Apocalypto

Apocalypto
File:Apocalypto teaser.jpg Apocalypto promotional poster
Directed by	Mel Gibson
Written by	Mel Gibson Farhad Safina
Produced by	Mel Gibson Bruce Davey
Starring	Rudy Youngblood Raoul Trujillo Mayra Sérbulo Mauricio Amuy Tenorio Dalia Hernández
Cinematography	Dean Semler
Music by	James Horner
Distributed by	Touchstone Pictures (USA) Icon Entertainment (non-USA)
Release dates	December 8, 2006
Language	Maya
Budget	$40 million

Apocalypto is a 2006 film directed by Mel Gibson. Set in the Yucatán Peninsula before Spanish contact, it depicts a fictitious view of the decline of the Maya civilization. The film was released on December 8, 2006, and is rated R in the U.S. (18 in the U.K) for sequences of graphic violence and disturbing images. The film has received some positive reviews from film critics, but has also been criticised by a number of anthropologists and archaeologists working in the field of Mayanist studies for its depiction of ancient Maya society as little more than unsophisticated "brutal savages", as well as for its evident anachronisms and other historical inaccuracies.

Background

Mel Gibson filmed Apocalypto mainly in Catemaco and Paso de Ovejas in the Mexican state of Veracruz. Gibson uses the Yukatek Maya language in Apocalypto, in the same way he used Aramaic and Latin for his religious blockbuster The Passion of the Christ. Apocalypto features a cast of unknown actors from Mexico City, the Yucatán, some Native Americans from the United States and Canada, and locals from Los Tuxtlas and Veracruz.

While Gibson is financing the film himself, Disney has signed on to release Apocalypto for a fee in certain markets. The film was slated for an August 4, 2006 release, but Touchstone Pictures delayed the release date to December 8, 2006 due to heavy rains interfering with filming in Mexico. On September 23, 2006, Gibson pre-screened Apocalypto to two predominantly Native American audiences in the US state of Oklahoma, at the Riverwind Casino in Goldsby, owned by the Chickasaw Nation, and at Cameron University in Lawton. He also did a pre-screening in Austin, Texas on September 24 in conjunction with one of the movie's stars, Rudy Youngblood.

Themes

Political subtext

The movie is partially intended as a political allegory about civilizations in decline. Said Gibson in September of 2006: "The precursors to a civilization that’s going under are the same, time and time again... What’s human sacrifice if not sending guys off to Iraq for no reason?"

Plot

Opening quote: "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within." -- W. Durant

In a Mesoamerican jungle, a tapir flees through the jungle for its life, pursued by a small band of Native Americans. Suddenly the tapir is impaled against a wooden trap. The protagonist, Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood), is out hunting with his father, Flint Sky, and other men from their village. As they divide the dead tapir, they encounter a train of traumatized refugees on the fleeing from something which has "ravaged" their land. In exchange for a gift of fish, Flint Sky allows them to pass through tribal lands, but restrains his son from asking questions, telling him later that fear is a disease which must not infect their village. The movie follows the hunters as they return to home with their catch, establishes some of the personal relationships there and introduces Jaguar Paw's pregnant wife, Seven, and son, Turtles Run.

The next morning, Jaguar Paw is awakened by a dream, in which he sees one of the refugee leaders from earlier with his heart literally sliced out of his body. The apparition pleads with him to flee for his life. As a Maya war party mercilessly assaults the village in a dawn raid, Jaguar Paw discreetly slips away with his wife and son. He is able to lower his wife and son into a small cave (presumably a chultun, shaped something like a well) to hide them. Seven and Turtle Run beg him not to leave them alone, but Jaguar Paw refuses to leave the other villagers defenceless. Jaguar Paw heroically battles with the attackers, but is soon subdued. One of the raiders, whom he had earlier wounded, attempts to execute him on the spot, but is prevented by the party's leader, Zero Wolf, who states that he is needed alive. Realizing that Flint Sky is Jaguar Paw's father, the raider lifts the old hunter to his feet and holds a stone knife to his throat. Knowing that he is about to die, Flint Sky looks Jaguar Paw right in the eyes and emparts some final advice. "My son," he says, "you must not be afraid." The raider slices Flint Sky's throat from ear to ear before the horrified eyes of his son. The raider then leans next to Jaguar Paw's ear and hisses that henceforth he will be known as "Almost." The surviving adults of the village are tied together and led on a forced march into the rain forest. Seven and Turtles Run remain, hiding in the cave, but one of the raiders cuts the vine that was hanging down as their means of escape.

