"Apocalypto"

Title: "Apocalypto"
Director: Mel Gibson
Producer: M. Gibson, F. Safinia, B. Davey, and N. Dowd.
Editing: John Wright
Composers: James Horner and Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Starring:
- Rudy Youngblood as Jaguar Paw
- Dalia Hernandez as Seven
- Jonathan Brewer as Blunted
- Morris Birdyellowhead as Flint Sky
- Raoul Trujillo as Zero Wolf

Plot and Critical Review: The film begins with an epigraph from Will Durant: "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within".

While hunting tapir in the Mesoamerican jungle in the early 16th century, Jaguar Paw, his father Flint Sky, and their fellow tribesmen encounter a procession of traumatized and fearful refugees. Speaking in Yucatec Maya, the procession's leader explains that their lands have been ravaged, and asks for Flint Sky's permission to pass through the jungle. When Jaguar Paw and his tribesmen return to their village, Flint Sky tells his son not to let the procession's state of fear seep into him. At night, the tribe's elder tells the village a fable of man forever unable to fill his want, despite having been given the capabilities of all of the animals. The villagers follow the story with music and dance, leaving Jaguar Paw to ponder.

The next morning, Jaguar Paw wakes from a nightmare to see strangers enter the village and set the huts ablaze. The raiders, led by Zero Wolf, attack and subdue the villagers. Jaguar Paw slips out with his pregnant wife Seven and his little son Turtles Run, lowering them on a vine into a small cave (a chultun, shaped something like a well) to hide them. Jaguar Paw returns to the village to fight the raiders but is subdued with the rest of the tribe. A raider whom Jaguar Paw attacks and almost kills, the vicious Middle Eye, slits Flint Sky's throat while Jaguar Paw helplessly watches. Flint Sky's last words are to not be afraid. Middle Eye mocks Jaguar Paw by calling him Oulak, 'Almost', for not being able to kill him. Before the raiders leave the village with their prisoners, one raider notices Jaguar Paw staring toward the ground cave. Suspicious of Jaguar Paw's attention to the cave, the raider severs the vine leading into it, trapping Seven and Turtles Run.

The raiders and their captives trek toward the Maya city, encountering razed forests, falling trees, failed maize crops, slaves producing plaster, and the sick and dying. A small diseased girl prophesies that a man bringing the jaguar will bring the raiders to those who will scratch out the earth and end their world. In the city's outskirts, the female captives are sold as slaves and the males are escorted to the top of a steep pyramid. The high priest sacrifices several captives by decapitating them after pulling out their beating hearts. When Jaguar Paw is about to be sacrificed, a solar eclipse (also prophesied by the girl) stays the priest's hand. He looks at the king, sitting nearby, and the two share a smile while the people below panic at the phenomenon. The priest declares the sun god Kukulkan is satisfied with the sacrifices. He asks Kukulkan to let light return to the world and the eclipse passes. The crowd cheers in amazement and the priest orders that the remaining captives be disposed of.

Zero Wolf takes the villagers to a ball court. The captives are released in pairs and forced to run the length of the open space within the ball court to give Zero Wolf's men target practice, with a cynical promise of freedom should they reach the end of the field alive. However, Zero Wolf's son, Cut Rock, is sent to the end of the field to "dispose of" any survivors. The raiders target them with javelins, arrows, and slingstones as they run. Jaguar Paw is struck by an arrow through the abdomen but reaches the end of the field and breaks off the arrowhead. As Cut Rock approaches to finish him off with an obsidian blade, Jaguar Paw shoves the broken arrow into Cut Rock's throat. As Cut Rock bleeds out with Zero Wolf easing him into the next life, Jaguar Paw escapes through a withered maize field and an open mass grave. The enraged Zero Wolf and his raiders pursue Jaguar Paw into the jungle and back toward Jaguar Paw's home, in a series of chases scenes that are a throwback to "The Naked Prey", which served as a model for this film. Along the way one of the raiders is killed by a black jaguar that was disturbed by Jaguar Paw. As he flees, Jaguar Paw jumps over a high waterfall and survives, declaring from the riverbank below that the raiders are now in his forest.

