If there’s one person who is daring to make controversial movies, it will certainly be Mel Gibson. From one side, I’d say he is a creative person. Let’s not forget the optimistic feedbacks he received for “Braveheart” (1995) and “The Passion of The Christ” (2004). My emotion swung to wherever Gibson wanted me to be during those two movies.
Talking about his latest production “Apocalypto” which tells about the downfall of Mayan civilisation as a result of so-called modernisation, Gibson led the story through a one man’s journey fighting for his life in order to save his wife and kids. Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood) becomes restless after meeting a group of people from a different tribe during tapir hunting. He cannot forget the fears and sadness he saw from the beaten people. Before the next dawn was even fully cracked, his tribe has been in chaos and death. Those who live are taken captive by the attackers. Jaguar Paw managed to hide his pregnant wife and son inside an empty well, but he lose his father, Flint Sky (Morris Birdyellowhead), in front of his eyes.
Jaguar Paw and other captives are taken out from the forest to a modern civilisation depicted as a more sophisticate people and attires, well-structured buildings and a market place. At the same time this new place shows greediness, brutality and depression, things that aren’t existed in the forest where people live side-by-side content with whatever they have. I think this is the main message Gibson was trying to underline by words quoted from W. Durant at the beginning of the movie.
I am not familiar with the Mayan culture thus I cannot say anything about how accurate it is against history. Apart from the settings and costumes that looked brilliant, I am not fully satisfied with the whole film due to its excess brutality within a long cycle, ignoring the human touch that may really take up the audiences’ interest on the culture itself. In the end, I couldn’t value anything for knowing the Mayans from here because the movie leaves a hard image. Another thing is, in some scenes especially the beginning ones, the movie was like being made by an amateur. I understand some of the actors are amateurs, but I would fairly expect the producer and the crew to do better on that.
My rating: 3/6
[...] sekali karena dulu aku pikir “Wow, Tintin beruntung banget! Bahkan ketika menonton film Apocalypto-nya Mel Gibson, yang terpikir duluan adalah si Tintin! Powerful [...]