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January 03, 2007
Mad Mel's Apocalypto
In the aftermath of Mel Gibson's alcohol fueled Jew Haters Gone Wild! Malibu 2006 Edition, I've resisted the temptation to check out his latest film, Apocalypto. I don't actually hold his anti-Semitic outburst against his work; he does seem genuinely contrite, and if I used the innermost beliefs of the Hollywood elite as a go/no-go litmus test, I'd never see anything.
Rather, it's the exquisitely savage violence that I've heard about in countless savage reviews that has put me off the flick.
But Rod Dreher, the terrific writer/editorial board member at the Dallas Morning News has penned a review that has me rethinking my reluctance.
WARNING: There a a lot of spoilers in Dreher's review, so take a pass if you can't stand learning plot details before your butt is in the comfy, stadium-style seat with jumbo cup holder and patented rocking action.
Well, I finally got to see "Apocalypto" yesterday, and let me start by saying that I was wrong about the movie in my earlier comments here. It is a stunning film, and I heartily recommend it to those who can stand some gore. I did look away a couple of times, to be sure, but for most of the film, the violence is profoundly contextualized; I was not prepared for Gibson to show in the faces and reactions of his characters the pain of violence and cruelty. In this, it's much like "The Passion of the Christ," in which the violence was given deep meaning.
[...]
In fact, I can't think of a film that is at once so violent and such a protest against violence ... I came away from "Apocalypto" unsettled, convinced in an unfamiliar way that there is something deeply, deeply wrong with us humans. We are born to trouble and violence, and will to power.
[...]I should say too that as an exercise in pure filmmaking, "Apocalypto" is a phenomenal piece of work. I realized at the end that I had just watched a two-hour film about tribal derring-do, filmed in an ancient Indian tongue, and I had been entirely engrossed, as if hardly any time had passed at all.
Any filmmaker who can do that is a master. If somebody other than Mel Gibson had made this film, he'd be the toast of Hollywood.
Okay, that's good enough for me; I'm going to make the trek to the local mega-movieplex for my first flick of '07.
Posted by Mike Lief at January 3, 2007 10:31 PM
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Comments
I'm not a fan of gratuitous violence, and there is much in this movie, but it was really, really, really good. There is a tight storyline, good message (honor, family, etc), and very historically accurate (as far as fiction goes...). I did not anticipate enjoying this movie and thoroughly did.
Posted by: dawn at January 4, 2007 12:42 PM