Apocalypto (2006)
Country: US
Technical: DeLuxe 138m
Director: Mel Gibson
Cast: Rudy Youngblood, Dalia Hernández, Jonathan Brewer
Synopsis:
Holcane warriors ravage and enslave jungle dwelling hunter-gatherers and take them back to their Mayan capital to work on the city or serve as human sacrifices. One of them, Jaguar Paw, makes a bid for freedom and to save his wife and child left behind.
Review:
Scrupulously researched, written in the Mayan language and lavishly realized in Mexican locations, Gibson's film is anything but a tired old jungle adventure. After a lengthy prologue it resolves itself into a traditional crisis-chase-retribution scenario whose simplicity is the key to its effectiveness, enhanced by a canny/uncanny prophecy bit half way through. However, the bloodlust present in incidental details and the limits of endurance to which the hero must go in his rite of passage to manhood are worrying signs of a trend in the director's work, and of a continuation of the preoccupation with violence in many of his films as actor.
Country: US
Technical: DeLuxe 138m
Director: Mel Gibson
Cast: Rudy Youngblood, Dalia Hernández, Jonathan Brewer
Synopsis:
Holcane warriors ravage and enslave jungle dwelling hunter-gatherers and take them back to their Mayan capital to work on the city or serve as human sacrifices. One of them, Jaguar Paw, makes a bid for freedom and to save his wife and child left behind.
Review:
Scrupulously researched, written in the Mayan language and lavishly realized in Mexican locations, Gibson's film is anything but a tired old jungle adventure. After a lengthy prologue it resolves itself into a traditional crisis-chase-retribution scenario whose simplicity is the key to its effectiveness, enhanced by a canny/uncanny prophecy bit half way through. However, the bloodlust present in incidental details and the limits of endurance to which the hero must go in his rite of passage to manhood are worrying signs of a trend in the director's work, and of a continuation of the preoccupation with violence in many of his films as actor.
Country: US
Technical: DeLuxe 138m
Director: Mel Gibson
Cast: Rudy Youngblood, Dalia Hernández, Jonathan Brewer
Synopsis:
Holcane warriors ravage and enslave jungle dwelling hunter-gatherers and take them back to their Mayan capital to work on the city or serve as human sacrifices. One of them, Jaguar Paw, makes a bid for freedom and to save his wife and child left behind.
Review:
Scrupulously researched, written in the Mayan language and lavishly realized in Mexican locations, Gibson's film is anything but a tired old jungle adventure. After a lengthy prologue it resolves itself into a traditional crisis-chase-retribution scenario whose simplicity is the key to its effectiveness, enhanced by a canny/uncanny prophecy bit half way through. However, the bloodlust present in incidental details and the limits of endurance to which the hero must go in his rite of passage to manhood are worrying signs of a trend in the director's work, and of a continuation of the preoccupation with violence in many of his films as actor.