Editorial Review:

Description:
From Mel Gibson, director of THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST and the Academy Award®-winning BRAVEHEART (Best Director, Best Picture, 1995) comes the thrilling historical epic APOCALYPTO. This intense, nonstop action-adventure transports you to an ancient South American civilization, for an experience unlike anything you’ve ever known. In the twilight of the mysterious Mayan culture, young Jaguar Paw is captured and taken to the great Mayan city where he faces a harrowing end. Driven by the power of his love for his wife and son, he makes an adrenaline-soaked, heart-racing escape to rescue them and ultimately save his way of life. Filled with unrelenting action and stunning cinematography, APOCALYPTO is an enthralling and unforgettable film experience.'

Amazon.com:
Forget any off-screen impressions you may have of Mel Gibson, and experience Apocalypto as the mad, bloody runaway train that it is. The story is set in the pre-Columbian Maya population: one village is brutally overrun, its residents either slaughtered or abducted, by a ruling tribe that needs slaves and human sacrifices. We focus on the capable warrior Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood), although Gibson skillfully sketches a whole population of characters--many of whom don't survive the early reels. Most of the film is set in the dense jungle, but the middle section, in a grand Mayan city, is a dazzling triumph of design, costuming, and sheer decadent terror. The movie itself is a triumph of brutality, as Gibson lets loose his well-established fascination with bodily mortification in a litany of assaults including impalement, evisceration, snakebite, and bee stings. It's a dark, disgusted vision, but Gibson doesn't forget to apply some very canny moviemaking instincts to the violence--including the creation of a tremendous pair of villains (strikingly played by Raoul Trujillo and Rodolfo Palacias). The film is in a Maya dialect, subtitled in English, and shot on digital video (which occasionally betrays itself in some blurry quick pans). Amidst all the mayhem, nothing in the film is more devastating than a final wordless exchange of looks between captured villager Blunted (Jonathan Brewer) and his wife's mother (Maria Isabel Diaz), a superb change in tone from their early relationship. Yes, this is an obsessive, crazed movie, but Gibson knows what he's doing. --Robert Horton

Beyond Apocalypto

More films directed by Mel Gibson

Apocalypto soundtrack by James Horner

Stills from Mel Gibson's Apocalypto (click for larger image)

































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Rating: - HOME RUN!!
Yes it is bloody but it is true to life for the time it is portraying. The beginning of the film had me rolling on the floor with laughter. I can imagine Mel directing this spot. The actors must have had a ball! It is the only "subtitled" move I have ever watch all the way thru, and I own it so I have watched it several times. It is well worth watching and owning. CONGRATS TO MEL ON A FINE JOB!!

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Rating: - Despite Mel Gibson's possible insanity, this is a great film...
I initially didn't want to see this, but a friend of mine whose opinion I trust told me it's a great film. He said "yeah, Gibson's crazy, but he's a great filmmaker". So I rented it, and I'm glad I did.

This is a great film, a really stunning piece of work that's remarkable in many ways. There are no big name stars, and most of the actor are non-professionals. It's primarily told through imagery, and the little dialogue there is is in Mayan. It's very bloody and violent, though not the gore fest that many critics made it out to be. It's a very good film, filled with truly awe inspiring scenes, especially in the middle of the film when the action reaches the Mayan city. The Mayan city sequences alone make the film worth watching, as they are astounding and the best of Gibson's career as a director. The Mayan city was all a set, one of the biggest ever built, and kudos to the production designer for this magnificence. After the action leaves the city, the film is still mesmerizing with a great chase sequence ending the film. The action is well choreographed, the film looks sumptuous, especially for HD video,
and the performances that Gibson obtains from his cast of mostly non-professional actors is nothing short of amazing. They're so natural, realistic, and authentic. There's no self consciousness at all on their part, and this can be attributed to the excellence of the filmmaking. The costume design, makeup, and set design are all excellent, and Gibson deserves full credit for making one of the most unique films in cinema history.

The first third of the film is a bit tired, with silly dialogue and situations that are reminscent of a teenage comedy. The opening scene is especially over the top with grossness, but after the village is attacked, the film improves astronomically. After Gibson's appalling The Passion of the Christ, I really didn't want to see this, but my friend talked me into it. While I don't like Gibson the person (he's said remaks that are anti-Semetic, sexist, homophobic, and is prone to religious extremism), he's made a great epic here that can stand along Braveheart. If you don't like Gibson as a person, you should try and put it aside and see this excellent film.

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Rating: - Region Code???
I was unable to watch this movie because it didn't have the correct "region code". I just got a blu-ray player, so I am relatively new to this whole experience. My only advice would be to make sure your Blu-ray player will play this disc before you buy it.

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Rating: - Gibsons rantings

Gibson obviously believes in human value through suffering, so much so that his movies are starting to look more like random scenes from a Pasolini adaption of the writings of Marquis de Sade.
There's a diminishing sense of purpose or resolve for his characters in his directorial output, a psychological disconnect, a lack of empathy where suffering is a goal unto itself. Everybody just needs to get punished in his movies, it seems.Possibly for the crime of being human.
You know;-Original sin.
The younger or more innocent the victim, the harsher the torture. Human degradation meticulously recorded and catalogued.
With the now trademark extended-slow-motion-torture-scenes-of-innocents-in-lush-rainy-landscapes he seems more and more to forget to actually tell a story. Let alone let justice be served.
Compared to other directors focusing on ethics like for instance Clint Eastwood, where you get a sense of purpose and justice through it all, Gibson comes off like like an old fire and brimstone preacher. Without the redemption part.
Don't get surprised if his next project is a 3 hour+ epic retelling of Noa's Ark.
Then he can actually (slowly)kill off almost everyone on this whole bastid planet.
The first 20 minutes of the movie would be old N stoically hammering away in the rain.Token intro done with and the funfest starts:
People of all creed and race; slowly flailing men,women and children coughing,crying in the rain and drowning, pleading to no avail.Pan and scan, the whole world. Drowning.
-Mothers giving birth whilst drowning; going under, newborn bobbing up to the surface, -a glint of hope; getting dragged down after the mother by the umbilical-cord. Camera following down in the churning waters cataloguing every dying spasm of the baby. And so on for three hours-. The last 40 seconds will show a small plant sticking out of the water.
Gibson gets another Oscar.

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Rating: - Beauty And Violence
This film is almost surrealistic in its beauty- and vividly violent action, and the sets, cinematography, and costumes were incredible. I will not bother to comment on the accuracy/inaccuracy debates that seem to be such an issue with some viewer's, as this movie never pretended to be a documentary, and if it had been I probably would not have watched it. What it was, was a gorgeous, action-packed adventure film.

Rudy Youngblood, and Dalia Hernandez (Jaguar Paw, and his wife, Seven) were wonderfully cast as the two leads, and Raoul Trujillo created a character worthy of Anthony Hopkins.

Mel Gibson, despite what anyone says about his personal beliefs, or off-screen habits, created a richly-layered, lustrous gem of a movie.