Movie Review Of Apocalypto. Review on Apocalypto Movie

Director – Mel Gibson

Writers – Mel Gibson and Farhad Safinia

History

The Mayan Civilization, which covered the entire South America and even extended till the southern parts of Mexico, like Egyptian Civilization and the Mohenjo Dharo and Harrappa Civilization, was one of the oldest and one of the most learned civilizations of Human History. Some of the Mayans were the finest astronomers and mathematicians and the Mayan Calendar was the most accurate Solar Calendar till the Gregorian Calendar came in to limelight. But since these civilizations had most of its population based in the Amazon Forests, the general human mindset was that of an Animal – The Survival Of the fittest. Towards the 8th and 9th Century AD and till the colonization of South America(Except Brazil) by the Spaniards, there was a decline in the Mayan Civilization. Partly it was due to the modern warfare systems used by Spaniards and partly it was due to their internal rifts, Civil War and Human Sacrifices to please the Sun God.

*Plot

Jaguar Paw(Rudy Youngblood) is a happily married man whose life is revolved around hunting with his friends in the forests, feeding his expecting wife Seven(Dalia Hernandez) and Son, Turtles Run(Carlos Emilio Baez) and generally living a peaceful life. Things take a sad turn when a neighboring city’s people attack and burn his village and capture all the adults. They take them to the Big City where the women are sold as slaves and the men are offered as Human Sacrifices by the order of the High Priest(Fernando Hernandez) so that there is a good harvest. When it is Jaguar Paw’s turn to be sacrificed, there is a solar eclipse which prompts the priest to stop the sacrifice. The captured men are set to be free and in their final conquest, they are ordered to run as fast as they can by the General Zero Wolf(Raoul Trujillo) or else they would get killed by the soldiers with their arrows and Spears. In this pursuit, Jaguar kills Zero’s son and escapes back to the forest to save his wife who he has managed to hide. This now becomes the survival of the fittest. Whether Jaguar manages to escape from the clutches of Zero, is to be seen.

Critic’s Comments

Forget the fact that the plot is on the same lines as that of a typical Hindi Film. This is a classic example of how a well directed movie is made. Mel Gibson has proved it that you don’t even need to have a different story to make a classic film as long as the screenplay is brilliant and the direction comes from within the heart. The acting by everyone, despite being their first film, is brilliant and so is the cinematography(Dean Samler), Score(James Horner) and Script. Mel Gibson has also proved, yet again, that cinema knows know language barrier. Despite being filmed entirely in Mayan, there is not a single dull moment in the film. The Human Sacrifice scene and the boar hunt scene in the start are brilliant. Thankfully, this movie is not going to be dubbed in any other language and will be released worldwide only in the original filmed version with English Sub Titles. Mel Gubson, take a bow. Film Lovers, this movie should be on the must-see list.

Psst -

1)     Movie was made on a budget of$40 million. It grossed nearly$50 million worldwide and$15 million was earned in the opening week itself.

2)     The primary shooting was done in the jungles of Mexico and was even delayed for a few months due to unexpected rains

3)     The waterfall jump sequence by Rudy Youngblood was performed by him. The only difference was that it was done from a 15 storey building which was digitally recaptured in a waterfall sequence. Initially Rudy was hesitant to do that scene and it required Mel Gibson to perform the jump himself to have Rudy do the actual scene.

4)     Most of the speaking parts of the film were done by actual Mayans who had never acted before. The little girl who was cursing the soldiers was played by someone who lived in a dirt floored hut in a village.

5)     The scene where Jaguar Paw is humiliated by being called, ‘Almost’ is a reference to Mel Gibson  who was called the same name during his teens by an older boy. This caused the same deep insult that Jaguar feels in the movie.

Quotes

1)     “I am Jaguar Paw! This is my forest! My sons and their sons will hunt here after I am gone.”

2)     “What are they?”

3)     “If this works, she won’t bother me; Your wife? No, her mother. The old hag wants grandchildren.”

4)     “Please go mother. He can’t do it with you sitting.”

5)     “Hey, I’m walking here.”

6)     “He’s fuc.”

7)     “We will jump.”

Oops

1)     The night after the Solar Eclipse is shown to be a full moon night. Its not possible as Solar Eclipse occurs only during New Moon.”

2)     This one is debatable. A total solar eclipse occurs only once every 370 years at a particular place. The Last time a total solar eclipse occurred in parts of South America was on June 21, 2001. Before that it was in parts of Chile and Bolivia on November 3, 1994. So for all practical calculation, the last total solar eclipse would have occurred in South America anytime between the years 1624 and 1631. This would defy the ending when the Mayans were astonished to see the Spanish Fleet as the conquest of South America was started by the Spaniards way back in 1492 with the arrival of Christopher Columbus and they would have been very well known faces during the time the film has been set.

3)     The Mayans were known for their calendars. Their calendar predicted a year having 365 days and some of them have even predicted and depicted occurrences of lunar and solar eclipses. So its very unlikely that the high priest didn’t knew that a solar eclipse was going to occur.