The Movie: Apocalypto, directed by Mel Gibson
Recommendation: Me.
Reason: Part morbid curiousity, part genuine interest.
Alright everyone, admit it. When you heard that Mel Gibson was going to do a movie about the end of the Mayan civilization, most of you probably groaned, rolled your eyes or shook your head. How could crazy old Mel pull together such a film? It would be an epic, of course. There would probably be violence. Mel probably wouldn't be in it. There would probably be some pretty heavy Catholic allegory.
Guess what everyone! You were right! Apocalypto is violent (frequently without a point), really long (40 minutes longer than it needed to be) and...not covered in crosses and Virgin Marys. Rudy Youngblood plays Jaguar Paw, the protagonist member of a jungle tribe who is captured in order to be sacrificed to the gods. That's the majority of the movie right there. Then he escapes to flee back to his family. That's not the majority of the movie. If it had been the other way around, with more time devoted to the chase through the jungle, I think the movie might have improved.
Mel Gibson's use of torture and gore in his films often has a point, or at least a reason behind it. The Passion portrayed the suffering of Christ in a very real way that impacted hundreds of people's faith. Braveheart's noble sacrifice was inspiring. But now it's getting old. We didn't need a thirty minute 'slaughtering the village' sequence. Didn't need loving, lingering shots of guts being torn out and repetitive sacrifice sequences. We saw the head go bouncing down the steps the first time Mel, don't need to see it again.
-147/365 down, 218/365 to go
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment