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Red Eye Rundown
Nice idea, predictable execution, dull dialogue, lots of blood.
Why not try Signs & Braveheart were better!
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Reviewed by Jo Pettitt Even as I write this review, Mel Gibson is attracting a great deal of publicity concerning Apocalypto, with accusations of plagiarism from a little-known Mexican director. Yet even if this issue hadn’t arisen, I am sure that on the back of Braveheart’s popularity and The Passion’s controversy, Apocalypto was always going to be a hot topic in the Hollywood columns.
However in my opinion, the film itself failed to live up to the hype. The basic plot - a small Mayan village is attacked and the tribe’s whole way of life immediately and violently destroyed. Most of the inhabitants are captured alive and transported to a city where they are either sold into slavery or used in ceremonies of human sacrifice to various Incan/Mayan/Aztec Gods. The film follows the experiences of Jaguar Paw, son of one of the village elders, as he escapes his captors and attempts to return to the village to rescue his partner and their son. Insert frequent scenes of bloody brutality and gore and you have a recipe for a trademark Gibson flick. This is my main gripe with Apocalypto. The script and dialogue suffers desperately - there seems to be no effort at all to evoke any emotion in the viewer using the spoken word (or in this case written, as the film is in Mayan and sub-titled for those of us who weren’t paying attention in Ancient Civilization Languages class). Why bother, when instead you can pop in a couple of scenes featuring ultra-realistic decapitation or people getting skewered with various pointy sticks. There is also the question of historical accuracy, or lack there of. Whilst the film supposedly depicts the beginning of the end for the Mayans, many of the scenes, especially in the city, represent Aztec cultures that the Mayans would simply never have experienced. There are also some suggestions that the arrival of the Spanish towards the end of the film is a huge inaccuracy, as by that time the Mayans ha d been in decline for centuries. There were also some positive’s to take away from the film - primarily, the authentic recreation of tribal make up, tattoos, piercing and scarification. It honestly would not surprise me to see the leading costume directors for Apocalypto receive an Oscar nomination. There were also some strong individual performance’s from actors that it is likely you’ll have never seen before - Rudy Youngblood as the hero, Jaguar Paw, was excellent. At the start of the film there are some funny exchanges that left the packed out cinema I was in laughing into their popcorn which was a refreshingly unexpected start to the film. It is just a shame that the same can’t be said for the rest of the film - the action sequences and extended chase through the jungle became quite predictable and by the end, the impressive stunts and grisly deaths had lost their attraction because they simply weren’t unique anymore. I think Mel Gibson has created an adrenaline churner here, but not a serious historical epic, which is what I believe the film was trying to be. His trademark shock tactic of using realistic gore and violence is old hat, and I hope that in his next venture he finds a stronger script to accompany the unique storylines that he discovers. People
Directed by: Mel Gibson
Written by: Mel Gibson, Farhad Safinia Starring: Rudy Youngblood, Dalia Hernandez, Jonathan Brewer, Morris Birdyellowhead, Carlos Emilio Baez, Ramirez Amilcar, Israel Contreras, Israel Rios, Maréa Isabel Déaz, Espiridion Acosta Cache Genre Information Production Information Produced in: USA
Language: Mayan Release Information Released: 2006
UK cinema: 05/01/2007 US cinema: 08/12/2006 UK DVD: 11/06/2007 US DVD: 22/05/2007 |
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