Sidewalks On The Corner

Following his bloody and very violent film, 2004’s “The Passion of the Christ,” comes Mel Gibson’s latest epic. “Apocalypto.” I didn’t know what to expect from the film, since I never read any material about the plot – not even newspaper articles. I like to be surprised on some movies. I just knew there was a lot of talk about the film, since Mel’s run in with the law last year. The Mickey Mouse film division, Touchstone Pictures, was a bit nervous that Mr. Gibson’s trouble may create a poor showing of the film. In any case, this doesn’t affect the review.

Follow up:

Directed and produced by the former “Lethal Weapon” and “Mad Max” star, the film, to me, is like two stories in one. The 138 minutes film follows a Mayan tribe as they hunt and live in their somewhat peaceful society. The film displays and sets up that the tribe has families, including one that needs to start a family from the strong urging of a demanding mother-in-law. Then one day, another tribe invades and attacks the village.

The lead character, Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood), is shown trying to save his pregnant wife (Dalia Hernandez) and his son (Carlos Emilio Baez) by lowering them in a narrow pit in the ground. The attacking tribe kills many of the villagers, captures the surviving men and women, including Paw, and takes them on a long and dangerous trek to another tribal civilization where they build temples, use the women as slaves, and offer the men as human sacrifices to their gods.

Not to give anything away, the second half of the film (the 2nd story) becomes a cat and mouse game as Paw escapes into the forest and tries to return to his destroyed village to save his family. This portion of the film is more like an action feature where the cops try to find the fugitive. For some reason, I was thinking at this point about the 1982 Sylvester Stallone movie, “First Blood” (the first Rambo feature), where the sheriff and his deputies were searching for Rambo in the woods. Paw uses his creative mind, like a “MacGyver,” to fool the evil henchmen throughout his journey back.

Although there were graphic violence and some disturbing images, the film isn’t no where as gruesome as “The Passion of The Christ.” There is a lot of blood, arrows going through bodies, and heads being chopped off. On the technical side, the cinematography is beautiful with the colorful forest and very interesting camera angles. Led convincingly by Youngblood, the other actors, who were pretty much making their film debuts, were fine in the roles. The major complaints from me are the so-called dialogue in the subtitles (there is no English dialogue, only the native language). In one of the scenes, the demanding mother-in-law who orders her daughter and husband to make a baby, she tells them to “get busy.” Or when a henchman of the lead villain is killed by a snake, he says “He’s fu#@ed up.” I don’t think the Mayan tribe had these types of words in their vocabulary. Gibson also tries to bring humor to some of the situation and to the characters. Some works; others didn’t.

Considered as a major not-missed epic, I really don’t see it. It was an action adventure foot chase. Movies such as “Star Wars” that are needed to be seen on the big screen, this movie could be saved for your new HDTV. You will still get the story when you buy or rent the film.

When I saw this film during a preview screening with the press and some of the public, which comprised of UC Berkeley college students, they reactions were laughter during the corny moments and boos at the end of the film. They didn’t feel this movie was convincing; I’m still on the fence whether I liked it or not. Right now, it's not on my must-buy DVD list.

What did you think of the film?

Release Date: December 8, 2006
Rating: R
Director: Mel Gibson
Written by: Mel Gibson & Farhad Safinia