Mel Gibson's daring, brilliant APOCALYPTO is, for me, his best work behind the camera as a director.
Staggering in it's audacity and execution, this Mayan civilization era thriller grabs you in its opening moments and never lets go.
Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood) and his pregnant wife and child are part of a peaceful tribe. The film set up their existence perfectly, with all the camaraderie and social interaction of our lives today reflected in these people.
Their world is suddenly shattered by the arrival of a brutal tribe laying waste to everything in their path. Burning villages, tearing families apart and imprisoning the citizens for slavery and sacrifice, the invading force is relentless and so is Gibson's vision from the director's chair. His camera never blinks from the savagery and emotional devastation, with young children and babies wailing over the dead bodies of their mothers. One of the saddest images of the film is a group of children following their captured parents across the landscape. Similar to the scenes of families being divided by the Nazis in Spielberg's "Schindler's List", these sequences pack an emotional punch.
With a $40 million budget in 2006, Gibson and his production team create a massive Mayan city where the slaves are brought for sacrifice and load it with thousands of extras. A central sequence in which Jaguar Paw is brought to the altar high atop the Mayan pyramid is incredible in scale and suspense.
The last half of the film is a non-stop pursuit across the jungle that I wont ruin by describing it.
The entire cast, many of them Mayan speaking people that had never acted, are 100% believable. The young girl that warns the warring tribe with a prophecy about Jaguar Paw was living in a dirt floored hut when Gibson cast her. Like the rest of the cast, she's flawless and haunting.
If you haven't seen APOCALYPTO, just fasten your seat belt and hang on. Watching it again, I'm still blown away by the bravery of what Gibson's created. Two years after his self-financed "Passion of the Christ" made him a very rich man by believing in himself, Gibson had total creative control over this film.
What studio would have financed a subtitled film with no known actors and many non-actors, set in Mayan times?
His bet paid off once again, with the film earning over $120 million at the box office.
APOCALYPTO is Gibson's finest hour as a Writer/Director and a film that I revisit every few years, just to let it astonish me all over again. It's an A+.
This movie was one of those that sticks with you for a long time. I've never seen such a stupendous undertaking. The sets were exceptionally realistic, the costumes complete with what looked like real jade and turquoise, must have numbered in the thousands. Every native had their own unique look. The acting did not seem like acting. I felt like I had been transported back in time. Two separate life and death situations were occurring simultaneously and neither the wife nor the husband knew the condition of the other. Exceptional movie!