Reviewed by Lamar Kukuk
1/4/07
Unless you simply don't plan
to, it's probably better that we don't have this conversation until you've
seen the peculiar combo of Terrence Malick and Jean-Claude Van Damme movie
Mel Gibson has made about the declining days of the Mayan Empire.
Consisting of four fairly distinct sections, each progressively more interesting
than the one before it, Apocalypto is a difficult movie to discuss
without SPOILERS. So, consider yourself warned.
Still there?
Cool.
Since we're just getting
to know each other here at The Palace, I'll let you know up front that
I'm not the kind of moviegoer who's all that concerned with what kind of
guy Mel Gibson is in real life or what strange ideas might be kicking around
in his head. I'll leave viewing Apocalypto through that kind
of prism for others. What's actually up on the screen is an ultra-violent
historical action movie that is equal parts snoozy and electrifying, but
by the end, I was glad I saw it.
Our story begins with an
unnamed South American tribe, presumably living sometime in the 9th Century.
We follow a hunting party that includes Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood) and
Blunted (Jonathan Brewer) back to their village to meet assorted characters
including Jaguar Paw's pregnant wife Seven (Dalia Hernandez) and his child,
Turtles Run (Carlos Emilio Baez). After some off-putting wackiness
involving Blunted's much-discussed impotency, the village is attacked by
Mayan warriors led by Zero Wolf (Raoul Trujillo) and the sadistic Snake
Ink (Rodolfo Palacios). Soon enough, our once-happy villagers have
been routed and are dragged (at great length) back to a Mayan city, where
the men are to be offered up as sacrifices to the Gods. Their High
Priest (played by Fernando Hernandez as a murderous snake oil salesman)
starts ripping out hearts and slicing off heads for an enthusiastic crowd
until a solar eclipse intervenes. Gee, didn't that creepy little
girl they passed along the way into town say something about an eclipse
and somebody Jaguar-related leading them to the end of their world?
No matter, this is just the break Jaguar Paw needs to escape, and soon
enough he's running like the wind with the warriors in hot pursuit, trying
to make it back to the village and his hidden wife and child. Back
on Jaguar Paw's home turf, the cocky Mayans are about to learn a little
something about Payback.
It's here, around the ¾
mark, when Apocalypto finally catches fire: the Hard Target-like
chase through the jungle is as electric as it is violent, and it's VERY
violent. In fact, the movie doesn't pause even a moment for breath
until it slams head-on into a twist you might see coming, but which knocked
me on my ass like few I can remember. I couldn't help but think of
what it must have been like in 1969 for people who first saw Charlton Heston
screaming at that creepy half-Statue of Liberty at the end of Planet
of the Apes.
All in all, Apocalypto's
not quite the unspeakable sadistic bloodbath the hype might lead you to
expect; sure, it's violent as all get-out, but it's pretty violent subject
matter as well. Gibson's camera shows us all kinds of awful sights,
but rarely lingers on them. It's a hard R to be sure, but doesn't
push the ceiling of the rating. What's fascinating about the early
parts of the story, particularly the lengthy battle between the villagers
and the Mayan warriors, is how they manage to be so dull while being so
violent. It takes the movie almost half its' running time to really
find its' bearings in the Mayan Temple sequence, where Fernando Harnandez's
bravura performance as the High Priest who knows how to give the people
what they want starts the movie's pivot away from Historical Epic toward
kick-ass action flick. It's actually pretty nifty how the twist at
the end brings things full circle and reminds us what the story we were
watching was about before the running and the fighting broke out, but the
setup for that knockout punch could have easily been done in half the time.
The production is top-shelf
across the board, although those wanting to do more than look at a recreated
Mayan city will be disappointed. The movie treats the declining empire
the way H.G. Welles treated his Martians, as an unstoppable force alien
to the simple villagers who find themselves ground up in its' gears.
The warning to all the Great Civilizations that followed theirs, including
our own, is there if you want it, but the movie's Big Themes are just as
easily ignored by those who're only there to watch a man get his face eaten
off by a jaguar.
I read an interview where
Gibson suggested that anyone can learn to act in a few simple steps, and
his largely unknown cast bears him out. Youngblood, making his acting
debut, is a first-rate hero, and Palacios is a sadistic henchman for the
ages. Dalia Hernandez is quite good in a massively thankless role:
stuck in a big ol' hole for much of the movie's running time and beset
in the third act by crises that seem left over from a silent movie, she
nonetheless maintains her dignity. That all the actors are not only
so natural, but also so natural in another of Gibson's beloved subtitled
dead languages, is a testament indeed to his skill as an actor's director.
As for the Man Who Was Mad
Max, he mostly gets the last laugh on those who imagined his dead language
Mayan epic with a cast of unknowns as a mad folly. Apocalypto
is a pretty interesting story that works on a lot of levels. Certainly
it suffers from the bloat and lack of first act focus that often afflict
filmmakers without anyone to say "No". But now more than ever, I'm
really interested to see what comes next in his increasingly unique body
of work. |
