RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Media Apocalypto

Just got in from the FANTASTIC FEST screening of APOCALYPTO tonight. From seeing the film for a second time in the same day. After the second screening, I have to say it plays even better.

The themes about how the industrial needs of a civilization, even a primitive one - lay the groundwork for moral, societal and physical decay really begin to come out. Then there's just the pure B-movie pulp of an action film. I heard at least 5 people afterwards say that it was a Mayan Western. Louis Black, editor of the Austin Chronicle was heard to say, many times, that "It's like a Terrence Malick film with a B-movie Plot!" - and if you know Louis, you know how heartfelt and excited that was.

One of the reasons that Louis Black and I are friends and have known each other for the last 30 years is that... We love High Art and Low Art. And most of all we love it when the two converge. This is a B-movie with the soul of a great artist and the production values of the best of Hollywood.

Watching it the second time - the temp score kills me, but he's got James Horner working on a score that will use 100% primative instruments. He's set to trim some more out, and man... to hear this with the final sound mix and color graded and with the fx in. I just can't wait. The film received a standing ovation from the audience and it was absolutely earned.

Can't wait to hear from the others that were there. Send in your reviews, positive or negative to Harry@AintItCool.com - What a fun night!

Quote:

---

the G-man said:
I tend to agree. It won't appeal to the Christian right, the way that "Passion of the Christ" did, and most every one else will be turned off by both (a) the fact its a historic movie with subtitles; (b) Gibson's recent anti-semetic rant and DUI arrest.

---

With the subtlety of several thousand flying mallets and arrows, here comes Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto," a two-hour plus torture-fest so violent that women and children will be headed to the doors faster than you can say "duck" when the film opens on Dec. 8.

Indeed, "Apocalypto" is the most violent movie Disney has ever released, with so much blood spurting out of orifices that even Martin Scorsese would blush.

If you've ever wondered what it would be like to see heads and hearts removed without anesthesia, then this is the movie for you. "Grey's Anatomy" it is not.

What it is, Gibson says, is the story of a civilization in transition, as the Mayans 500 years ago fought among themselves until visitors from Europe arrived by ship and spelled their doom.

Unfortunately, though, that part of the movie lasts maybe three minutes and takes place at the very end.

"Apocalypto" really is a video game, a sort of "Survivor" set in what would become the Mayan ruins as we know them today.

The action is often cartoonish, and the dialogue — which is all spoken in some ancient dialect with subtitles — is often preposterous.

In one scene, after what seems like the umpteenth bloody killing, one Mayan quips to another and the translation is, "He's f—-ed."

Gibson directs some of the film like "Braveheart" and some of it like "The Three Stooges." There is little poetry to his imagination

Sometimes, the result of this is a vivid portrait of death. For example, a jaguar eats a man's head, and masticates. Half-dressed Mayans are shot through the head, heart and chest with arrows and knifed sometimes without notice and almost always in the most gruesome ways possible. Heads roll and bounce, for real, down the long stairs of the Kukulcan Pyramid, or what we now regard the centerpiece of the Mayan ruins.

Not all of "Apocalypto" is awful. Rudy Youngblood gives an athletic performance as Jaguar Paw, the hero who must save his pregnant wife and child from warring factions after he hides them in a deep pit.

Youngblood is quite literally the only person who emerges from the movie unscathed, somehow not dying or requiring medical attention after sustaining injuries that would kill most men.

He almost succeeds in making Jaguar Paw a completely sympathetic figure, too, by giving him nearly no dialogue. But then Gibson and screenwriter Farhad Safinia let him jump the shark (or the jaguar, in this case) and make hoary proclamations to the artfully designed sky. Even Youngblood seems like he's going to wince with embarrassment.

Of course, "Apocalypto" arrives with a lot of baggage. Gibson — an admitted alcoholic who denies being anti-Semitic despite evidence to the contrary — is kind of a marked man.

He refuses to answer a lot of questions, and he is confining his publicity for the movie to safe havens with Disney and ABC, which the studio owns (I dare Jay Leno to ask him about this summer's incidents when he appears on that show on opening night).

But more than those questions, there are new ones: What kind of man is so interested in making this kind of violent movie? What motivates him?

"Apocalypto" surpasses "The Passion" in every way as a movie about pain, flagellation and wounding. The grotesqueries are almost numbing, and at some point they become laughable.

But all the while, you're thinking, what's the point here? If "Apocalypto" was supposed to be about that transitional civilization, where is it? After two hours and several minutes of squirming and covering eyes, you start to think that "Apocalypto" exists just to show violence for itself. The point is lost.

Quote:

---

the G-man said:
he works for the Fox...is a gay Jew who has never hidden his complete contempt for Gibson.

---

Quote:

---

the G-man said:
I tend to agree. It won't appeal to the Christian right, the way that "Passion of the Christ" did, and most every one else will be turned off by both (a) the fact its a historic movie with subtitles; (b) Gibson's recent anti-semetic rant and DUI arrest.

---

Quote:

---

PrincessElisa said:
The violence in passion was tasteful violence

---

Quote:

---

the G-man said:
I tend to agree. It won't appeal to the Christian right, the way that "Passion of the Christ" did, and most every one else will be turned off by both (a) the fact its a historic movie with subtitles; (b) Gibson's recent anti-semetic rant and DUI arrest.

---

Quote:

---

Fused said:

Quote:

---

the G-man said:
I tend to agree. It won't appeal to the Christian right, the way that "Passion of the Christ" did, and most every one else will be turned off by both (a) the fact its a historic movie with subtitles; (b) Gibson's recent anti-semetic rant and DUI arrest.

---

Probably right. Glad I dont give a fuck about any of those viewpoints as I'll see it due to the fact that Gibson is an excellent filmmaker. Which is after all the real reason to see a movie. . .

---

You mean our reasons should have something to do with film? That's unpossible!

Quote:

---

Im Not Mister Mxypltk said:
*John Travolta is ignoring this non believer*

---

Call it a Hollywood shocker: Mel's Apocalypto will have a bigger weekend opening than his Braveheart. Despite scandal, an R-rating, subtitles because of an ancient dialect, no stars, and direct competition from movieland AAA-listers Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz, Gibson's Mayan epic won Friday's matinees and evenings

Mel's movie took in nearly $6 million Friday for what's expected to be at least a $15 mil, and possibly $16 mil, weekend total -- exceeding Disney's hopes for the box office gross. That easily beats Mel's Braveheart, which made $9.9 mil for Fri-Sat-Sun when it opened in 2,037 theaters during Memorial Weekend back in 1995 ($12.9 mil for the four-day holiday) and went on to make $75.6 mil in the U.S. and $210.4 mil worldwide, helped by winning the Best Picture Oscar. Based on today's matinees, the No. 2 spot went to Sony's The Holiday (in 2,610 playdates), a date movie from director-writer Nancy Meyer

Quote:

---

PrincessElisa said:
The violence in passion was tasteful violence

---