Apocalypto (2006)

The sacrificial temple scene:

It's a good adventure film, but not really accurate as it was a mishmash of Aztec and Mayan empires.

As a college grad who hated Gibson, I felt it was racist.

Saw it recently and I think it's kind of masterful- the concept of a being a part of a civilization ending and not realizing it is too close for comfort.

I thought it was excellent, which pains me to say as it was directed by Mel Gibson.

The costume design was magnificent -- whoever was responsible for it deserved an Oscar.

Like I really wanted to see another movie made by a racist, homophobic, misogynist anti-semite.

I didn't even watch the Lethal Weapons movies.

He really highlights his hate of women with the torture birth scenes in the well.

Must've been a fun job putting these looks together.

I liked it.

R5 the makeup was excellent as well, especially given the heat and humidity, which greatly effects the application and longevity of makeup.

R10, agreed.

It's a shame somebody non-Mel Gibson hasn't made more pre-Columbian epics in the same vein of films set during ancient Egypt, Rome, etc.

This reviewer, at the link, says it’s horribly inaccurate, though he makes some mistakes, too. I thought it’s a great action move, one of the best. The first time I saw it, my heart was racing for the entire movie.

If you suppress your inner critic, allow for poetic license, and just think of it as fiction inspired by history, then it’s great. I like how the little tribe has very natural emotions and relations similar to what we have today. Then, I like the barbarism that was part of every ancient culture, but this particular culture isn’t depicted often enough to be familiar.

The “King” in R1 is so, so, high! You noticed, right!?

The film is a guilty pleasure of mine. It’s a fantastic action film The appearance of the Spanish ship at the end is hauntingly ominous.

I do like that the cast had to learn Yucatec Maya for the film.

R10, I just found out the makeup artists for the film were, indeed, nominated for Oscars -- lost out to the ones from Pan's Labyrinth though.

Are there people today who speak Maya?

He told me to wear a costume so the audience could see my pussy from behind.

I do not own a cat. I was very confused.

We need more of this kind of movies, but I bet they are very problematic and stupid shit like that. Have fun watching yet another Spiderman movie.

R17, there are around 6 milliion people who still speak Mayan dialects, mainly concentrated in Guatemala and the Yucatan peninsula.

"We need more of this kind of movies, but I bet they are very problematic and stupid shit like that. Have fun watching yet another Spiderman movie."

So you posit our universe in some kind of Spiderman vs. Apocalypto dimension.

Which I guarantee you would be the title of a sequel if Apocalypto hadn't flopped and Gibson hadn't fucked himself out of Hollywood movie franchises the night he called a cop "Sugartits."

I loved this film. Very gripping despite there being minimal dialogue. It was supremely crafted no matter what you think of Gibson.

I thought the best part was the ending. First, because it was the most interesting part of the film. Second, and more importantly, it was the ending.

R19, I was just thinking that. With their massive budget, Hollywood could make an amazing action-adventure film about the Inca empire. It could have all of the elements of cinematography, adventure, war, loss, temple-building.

Instead, we get fodder like Spiderman 19... Lack of imagination and creativity.

I like it quite a bit. Mel has his issues, no doubt about it but he’s a director that knows his craft. That ending stayed with me the first time I saw it.

They could make a movie just about building the Great Pyramid.

Was there peen?

It is a masterpiece, imho. I was scared watching it at first because it looked so real

So many good scenes.

Escape scene

I was going to chime in, R17 And say yes. One of our tour guides when I went to Tulum or was it Chichén Itzá was a direct descendant of the Maya.

He spoke several Mayan words to us. He also mentioned that his language sounds like Chinese, because of course people migrated thru North America and all the way down to South America.

The scene with the little girl with smallpox still scares me.

The hating Mel thing is old. Everyone I know has done or thought equally bad or worse things. You just didn’t get caught, sugar tits.

Mel hired very important archaeologists who specialized in the Maya and the Olmec.

They so rarely make films about Native people, with an all-Native American/indigenous cast, it was a shame the film was overshadowed by the director's real life grossness.

Loved it, as it reminded me of a favorite childhood film that mesmerized me: “Kings of The Sun,” starring gut puncher Yul Brenner and the dreamy George Chakiris. Not very historically accurate, but focused on pre-Colombian cultures, and featuring a compelling storyline.

Like PASSION OF THE CHRIST, it’s a great, well-made film.

But I don’t like the Christian propaganda and the demonization of pagans coming from bigot/chauvinist/Catholic peasant moron Mel Gibson.

Gibson is smart enough to make great movies bit not honest or smart enough to question Catholic authority and chauvinists, who are full of shit.

[quote] Gibson is smart enough to make great movies bit not honest or smart enough to question Catholic authority and chauvinists, who are full of shit.