The movie occasionally shows the pair in the cave, with scenes of attempted escapes and a display of the known Aztec practice of using ant mandibles to suture wounds (Turtles Run's leg). Seven is able to throw up a rock with a vine over the edge. Her attempt is unsuccessful, and because of her fall back into the cave, she goes into labor.

The captive villagers are taken on a long trek toward the Maya city of Culiacan, where they encounter the previously met refugees as prisoners, failing maize crops, poverty, and slaves producing plaster and building edifices. They also encounter a small girl with smallpox, whom the Maya shun, but she prophesies doom will follow the darkness of the sun in day and the man who runs with jaguars and who will be reborn of mud. In the city, the female captives are sold as slaves, while the men are painted blue and taken to the top of a step pyramid to have their hearts removed, be decapitated, and have their headless bodies thrown down the front steps of the pyramid. http://www.rotten.com/library/death/human-sacrifice/]

One by one, the captive men are lead to the altar of the pyramid to have their hearts cut out as the others stand, waiting their turn. As Jaguar Paw's turn comes, a friend from his village wishes him a happy journey into the Afterlife. Jaguar Paw, thinking of the family he left behind, despondently declares, "I cannot go, not now." But as the chief priest raises the sacricial knife to disembowel him, the people of the city are horrufied by a solar eclipse. The priest loudly prays for the light to return and when his prayers are answered he declares that the sun god Kukulkan has drank his fill of blood. He orders Zero Wolf to "dispose" of the remaining captives. The captives, still tied, are taken to an open space by their captors and are allowed to run for their freedom in pairs while the Zero Wolf and his raiders attack them with javelins, arrows, and rocks. Cut Rock, the beloved son of Zero Wolf, waits at the end with a stone axe to finish off anyone who survives the gauntlet, acting as a 'finisher'.

Jaguar Paw is able to reach the end, despite being shot with an arrow by Zero Wolf, and when a friend gives his life to buy him some time, he is able to pull out the arrowhead and drive it into Cut Rock's throat. The young Maya warrior bleeds to death in his father's arms as Jaguar Paw flees towards the safety of the jungle. Zero Wolf, utterly enraged by the killing of his son, vows to hunt Jaguar Paw to the ends of the earth and flaw him alive. Meanwhile, Jaguar Paw disappears into the jungle while Zero Wolf, flanked by his fellow slave catchers, follows in hot pursuit. Bleeding from his arrow wound, Jaguar Paw hides in the top of a tree, only to come between a jaguar and her cub. The jaguar chases him, but when one of his pursuers steps between them to capture the running Jaguar Paw, the jaguar kills the pursuer instead. Some of the members of the warband are noticeably distraught as the eclipse and man running with the jaguar were part of the prophecy from the small girl with smallpox, yet they continue pursuit.

Jaguar Paw seems to recover from his wound, and leads them on a chase throughout the night. The next morning, just as the pursuers are closing in, he comes to the top of a giant waterfall and, after making a quick decision, leaps over.

Zero Wolf, believing him dead, mockingly declares that the prophecy has not been fulfilled. Then he sees Jaguar Paw swim to the shore of the river. Jaguar Paw looks up at them, crying out that they have entered the hunting grounds of his ancestors, "I am Jaguar Paw and this is my forest! I am Jaguar Paw and I am a hunter!"

