'Apocalypto' Is More 'Mad Max' Than Mayan

Fox News ^ | December 01, 2006 | Roger Friedman

[AmericaUnited]

'Apocalypto' Is More 'Mad Max' Than Mayan

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. 8th.

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.

...

"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.

[AmericaUnited]

.....this is not a slasher flick...it is real history. These things DID HAPPEN

So by your criteria, someone making a film showing Nazi's torturing people, is ok, because it's REAL HISTORY. Every day 'real women' get raped in America. So it would be ok to make a film showing women being horrifically raped, just because it actually happens? Do you now understand how lame and absurd you justification is?

[caver]

I can't imagine how Gibson could make anything worse than the blood and guts horror movies that have been coming out since the 70's. I think they just have a bone to pick with Gibson. Lighten up.

[freedomfiter2]

There's no question that Mel wouldn't have chosen this subject if there wasn't gore, bloodlust, impalement and torture involved. Dude's got issues, face it.


Maybe Mel will do one on the beginnings of Islam.

[AmericaUnited]

Maybe the idea that the new world was Disneyland until the evil Europeans arrived will take a hit.

It will be interesting to see what the spin is...

[claudiustg]

---Why yes, that's right! Mayans were one of those idyllic, heart-warming Hamitic cultures that were pure and without any corruption whatsoever until big, mean ol' hegemonic White Conquerors came along.---

Mayan civilization ended around 900AD. Columbus didn't discover America until 1492.

[DaiHuy]

Actually the point of "The Passion", at least IMHO was to show the suffering of Christ in as real terms as possible so we who are 2000+ years removed from it could grasp it's true horror and hopefully understand God loved us so much that he let his only son endure it so we could be saved.

What this film is about I have no clue.

[AmericaUnited]

The difference is Mel gave this 'noble' reason for doing this film, which as has been pointed out here several times, is completely phony. The slasher film guys are at least honest.

[Charles Martel]

True... One gets hundreds of millions of dollars, total film director/producer freedom, and what kind of movie is the first one to pop out? Very telling indeed!

Braveheart was the film that elevated Gibson to that level of power in Hollywood. The films that resulted from those circumstances have included The Patriot and The Passion of the Christ, so I'm inclined to cut him a bit of slack.

[AmericaUnited]

I'm starting to doubt the 'official storyline' regarding the portrayal of violence in the Passion.

[caver]

I still don't see the difference. It's a movie, it's not a documentary, unless Mel was back there with his camera 2000 years ago.

[JCEccles]

The thing about Gibson is that he picks subjects for his movies and then decides to portray them realistically.

Accuracy should be preferred over realism. Going for the audience's jugular with every cheap, shocking, and terrifying bite may be "realistic" (or even, as appears to be the case here, hyper-realistic), but accuracy demands context and balance.

I have long suspected that the fans who worship at Mel's altar of realism are likely the same people who keep detective and true crime magazines in business and who delightedly rubberneck at car crash sites hoping to see body parts strewn all over the asphalt and hanging from the trees.

Realistic it may be. Fundamentally decent it is not.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Heads roll and bounce, for real

I'm sorry, but I doubt they actually cut off the heads of the Actors and rolled them down the stairs.

This is like Senator-Elect James Webb saying the rich "literally" live in another country.

[liberty or death]

Since Islam is fighting in 95% of all global conflicts then it must be the Jews fault:>)

[wodinoneeye]

"Told the truth? What that " Jews are the cause of all the wars"?
If that is not what you mean, you might want to phrase your comment differently.
"


And what have you uttered while drunk that we should hold you to ????

I wouldnt doubt that part of his drunken tirade was a response to the many times Jews in Hollywood have screwed him over.......

[txzman]

Let's see - I can guess the best scenes:

1. Pulling live hearts out of unwilling victims
2. Numerous disembowelments during village attack scenes
3. Child sacrifices
4. Multiple body parts flying during battles
5. Lingering scenes of human suffering

Gee, I can't wait. More great Gibson wholesome family entertainment. Sure to be a hit with 12 year old boys.

[robertpaulsen]

"Mayan civilization was gone long before Europeans happened along."

"However by the time of the Spanish arrival in 1519 it is generally accepted that most of these centers had substantively declined from their Classical peak."

"Shortly after their first expeditions to the region, the Spanish initiated a number of attempts to subjugate the Maya and establish a colonial presence in the Maya territories of the Yucatán Peninsula and the Guatemalan highlands. This campaign, sometimes termed "The Spanish Conquest of Yucatán", would prove to be a lengthy and fraught exercise for the conquistadores from the outset, and it would take some 170 years before the Spanish established substantive control over all Maya lands."

[TXnMA]

We've got all we can handle with Bedlam in Oklahoma.

Please explain. (I have an abiding interest in things in OK...)

[AmericaUnited]

Well said.

[G Larry]

Your "truth" is SICK!

[veronica]

""This being Gibson, there's more to the film than the rush. It's impossible not to see parallels to our own cultured civilization, one that knowingly destroys its environment and sends troops to Iraq as human sacrifices."

Sounds like Mel has morphed into a combination of Michael Moore and Roger Corman. He's a nasty piece of work now. And it shows on his face. He used to be beautiful. But the booze and the bile have done their work on that face of his.