solace in cinema : A vast wasteland of movies

The Marketing of films can be a difficult thing, the right placement of movies in peoples minds is a tricky thing to get right, and can make or break how a film does at the box office. I don't know where I got the preconceptions that I went into 'Apocalypto' with, but they were all wrong. In my mind the film was somewhere between Braveheart with Mayans, and Baraka, and while that description wasn't a million miles away from what I saw on-screen, I wouldn't say I hit the nail on the head.

It's not an easy thing to describe what Mel Gibson has commited to celluloid, It's an almost basic action movie but with a scope that appears more lofty than the actual plot. I mean it takes some balls to say I want to make a movie with elements of 'Predator', 'Southern Comfort', 'Die Hard' and 'First Blood' but set it in an epic ancient culture, and have all the characters speak Mayan. If anyone was crazy and focused enough to pull it off, it's Gibson and It's that focus that gives the movie it's edge; whole-hearted commitment, no half-measures, no cut aways, ancient culture was brutal and cruel and Gibson want to show you all of it.

The film opens on a group of Mayans in the jungle hunting a tapir, these guys are clever and know the forrest like the backs of their hands, It's their home and their provider. With names like 'Smoke Frog' and 'Flint Sky' we're gradually introduced to the group, including our lead 'Jaguar Paw'. The scene is set, Jaguar Paw and his young family, living in a small peaceful settlement where they live off the land and lead a simple life. Gibson takes his time with these establishing scenes, attatching us to the characters and showing us their routines. Then… shit kicks off, big time. The 'civilised' mayans show-up.

The village is burnt to the ground and the people taken prisoner, Jaguar Paw manages to hide his wife and young child in a dry well and protect them from capture, and thus our hero's impetus is established. The prisoners are marched from their village to 'civilisation' where they're sold as slaves and used as human sacrifices. Visually this is where the film really comes into it's own with so much packed on to the screen it's difficult for your eyes to take it all in. Mayan civilisation is brutal and gorey; hearts are cut-out, heads roll and bodies pile up.

The second half of the film is where the action movie conventions really kick-in, that's not to say it's a bad thing because somehow it actually works, with Jaguar Paw taking on the Stallone role in a Mayan version of First Blood. Jaguar Paw know's the land, and the 'city folk' are out of their element. The punchline to the film is a nice touch, one that you could see coming from the beginning (I mean, It's Mayan culture, you know it's doomed) and despite the fact that it really serves no goal other than to cap off the story nicely.

While I think the oscar buzz for this film is unfounded, It's certainly a great action film that deserves to do well at the box office. Honestly, I was expecting a relatively calm cinema experience, but the plot and characters had me gripped, and the frenetic pace at which the film plows along never let me settle into my seat properly. With blood, guts and tapir balls spilling over the screen it's uncertain how much, if anything you'll learn about Mayan culture but then I don't think that was ever the point. As I mentioned earlier, the scope of the actual setting is epic but never really explored, just rather used as a backdrop for the worlds first Mayan action classic.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 13th, 2006 at 9:40 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.