Apocalypso! The Musical!
“A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within”
Apocalypto starts with this quote, underlining this revisionist view of Mayan history which will in some cases subtly unfold infront of us. Apocalypto sets itself up as a rather original film concept and one which works as a spectacle and an action film. Indeed the film is an odd mix of Porky’s, Run Lola Run and Mel’s own Passion Of The Extended Torture Scene. But the running bit is great.
But you know this is Mel “Passion” Gibson, and you cannot help watching it without considering its potetial political subtext. And starting with that Will Durrant quote, I was wary.You see this film is about a decadent, violent society: and in condemening that society, it absolves those who actually destroy it. Who would happen to be Gibson’s Catholics. So when the Spanish turn up with the priest in tow at the very end of the film, our hero Jaguar Paw has to escape in to the jungle. Not that he will not get destroyed too, but since the film does not want him destroy it has to remove him from this cleansing awe. He is the only noble savage in the book, the rest are violent, venal and deserve what they are going to get: be it war of death by the pox.
But hold on, the Mayan’s moan about their crops failing. There’s that creepy plague-ridden girl who prophecises in riddles, she clearly has the pox already BEFORE THE SPANISH GET THERE. What Mel is saying, as subtly as he can, is that the Spanish did not bring the disease which killed off the Mayans, they died themselves. Sure, the righteous Christians may well have killed off the murderous, human sacrifing bunch - but they did not harbour the disease of ideology or biology which did all the hard work.
All of which does not undermine the film being exciting, or pretty (though see The New World for a better, less exciting view of this kind of material). But great to see Mel falling back on the only way that you can escape being sacrificed on top of a Mayan pyramid: despite the Mayans of course being consumated astrologers and therefore unlikely to be confused by motions of the heavens.
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Chap on January 8th, 2007
But great to see Mel falling back on the only way that you can escape being sacrificed on top of a Mayan pyramid: despite the Mayans of course being consumated astrologers and therefore unlikely to be confused by motions of the heavens.
How many thousands of other people were thinking STOP STEALING FROM TINTIN at that bit? Also see: snakes, jaguars and Europeans turning up at the most convientient moments possible for our protagonist.
Not that I’m complaining too much, it’s a cracking action film with some astounding production design and cinematography.
Pete on January 9th, 2007
It is odd, because despite the film having so many flaws and wave yr fist at the screen moments, you walk out thorougly entertained (in a way that Malick could never do).
Its the year for babies being born & eclipses in films eh: this and Children of Men.
FT's pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on January 9th, 2007
the wiki ariticle doesn’t yet mention KING SOLOMON’S MINES as being the (possible) primary source of the gag — i am a bit hesitant to edit it as i can’t remember the details (google informs me it is an [redacted] of the MOON in KSM — which is after all set in the mountains of the moon — but google is possibly for once not reliable)
Tom on January 9th, 2007
The best thing on the wiki page is
While director Peter Weir was filming Witness (1985) in the Amish region of Pennsylvania, a genuine solar eclipse occurred in the sky above his location. Weir filmed several of his actors in costume and character, responding to the eclipse, with a vague intention of revising the film’s storyline to include a solar eclipse.
i.e. Harrison Ford being sacrificed by Amishes I assume.
FT's Admin on January 9th, 2007
what i like about that is how they had to specify that the “genuine solar eclipse” occrred in “the sky above his location” :-)
FT's tracerhand on January 9th, 2007
I of course added KSM to that page with superior gusto and yes, realized 20 seconds after doing so that it was in fact a LUNAR eclipse in that book and so of course COMPLETELY INAPPROPRIATE to include. I hate wikipedia.
FT's pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on January 9th, 2007
witness wd be grebtly improved by a wickerman-style ending, w.everyone singin “amish is ycumin in”
My name is Kenny on January 9th, 2007
This is not a very good post — there’s no sense of “Thank god, the saviors have arrived” when the Spaniards arrive. They’re isolated in long shot and they don’t look friendly, and Jaguar Paw makes the wise decision to stay the hell away from them. What it looks like really, as one more insightful reviewer put it, is one civilization of assholes coming to annihilate another civilization of assholes.
Kat on January 9th, 2007
Just like real life!
Pete on January 9th, 2007
That’s what it looks like to some of us, those of us who probably believe the Spanish, and their inquisition, are assholes. And it is also a hole Gibson digs for himself, as the knowledge that the Catholic Spanish were a bunch of arseholes is inescapable. What he is faced with is the tricky dilema of “life going on after the film”, and so the Spanish become inadvertant saviours (distracting what is left of the murderers). But nevertheless it paints Gibsons’s God in a good light, these Spanish are here to get rid of the wickedness of the Mayans, save Jaguar paw and spread Christianity - ALL GOOD THINGS IN GIBSONS BOOK. How they do it? It was the past, everyone was a bit rough.
You are right about the post though. there is no justification for the title at all.
Jack Fear on January 10th, 2007
Mel likely poached the whole disease-arriving-in-advance-of-Europeans thing from Charles Mann’s excellent book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, which is a neatly-written pop-sci summary of some new thinking in history. It’s an interesting theory; if it tends to let the Spanish off the hook a little morally, it also serves to deepen the sense of the tragedy surrounding the European conquest of the Americas; instead of worldbeaters anointed by destiny, we (white people) look, in this context, more like the Visigoths strolling into Rome—the prize, such as it was, was only the sad fag-end of a once-mighty empire.
My name is Kenny on January 11th, 2007
I say it again, those Spaniards do not look friendly. They’re mostly isolated in long shot and when we do get a look at them they look stern and imposing. Besides which, it’s apparent throughout his films that Gibson’s sympathies lie with the rebel souls and not anyone in power; I’m even pretty sure that Gibson belongs to splinter Catholic sect that doesn’t follow the Pope.
Forest Pines on January 13th, 2007
Gibson’s father Hutton is definitely a sedevacantist - someone who believes that all popes for the past 40 years have been heretics. Gibson himself is a traditionalist Catholic, but I don’t think has publically gone that far.