Enraged, Zero Wolf orders his men to go over the waterfall as well. When one of them suggests that they climb around it, Zero Wolf stabs him to death on the spot. One by one, the others leap over the top, killing two more of them. They continue to track Jaguar Paw as he flees ever closer to his village.

After clawing his way to dry land after falling into a mud pit Jaguar Paw begins to actively fight back against his pursuers, first by throwing a hornet's nest in their midst, then finding a poisonous frog to envenom blowgun darts. After killing a straggler with three of these darts, he finally confronts his father's murderer as the two battle with stone axes. After being repeatedly bludgeoned in the face, the raider is left defenceless. "Almost," he says admiringly before Jaguar Paw finishes him off.

It begins to rain and the cave with Seven and Turtles Run begins to fill with water, and they are soon threatened with drowning. Seven climbs onto a rock and holds her son up as the rain accumulates around them. She gives birth underwater while balancing her son on her shoulders.

Jaguar Paw continues to elude his pursuers into his village. But then, he is shot again by another arrow from Zero Wolf. As Zero Wolf closes in to slowly torture him to death, he is impaled on a wooden tapir trap. Burning with hatred, Zero Wolf endevours to use his waning strength to stab his son's killer. But then, the stone knife falls from his hand.

As the two survivors chase the wounded and exhausted Jaguar Paw to the seaside, he is spared by the arrival of Spanish conquistadors in Caravels. As the slave traders walk towards the ships in amazement, Jaguar Paw flees back to the cave, barely in time to rescue his family.

Later, as Jaguar Paw, Seven, Turtles Run and the new baby pass overlooking the Spanish ships. Seven asks him what they are and is told that they carry men. She then asks her husband whether they should go to meet them. "We must go to the jungle," he declares, "and start anew."

Critical reception

Apocalypto was given "two big thumbs up" by Richard Roeper and guest critic Aisha Tyler on Ebert & Roeper at the movies.

The movie has received positive reviews in The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker and the Washington Post; it was panned by Newsweek, The Village Voice and the Chicago Tribune.

Historical inaccuracies

The film has, however, been accused of historical inaccuracy, racism and colonialism by some historians, Native Americans, and many in the archaeological community. The film has been accused of fueling a stereotype of native Mesoamericans as bloodthirsty savages with few civilized achievements other than some architecture.

Also, two domesticated dogs appear in the film, which is an anachronism.

Mesoamerican history

The inaccuracies begin with the opening credits, which are shown against a backdrop of artwork imitating the style of Maya murals, but prominently figuring a decapitation - something never shown in Maya mural art. On a very basic level, the movie contains a number of items unknown in precolumbian Mesoamerica, such as metal javelin blades. The Maya city inaccurately combines details from different Maya and Mesoamerican cultures widely separated by time and place. For example, temples are in the shape of those of Tikal in the central lowlands classic style while decorated with Puuc style elements of the north west Yucatan centuries later. The mural in the arched walkway includes elements from the Maya codices combined with elements from the Bonampak murals (over 700 years older than the film's setting) and the San Bartolo murals (some 1500 years older than the film's setting)-- as in most civilizations, the styles of Maya art changed dramatically over the centuries. Elements of such non-Maya civilizations as those of Teotihuacan and the Aztec are also seen.

