Indian Comics Irregular #148

Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto" has finally arrived. The movie tells the
tale of the forest-dweller Jaguar Paw, who is captured by Maya
executioners and must escape to rescue his family. Critics are
ranting and raving over the blood-soaked saga.

The Good

In truth, it's an engrossing, endlessly moving, action film, made more
enthrallling by its exotic time and locales, and by the realistic
portrayals of a cast entirely made up of Mexican and North American
Indians. (Gannett News Service, 12/8/06)

Mr. Gibson's technical command has never been surer; for most of its
2-hour 18-minute running time, "Apocalypto," written by Mr. Gibson and
Farhad Safinia, is a model of narrative economy, moving nimbly forward
and telling its tale with clarity and force. (NY Times, 12/8/06)

The film is visually stunning and the frequently bloody, brutal action
is extraordinarily well staged. Gibson takes full advantage of the
latest technology available to craft his film.

The final, adrenaline-fueled chase sequence is simply amazing and
proves that Gibson is a filmmaker right to his core. (MoviesOnline.ca)

The Bad

[A] boring, affected, expensive, gruesomely violent and historically
inaccurate curio. (NY Observer, 12/11/06)

"Apocalypto" ... has more in common with every modern Hollywood crowd
pleaser than anything else, complete with crotch jokes, nagging
mother-in-laws, and silly dialogue. (Lawrence Journal-World, 12/8/06)

Much like "Christ," it becomes gratuitous, as the filmmaker gets far
too lost in the next body-impalement gag to fully contemplate the
story, or even build the slightest whisper of characters; here the bad
guys scowl and menace, and the good guys are completely angelic.

This is Gibson's bloodlust pure and unfiltered, and it's depressing to
sit and watch him make the same film for the third time in a row.
(OhmyNews.com, 12/6/06)

The Ugly

He hinted at it with Jesus' prolonged, agonizing death in "The Passion
of the Christ." With an immeasurable body count and mutilation factor
in "Apocalypto," it's confirmed: Mel Gibson is master of the epic
snuff film. (Associated Press, 12/8/06)

Mountains of hacked up corpses, exit wounds spewing fountains of
blood, spears shattering teeth, warriors literally beating each
other's brains out, it's all here in living and dying color. (LA
Times, 12/8/06)

The social philosophy of Jesus found no place in Gibson's "Passion of
the Christ," and the glory of Maya culture cannot be featured in a
"chase movie." "Blood! More blood!" Gibson shouted during the
filming. (The Nation, 12/18/06)

Gibson unblushingly intends "Apocalypto" as a clarion call warning
modern man to watch his step or risk following the Mayas into decline
and near-extinction. To this end he opens the story with a famous
quote from historian Will Durant about the fall of Rome: "A great
civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed
itself from within."

This is all well and good, but the reality of "Apocalypto" is that
this film is in fact Exhibit A of the rot from within that Gibson is
worried about. If our society is in moral peril, the amount of
stomach-turning violence that we think is just fine to put on screen
is by any sane measure a major aspect of that decline. Mel, no one in
your entourage is going to tell you this, but you are not part of the
solution, you are part of the problem. A big part. (LA Times, 12/8/06)

For the full story on Apocalypto, go to
http://www.bluecorncomics.com/apclypto.htm .

Rob Schmidt
Blue Corn Comics