Zero Wolf's raiders jump the waterfall as well, then fall to both the forest's elements and Jaguar Paw's traps. A heavy rain sets in, which begins to flood the ground cave in which Jaguar Paw's wife and son are still trapped. Jaguar Paw kills one raider with a poisoned dart, bludgeons Middle Eye in hand-to-hand combat and kills Zero Wolf by leading him into a trap meant for hunting tapir. He is chased by two remaining raiders out to a beach where they encounter what are assumed to be Spanish ships idling off the coast, with soldiers and a priest making their way ashore in boats. The amazement of the raiders allows Jaguar Paw to flee. He returns into the forest to pull his wife and son out of the flooded pit where they are hiding, and where Seven has just given birth to a healthy second child. As the family walks near the coastline, Seven asks what the strange objects near the shore are. Jaguar Paw responds only that "they bring men". The family moves deeper into the forest, "to seek a new beginning", leaving behind the European ships.

After the level of brutality displayed in "The Passion of the Christ", it was no surprise that Mel Gibson's next project would also make use of intense violence and gore. But here we do not endure gore or scenes of extreme brutality for its own sake. Rather, these elements are used in a thoughtful and truly artistic way to take us deep within the emotion and context of the story. While we might give some thought as to the necessity of such elements, we cannot pretend that they do not elevate the level of story-telling.

"Apocalypto" was highly favored upon it's release. Gibson's attention to cultural and historical accuracy (although there may be a few hiccups here and there) shown through and many of the motion picture academies took notice. While it was decorated by a series of awards in multiple disciplines of the motion picture sciences, "Apocalypto's" three Oscar nominations came up short. Many critics and actors regarded this film as the best of the year (2006) and many glowing critiques still remain. While my rating is high, I urge caution to those who have a hard time with extreme violence or gore. I'd answer "Yes" to the question my Mom always asks before she sees any movie that even looks scary; "Will I need a pillow?"

My Rating: 8.5/10

Content to Caution:
V-4 – I'll withhold a 5 as this movie (as did " The Passion of the Christ" before it) gives us breaks in-between the gore to help the film (and the viewer) breathe a bit.
L-2 – There is cursing, but it is inconsistent and presented to us through subtitles.
DU-1 – No comment.
RT-2.5 – There is significant tension between different tribes and the raiders who are charged with bringing in prisoners for sacrifice. We get a sense of what the Aztec/Maya cultural complex may have been like during this period in time.
H/S-4 – This is a high-octane movie which is based on the "chase-adventure" genre. We're always in motion and there are a great number of pitfalls and dangers to endure. Much of the horror comes as a result of the natural danger of the jungle.
CH-1 – No comment.
S/N-4 – Several instances of nudity among female members of the tribe, but only one indirect occasion in which nudity is tied to sex.

The "Reel Revelation": "The Hunt"

Have you ever hunted? In my early teenage years I went hunting with my Dad, Grandpa, and uncles in Eastern Oregon. We hunted white-tail deer. I was too young to appreciate the art of hunting and as a result didn't try very hard, but I learned many things about being a hunter. "Apocalypto" is a film that takes us, more or less, on a hunt of the grandest and most intense scale. In producing the film, Mel Gibson wanted to create the most intense chase-type movie of them all, and I believe he achieved that goal by stripping away all of the technology and typical Hollywood "chase-tricks" by placing the hunt between men and the jungle. As I watched the movie I couldn't help but feel that I was, in some way, watching the story of my own life portrayed through the eyes of the hunter and the prey. There are obvious differences, of course, and as this "Reel Revelation" is founded on an analogy (life as being like a hunt), I know that the analogy will eventually run thin.