Robert Carmack, an anthropology professor from SUNY Albany's renowned Mesoamerican program said "It's a big mistake - almost a tragedy - that they present this as a Maya film." His colleague, Walter Little, agreed: "A lot of people will think this is how it was, unfortunately." Edgar Martin del Campo, also of SUNY Albany, has pointed out additional flaws. He says, for example, that the Mayans had an understanding of astronomy and would not have been in awe of an eclipse as they are depicted in the movie. In fact, this exact plot device was recognized as an inaccurate cliche as early as 1952 by Guatemalan author Augusto Monterroso, who used an ironic reversal of this plot in his story The Eclipse, in which a friar who tries to use this gambit is sacrificed as the priest calmly reads "one by one, the unending dates in which there would be solar and lunar eclipses, which the Maya astronomers had predicted and noted in their codices without the invaluable help of Aristotle." Nor would the Maya been "dumbstruck" by the sight of a city. As an agricultural people, they also would not have allowed fields of rotting corpses near their crops. Zachary Hruby, of UC Riverside, lamented the use of the Yucatec Maya language, as it gives a sense of authenticity to a film that he says has taken many unfortunate liberties with the subject. Specifically these liberties include: the style and scale of the sacrifices, the presentation of the Maya villagers as isolated people living off the wild forest, the chronological compression of the more urbanized Terminal Classic Maya and the primarily village-dwelling Late Postclassic Maya.

Cast

Actor	Role
Rudy Youngblood	Jaguar Paw
Raoul Trujillo	Zero Wolf
Dalia Hernández	Seven
Morris Birdyellowhead	Flint Sky
Israel Contreras	Smoke Frog
Mayra Sérbulo	young woman
Mauricio Amuy Tenorio	Maya Chief
Miguel Angel Galvan	Maya Priest
Gerardo Taracena	Middle Eye
Rodolfo Palacios	Snake Ink
Iazua Larios	Sky Flower
Joaquín Cosío

Trivia

File:Melinapocalypto.jpg

Mel Gibson's cameo in the teaser trailer

• Working titles for this film include Destructo and Armaggedo [1]
• The title Apocalypto is a Greek verb (αποκαλύπτω) meaning "I reveal" . The word "Apocalypse," Greek "Αποκάλυψις," which means "Revelation," is derived from this Greek verb, but the movie is not overtly religiously themed or connected to the biblical Apocalypse.
• Although Mel Gibson does not star in the film, he does have a one-frame cameo (pictured to the right) about 1 minutes, 46 seconds or about 2/3 into the first teaser trailer. His appearance is just before the screaming monkey is shown. [2] [3]
• A crucial scene of the film is reminiscent of an episode of in Columbus's fourth voyage. This scene has become something of a cliche, appearing for instance in a short story by Augusto Monterroso and also in an episode of The Adventures of Tintin called Prisoners of the Sun, also adapted to the screen under the name Tintin and the Temple of the Sun. (As noted above, Monterroso refutes the cliche, pointing out that the Maya had advanced astronomy and would not have been frightened by an eclipse).[4]
• A solar eclipse in a key scene is followed by a full moon on what appears to be the evening of the same day, an astronomical impossibility: solar eclipses only occur during the new moon.
• The leader of the warband Zero Wolf yells "I'm walking here" when a tree almost falls on his group who are making their way to the Temple. This is a parody of Dustin Hoffman's famous line in Midnight Cowboy.
• The film opens with a quotation from historian Will Durant.
• Like Gibson's previous film, The Passion of the Christ the movie has no opening credits, and begins with a quote. The title is only seen during the end credits.

External links

• Official Movie Site
• Official Teaser & Theatrical Trailer
• Apocalypto at IMDb
• Apocalypto Reviews at Metacritic
• Interview with Gibson on ComingSoon.net
• Apocalypto at Rotten Tomatoes

Reviews

• Variety review of the film
• Article in The Nation by Earl Shorris
• An expert in Mayan culture discusses the racism and colonialism that she claims plagues the film.
• Apocalypto Review by Jürgen Fauth
• 'Apocalypto' does disservice to its subjects San Francisco Chronical review
• Mel Gibson Film Plays Fast and Loose with History, Scholar Says
• Expert: 'Apocalypto' is an insult to Maya culture
• A Mayanist at the Movies
• Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto" Gets Thumbs Down for Authenticity
• A Review by Michael T. Bannon
• Apocalypto: The Most Powerful Film Of All Time
• Monolingual Maya Thoughts on Apocalypto
• Comentarios a la película “Apocalypto” de Mel Gibson