Apocalypto features several shots of hearts ripped out of bodies, and somehow that’s an appropriate metaphor for the whole production. However, when it comes to the figures in the landscape, the characters in the story, it’s on less sure ground. It depicts its landscape with considerable flair.
Apocalypto is a physically impressive, though often gruelling experience, that shows that Gibson certainly does know how to direct a film. I certainly can’t condone certain anti-Semitic outbursts Gibson has made lately, but ultimately it’s the tale I’m reviewing here, not the teller. However, some people will avoid this simply because of the identity of its director and co-writer, Mel Gibson. Given that it begins with a tapir being hunted, killed and gutted, and features graphically gruesome violence more or less throughout, it’s quite understandable that anyone at all squeamish should give this a wide berth. Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood) is a member of a jungle tribe who is captured and intended for sacrifice.Īpocalypto will certainly not be for everyone. (No date is given, but certain events in the story took place in 1519.) The Mayan Kingdom is in decline, and the rulers feel the only way to halt it is to appease the gods by building more temples and having more human sacrifices. Gary Couzens has reviewed Apocalypto, Mel Gibson’s gory epic about the fall of the Mayan civilisation, now on wide release in British cinemas.