DVD Review - Apocalypto

There is no doubt that Mel Gibson's Apocalypto is great filmmaking. It is beautifully shot by cinematographer Dean Semler. Some of the scenes are outstanding. I can only imagine what the film looked like on the big screen.

And it certainly an original film. After all, how many films do you see about the Mayan culture?
And Gibson doesn't shy away from making films in old (and dead) languages. I certainly give him thumbs up for all of this.

However, Apocalypto is so unbelievably violent. And I don't think it need to be this way.

The film starts off with a few hunters gathering around their kill. They go back to their camp and try to just live their lives. But a Mayan gang (for lack of a better word) takes over their turf and kills some of them and takes the rest of them to their king. The men will be sacrificed. But one of them survives - that is the film's protagonist Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood). The rest of the film (which I think is the best part) focuses on his journey back home to the pregnant wife and child that he left behind.

Gibson has been criticized for his portrayal of the Mayans. The film makes them out to be bloodthirsty savages. In reality, they probably were violent but they were also very cultured. In the making of film on the DVD Gibson said that he wanted to show the contradiction of these people.

I have already stated that the film was too violent. I don't mind some violence a film but this was overdone. And there was violence to animals in the film but I didn't see a disclaimer at the end. I hope that no animals were harmed and since I haven't heard anything about that I assume that everything was okay. But if the violence towards animals was bad the violence against humans was even worse. Edit: My friend just sent me an article about the tapir that starred in the film (his name is Scooter) and it stated that no animals were harmed in the making of the film. Now I feel better.

Apocalypto is not exactly my kind of film but I can't deny that it is a good one. It is certainly much better than The Passion of the Christ. But I really do wonder about Gibson. He has made some good films but most of the time he has such an incredibly violent vision. I guess that it goes along with his alcohol induced tirades against Jews, women, etc.

Apocalypto is not everyone's cup of tea. And there are those who will not see his films because of some of his views. Everyone is entitled to do what they want. But despite Gibson's sometimes deranged comments I will continue to see his films because they are, for the most part, worthwhile for a film fanatic like me.