Apocalypto
In a word: Vivid.
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Go see this movie!!
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I'm putting it straight into consideration for one of my favourite movies of all time.
About Me
- Tokyo Tintin
- "Whereas the tourist generally hurries back at the end of a few weeks or months, the traveler, belonging no more to one place than the next, moves slowly, over a period of years, from one part of the earth to another. Indeed, he would have found it difficult to tell, among the many places he had lived, precisely where it was he felt the most at home." Paul Bowles — The Sheltering Sky
17 comments:
Gotta agree with the Danimator here. Apocalypto rocks.
Doesn't it come out December 8th or am i crazy???
ash—
it does indeed come out on december 8th, but thanks to the magic of friends in high places (i.e. ian) i was able to attend an advanced screening of the movie on wednesday.
so no; you're only crazy if you don't go see this movie!
Is this the one in Aramaic?
jenni—
the passion is in aramaic (the language of jesus). this movie is filmed in yukateco-maya (the language of the maya from the yucatan).
From what i understand, most of the actors were not native speakers, but since my yukateco is a bit rusty, i didn't notice really.
Go buy your ticket for this *right now!*
hmm i am skeptical but curious.
what were your thoughts on The Passion?
dave —
i haven't seen the passion because i'm not an evangelical christian with a penchant for mel gibson and his carnival of hollywood schlock — i *hated* braveheart. however, after seeing apocalypto, i'm considering revising my anti-gibsonist stance.
while this movie is quite gory, it fit in the context of the story, unlike braveheart which i found to be a cavalcade of disgustingness shown purely for gore's sake. i usually have zero tolerance for that kind of thing. but here it seemed wholly appropriate and not in any way excessive or unnecessary (except for one specific incident, but i digress).
the visuals for this movie are over the top — that's really what made it for me. i'm a sucker for beauty.
what did you think of the passion?
see, i'm generally a fan of gore. i remember liking Braveheart, but it's been too long for me to really judge either way.
that being said, i hated The Passion. with a passion. it really was terrible. that was gore for gore's sake. it was a 2 hr catholic snuff film. i thought his choices in the movie were strange... like including a 'devil' character and a crazy devil turny head baby creature. not to mention the shot of the devil recation to JC's death in hell? wtf?
interestingly, even in a movie set in the 1st century, mel manages to include hints of anti-semitism and homophobia. watch for them in Braveheart too!
is mel in the movie?
is this your new moulin rouge? if i don't see it will you take is as a personal insult?
jenni-
apocalypto lacks the sing/dance/ewan-mcgreggor-fabulousness of moulin rouge but thankfully, mel does not appear in the movie. i'd imagine he is too racist (i.e. aussie) to learn mayan. haha, no seriously, it wouldn't make sense for a white person to be in this movie. what the movie lacks in the ewan category is made up in the scantily-clad actors-in-loincloths category.
i wouldn't be surprised if a best actor nod was in the works for star, rudy youngblood. in fact, i'm thinking oscar contender in several categories.
I didn't know that the Oscars had a category for best loin cloth performance.
Interesting article here.
Critical acclaim for Apocalypto is blowing up all over the place. Mel may be a megalomaniac and an anti-semite, but this is a damn good movie. It would be a travesty if Oscar judges let their personal feelings cloud their judgment on this one.
Thanks for the article Ian.
Since we're talking Apocalypto here, here's a link to my review at Exclaim!
You can also click on my name, just above this message, to get there.
Any thoughts?
http://exclaim.ca/index.asp?
layid=22&csid=5&csid1=5969
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2006/12/07/apocalypto-mayan-protests.html
Here's a link to a CBC article about how some Mayans don't like this movie because they think it makes them look like savages.
jenni—
thanks for the article. it was interesting, but i felt the mayan activists' arguments didn't really make sense. it would be as though modern-day romans got upset that gladiator portrayed ancient roman times as cruel and brutal. —uh, point of order, it *was* cruel and brutal. duh.
i'm no maya expert, but to the best of my knowledge, the movie portrays mayan culture accturately. i mean, c'mon, they had live human sacrifices for crissake! —it was never going to be a movie about gumdrops and puppies.
unlike most films about indigenous people, this story isn't told from a european perspective. consequently, i feel there was actually less moral judgement on the culture then there would have been had the film been told from the eyes of the arriving spanish, who would have seen the maya as strange and weird and wrong.
i think this movie is a great window for most people who would have never had the chance to know anything about the maya world otherwise. all publicity is good publicity, right?
it opens today – i hope everyone bought their tickets!
great review by the way ian.
Hmmmm...we backward Orstrayliannes will have to wait awhile longer but from the trailer I must say that it looks like most of Mel's other movies in Mayan drag; sado-masochistic rituals, paternal anxieties inscribed through pseudo-deities, culture on the brink, and a melancholic longing for 'traditional' values written through the cinematically mediated form of 'Historical Truth'!
...Or maybe I've just been doing this PhD way too long!?!
Apocalypto puts Gibson back on top at box office
DAVID GERMAIN
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Mel Gibson's bloody epic Apocalypto debuted as the No. 1 weekend movie. The Disney release set in the Mayan civilization and told in an obscure Mayan language, opened with $14.2 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
It was a modest haul compared with the $83.8-million opening weekend of Gibson's last-helmed movie, the 2004 religious blockbuster The Passion of the Christ, which went on to do $370 million domestically.
But Apocalypto overcame the baggage of Gibson's personal troubles as well as its difficult subject matter, which features a no-name cast in an ultra-violent tale that includes beheadings and images of hearts ripped from people's chests.
“The movie obviously succeeds on its own level. I think people probably are a bit on the surprised side around town that it's No. 1,” said Chuck Viane, head of distribution for Disney. “Two months ago, nobody would have bet on that.”
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