably effective style feels like a curious cross between Cecil B De Mille, and Sam Peckinpah.

Overall, Apocalypto is too jarringly eneven to be considered a masterpiece. But it is never boring, neither does it feel overlong. The ending even has an implicit Christian worldview (although Empire magazine read the opposite into it), suggesting that Christianity was ultimately the answer to the barbarism the Mayans had descended into. What’s more interesting is the way parallels are drawn with the present day. There are forms of human sacrifice in our own culture, whether it’s sending troops to Iraq, abortion, or whatever you want to read into it. Gibson wants to warn us about the dangers of such things, and show us where it will ultimately end. However, I doubt anyone will pick up on this message. They’ll be too breathless from the stunningly violent action to notice.

Simon Dillon, January 2007.