Have you ever felt like you "hunted" something in your life? That is, have you ever felt as if you were caught up in a continuous chase after an object or opportunity that you desired? I believe we've all felt this way and I wouldn't be surprised if some of you feel as if your whole life has been a hunt or series of hunts in which you've sought after something of great value. To take a step in a more spiritual direction, have you ever felt like you were "hunting" God? Here's where the analogy starts to break apart. By even suggesting that we "hunt" for God is also to suggest that we kill God when we have "caught" Him, for that is the end of most successful hunts; the hunter kills his prey and consumes it. Perhaps it'd be easier to say that we "seek" after God and leave it at that, but I suspect that for some, "seek" doesn't begin to truly express the life-long experience of chasing after God. And that is what we do; we chase after God.

This "hunt/chase" has been going on for many centuries. After God "chased" Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, they began to chase after a righteous way of life. Noah "chased" God's promise that there would be a flood and that Noah's family would be saved. Abraham "chased" God's voice and was willing to sacrifice Isaac to fulfill God's will. Moses "chased" God's commands in and out of Egypt and led God's people on a of spiritual "hunt" for righteousness in the desert for 40 years! Jeremiah "chased" the nation of Israel without end, urging them to repent and return to the Lord. It's in his admonition to Israel that we've been given a marvelous verse of promise:

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you..." (Jeremiah 29: 11-14a)

But if we're "hunting" after God, doesn't that mean that God will always be apart from us, out ahead of us, and leading us on a life-long game of hide-and-go-seek? How can that be true when Jesus promised, "...I am with you always, even to the end of the age."? (Matthew 28:20).

Both are true.

God is ever-present. Indeed, He is with us at all times, but God knows what will become of us if we're allowed to sit in the shade without the challenge of pursuing Him. Think of all the different "hunts" we go on in this life; the "job hunt", the search for a mate, the search for a home, the most personal search for a sense of true identity. Some of these "hunts" are successful. Some end in tragedy. And what if we were never made (or compelled) to go on any of these "hunts"? Not only would we accomplish little, we'd have very little strength to combat the Enemy that is hunting us! Nor would we gain the priceless experience that helps us to be better "hunters" in the future.

Lent is a season of reflection and devotion to God. While there's some ambiguity as to the actual origin of Lent (when it became an official liturgical season and how it was decided it would be 40 Days and so on), we know that these 40 Days represent and reflect periods of fasting, prayer, devotion, and "hunting" from the Bible:
- Moses' 40 days on Mount Sinai.
- The amount of time it took Elijah to walk to Mount Horeb.
- The 40 days and 40 nights of The Flood.
- The 40 years the Hebrews wandered through the desert, seeking the Promised Land.
- Jesus' 40 days and 40 nights in the desert after His Baptism.

What are you "hunting" this year? Some of you may be looking for a new job, a new place to live, or a new addition to the family. Some of you may be chasing after peace, happiness, or self-control. Whatever object or opportunity you seek, may you first seek after God. The jungle of this life is thick, but if we bolster our faith, temper our souls with patience and humility, and seek after God "with all of (y)our hearts"...we will find the Lord.

At the risk of running a bit longer than I anticipated, please permit me to share the lyrics from a song I recently wrote called "We Will Know The Lord":

Praising God with passion, learning how to pray.
Searching for connection, looking for The Way.
Seeking out the answers, reaching for The Truth,
Staring at the questions, crying out to You, to You.

And the Father sees our need and desperation
For the perfect gift of grace through Christ the Son.
And by faith we are fulfilled, to fulfill the will of God
And the gift He gives we freely give away today.

We will walk, we will pray, we will learn
To listen and obey.
We will serve, we will grow, we will go,
And we will know the Lord!

Will we hear the summon, when the Father calls?
Will our hearts be steady, when the darkness falls?
Following the Savior, walking in His Light.
Living in His Promise, sharing in His Life, His life.

And the Father sees our need and desperation
For the perfect gift of grace through Christ the Son.
And by faith we are fulfilled, to fulfill the will of God
And the gift He gives we freely give away today.

We will walk, we will pray, we will learn
To listen and obey.
We will serve, we will grow, we will go,
And we will know the Lord!

See you tomorrow- E.T.