His own family runs a Church. Of course, he doesn't promote questioning authority and rather obey it without question for his own, financial, benefit.

I saw this in the theatre and it kept my attention from start to finish.

I saw in a theatre in San Francisco, and I was surprised they weren't any older, pale queens who love brown boys, in the audience.

R6 Nobody put a gun to your head, sugar tits.

It's time to do a remake of this film but with hotter Mayan actors like Mario Lopez and JLo

"[R6] Nobody put a gun to your head, sugar tits."

Oh, the hilarity because of the tits.

Meanwhile, I have marzipan tits.

They're in the shape of strawberries. When you taste them you will expect them to be strawberry flavored, but they will be marzipan flavored.

Tough titty.

The only film Mel Gibson has directed that is actually watchable.

Mel loves to depict graphic violence.

The film itself is a masterpiece and Rudy Youngblood is downright gorgeous as JAguar Paw.

It should’ve of won the Oscar but this was the year we found out who Mel really was.

^^^^ I’m oh dearing myself, so don’t bother. I know....

I loved it and watched it twice. I also love most films Mel Gibson acted in, before he was outed to the rest of America as the violent, deplorable drunk that he is.

The Passion of the Christ film was tedious AF, & was a straight to video disaster that unbelievably enough, made it straight to movie theaters.

Oh, and I laughed at the “Sugar Tits” thing. It was funny!

I loved the Passion of the Christ. The only problem I had with it, is that it is a familiar story in a familiar setting.

The movie was filmed in Veracruz, Mexico.

[quote] I loved it and watched it twice

R49, me too. I saw it at the theater and then twice on DVD (lol) with two different groups of friends. I would actually love to see it again on a wide movie screen.

Visually stunning.

I was so unbelievably high when I watched it and it blew my fucking mind.

Chase scenes with not a single car or horse.

No explosions, no vehicles flipping over.

The scene with the captives passing from the rain forest into gradually more crowded areas until they finally reach the temple was absolutely mesmerizing.

Who really cares what a director, author, artist is like in their personal lives? The work is what matters. Oscar Wilde smelled bad.

^^^That's why I'll NEVER see an Oscar Wilde movie!

Yes r16, I voted for Apocalypto in my guild over Pan's because of the working conditions (they literally were applying makeups in the jungle) and how the whole cast had elaborate makeups on- even the earlobes. Pan's had just a few specialty characters, enhanced with digital effects.

R58, glad you voted for Apocalypto -- I thought they deserved it as well.

Did the film have a very large budget?

R60, it’s official budget was $40 million. Mel financed this himself with his Passion of the Christ money, so We don’t know how much it really cost.

Gibson is a very good director.

Don’t watch it for a history lesson, but it’s great to look at.

Remember when Amy Pascal came out saying Sony would never hire Mel for his anti-semitic comments?. Then she got caught making fun of blacks during the Sony hack. Typical bullshit hypocrite.

I would actually place Apocalypto as one of the Top 10 films of the 2000s. Easily in my own personal top five.

I like the scene where he used the poison from the dart frog to kill the enemy.

A longer version of the video at R1. This scene is probably my favorite eight minutes of cinema in the entire 2000s decade. This film should have a sequel.

I love the various dancers in that scene r67. So well shot.

Though that clip cut out a lot of the dancing. :(

He's the Leni R of Mexico.

Accurate.

I love the scene with the oracle girl, creepy as fuck that she’s dying of plague yet is channeling the voice of one of her gods or goddesses. The mercenaries and their prisoners were all freaked out by her, and what she said all came true.

R72, yes! Here is that scene.

Do they practice male circumcision?

When Rudy Youngblood and the Mayan warriors chasing run onto the beach, they kneel, overawed, when they see the ship. Bottomless sadness. Now they'll all REALLY leave the forest. And they have all found something in the material world they all can kneel before. Horrifying.

Yes, this is an excellent, violent, no-excuses work of fictive art. I saw "children of the sun" also when I was a child, but Apocalypto is like no other film I've ever seen. Revisionist scolding of Mel for his alcoholism and bigotry, etc., cannot destroy such a work, nor tarnish it.

R75, yeah, if I had to amend my personal Top 10 favorite films list according to how gross and/or questionable the director was in real life, I would probably have a pretty vacant list..

This thread makes me want to see it again.

R74, I do believe members of the ruling class in Mayan and Aztec cultures practiced circumcision -- I found that surprising actually.

They give it every so often on cable. It was on a few weeks ago on BBC, I believe.

R78, because they valued cleanliness and beauty

R27 No peen

Say what you want about Mel Gibson, but the son of a bitch knows story structure.

love it. so exciting., love the dual panthers shot.