FanUnity B(uzz)log

“Apocalypto” is director Mel Gibson’s second foray into foreign language film, the first being his enormously successful “The Passion Of The Christ”, and again, Gibson manages to convey the film’s ideas through his actors expressive work and subtitles better than you can imagine. “Apocalypto” is a stunning film: beautiful, horrifyingly gory, emotionally wracking and completely captivating. For example: whenever I go see a movie, I buy a large Diet Coke. Typically the large cup is empty by the end of the film. I barely touched the soda due to being completely caught up in “Apocalypto.”

Folks might wonder how easy it is to get into “Apocalypto.” Gibson smartly endears us to the main group of characters by opening up with a humorous bonding sequence that works no matter what culture you come from. It’s just one of those human nature things that doesn’t need translation, and once the scene is over there are no barriers between the audience and the villagers.

One thing that helps to make “Apocalypto” so moving is that you know Mel Gibson is capable of anything as a storyteller. He might kill his hero. In fact, he tends to. Or maybe he’ll let us off the hook with a happy ending. You don’t know, and so the story is captivating especially when he so masterfully constructs the drama and raises the stakes as high as they can go for our hero, a Mayan hunter named Jaguar Paw.

The story follows Jaguar Paw’s group of natives, who I am going to refer to as Mayans for clarity sake, as their peaceful village is pillaged and raped by the warmongering natives I will call the Aztecs. It seems apparent to me that these are roughly the groups Gibson is portraying and even if historical timelines don’t match up we’ll just go with those names for the two groups for in the rest of this review. As the brutal invaders begin their work, Jaguar Paw manages to sneak his pregnant wife and small son off to a secret hiding place at the bottom of a steep pit. As he returns to the village to help his friends fight off the Aztecs, Jaguar Paw is captured and watches the vile Hanging Moss murder his father before his eyes. Hanging Moss wants to murder him too, but his hand is stayed by the stoic Aztec commander Zero Wolf. The Mayan villagers are taken off the Aztec capitol where the men will be part of a human sacrifice and the women will be sold into slavery. Meanwhile, Jaguar Paw’s wife and son hunger, waiting for him to return and save them. When Jaguar Paw finally gets his chance to run for freedom, he takes it at an offensively bitter cost to the no-longer-stoic ass kicker Zero Wolf and the action is full-on. Can Jaguar Paw survive and save his family or will his end be heroic futility? Gibson sets off indicators both ways to keep you on your toes.

The acting in “Apocalypto” is phenomenal, all around. This is supposed to be a cast of mostly non-professional actors but I’m not buying that for a second. They were too good. Rudy Youngblood as Jaguar Paw stands out, and particularly impressive are Ariel Galvan as the despicable Aztec bloodlusting henchman Hanging Moss and Raoul Trujillo as Zero Wolf. Those two characters bring so much menace to the table that the threat to Jaguar Paw is real.

“Apocalypto” is flat-out the best movie I have seen this year. It is a dramatic ass kicking that left me amazed at how caught up in it I got. Some may balk at seeing it do to Mel Gibson’s personal conduct. It will be their loss. “Apocalypto” is a great film no matter what you think of the filmmaker as a person. Considering how much I loved “Apocalypto” as well as “The Passion Of The Christ” and “Braveheart”, Gibson stands out to me as one of the best directors around. His skill at storytelling only seems to be growing more powerful.

5/5 Stars.