As the Mayan kingdom faces its decline, the rulers
insist the key to prosperity is to build more temples and offer human
sacrifices. Jaguar Paw, a young man captured for sacrifice, flees to
avoid his fate.
Director: Mel Gibson
Writers: Mel Gibson, Farhad Safinia
Stars:Gerardo Taracena, Raoul Max Trujillo, Dalia Hernández | See full cast & crew.
Storyline of Apocalypto
In the Maya civilization, a peaceful tribe is brutally attacked by
warriors seeking slaves and human beings for sacrifice for their gods.
Jaguar Paw hides his pregnant wife and his son in a deep hole nearby
their tribe and is captured while fighting with his people. An eclipse
spares his life from the sacrifice and later he has to fight to survive
and save his beloved family.
Details:
Country: USA
Language: Maya
Release Date: 8 December 2006 (USA)
Also Known As: Mel Gibson's Apocalypto.
Filming Locations: Catemaco, Veracruz, Mexico.
Technical Specifications:
| Runtime |
2 hr 19 min (139 min)
|
| Sound Mix |
DTS
|
SDDS
|
Dolby Digital
|
| Color |
Color
|
| Aspect Ratio |
1.85 : 1
|
| Camera |
Aaton A-Minima
Arriflex 35-IIC, Panavision Primo Lenses
Arriflex 435, Panavision Primo Lenses
Ikonoskop A-Cam
Panavision Genesis HD Camera, Panavision Primo, Lightweight and Nikon Lenses
|
| Laboratory |
DeLuxe, USA
EFilm
(digital intermediate)
|
| Film Length |
3,768 m
(Sweden)
3,801 m
(Portugal, 35 mm)
|
| Negative Format |
16 mm
(Kodak Vision2 500T 7218)
35 mm
(Kodak Vision2 50D 5201, Vision2 500T 5218)
Video
(HDTV)
|
| Cinematographic Process |
Digital Intermediate
(2K) (master format)
HDCAM SR
(source format)
Spherical
(source format)
Super 16
(source format)
|
| Printed Film Format |
35 mm
(Kodak Vision Premier 2393)
D-Cinema. | |
User Review:
Having some Mexican-Indian blood in me, I've always been interested in
what I could read about the Aztecs and Mayans and others. But never did
I achieve as elaborate a vision in my head, try as I might, as Mel
Gibson has with the beautiful Apocalypto. Is it accurate? I've more
than just strong doubts in at least one case, but like all good
fiction, it probably tells more truth, despite its inaccuracies, than a
dozen scholarly tomes. The movie is engrossing and, even more
difficult, plausible and quite evocative. I would have bet any amount
of money that this movie was impossible to make. And though some have
complained that the film's ending involves an historical inaccuracy, I
think there was more than enough reason to put it in.
There's a strong story that reminded me of other Third World folklore
I've read, only better. In a lot of ways these people could have been
North American Indians, but somehow that's not much of a criticism. And
Gibson's recent PR problems only highlighted, for me, how it took an
Australian-reared actor to make an exciting film about natives before
Columbus. Clearly Hollywood is incapable of even conceiving of such a
movie, much less bringing it brilliantly to life. Hollywood has an
agenda and very narrow perspectives. It's agenda has no room for
illuminating the humanity of non-Westerners, and there's too much
relying on the same old set of sensibilities and intuition. I think if
Hollywood is up in arms it ought to be because Gibson is making them
look inept.
But as to this particular subject matter, there's no doubt in my mind
that what fascinates most Anglos about the Aztecs and the Maya is the
idea of human sacrifice. Gibson depicts the ritual as having an element
of frenzy to it, and he may be right, but what is more convincing to
me, at least, is his idea of what a village raid must have been like.
His point by point reconstruction is pretty compelling, and I'm quite
sure he could make some early American military raids on Indian
villages so vivid and unforgettable that grown men would cry. I only
hope he does, but as to this film, I would have depicted the human
sacrifice with a nod toward a notion most Anglos find completely
foreign, namely that these people understood that gain often entails
pain, and they were willing to pay the price. Was it really so
unreasonable that these people thought God might want them to create
pain, and not just endure it, to gain His favor given that life entails
so much struggle anyway? That willingness to endure pain clearly
survives today, not the desire to create it in others, and that's the
only point I would have added to this wonderful film.
One of the roughest, toughest art films I've ever seen. Remarkable,
sensational. Non a mean task to put aside all the gossip surrounding
the man behind this miracle and look at "Apocalypto" for what it is a
startling piece of art done by one of the most startling artists of our
time. But I was able to do exactly that and sit there open mouthed,
totally transported to the world Mel Gibson had in store for me. I
don't want to get into any spoilers but let me tell you there are, at
least, 4 moments - not merely technical but emotional - that are a
first for the movies. There is violence in the film yes, but not nearly
as much as in "Casino Royale" and definitely more justified. I'll take
my wife next time, she stayed home, brainwashed by the avalanche of
misinformation claiming it was one of the most violent films ever made.
I know my wife well enough to know she will love "Apocalypto"
I found the movie EXCELLENT, I'm still in shock, recorded in Veracruz
(in many places) gives a very savage/natural environment to Gibson's
story, which it's able to 'take you there' 5 minutes after the movie
starts. I would need a vote scale of 11 for giving a fair vote to this
movie.
I'm from Mexico so I'll try to add a very particular point of view, for
a Mexican person to the movie, since I have read almost every comment
here for the movie and (with all my respects) there are three points
I'd like to mention.
Please forgive my English mistakes.
At first, even if it's not really important, the movie plays (probably)
in 1519, since it was in this year when Hernan Cortes reaches Veracruz
coast (afther other expeditions, this time 3 years before the Aztec
Empire was conquered by his army). Movie ends showing this moment
indeed (or it really looks like!), so the story takes place before that
moment, when Aztecs lived Moctezuma's last years reign (I think Gigson
tries to show him shortly during the human sacrifices scenes, like a
man wearing a very elaborated clothes and a big quetzal plume, sit just
behind the Sume Priest who performed the sacrifices in the sacred
stone).
Second, a lot of people giving their comments here believe is the MAYAN
civilization that where warriors conquer, take prisoner and perform the
sacrifices and that's not true, it's the Aztec civilization. In almost
every mesoamerican culture splendor years, territorial extension
(conquering), cultural level and social organization reached a very
amazing point, and the constant military enterprises were the key for
controlling (and exploit, of course) other culture towns. Aztecs were
probably the most brilliant at this point, the roman empire in
mesoamerica. They exploited commerce, agriculture, the had universities
and used a lot of tech and industry advances, but savage and brutal
activities was an always present characteristic with this people, too.
People submission throughout the force was very common. Mayan
civilization had a very similar moment, but not in 1519 (Mayan
civilization had their best moment more than 100 years before, but they
just suddenly disappeared). In that year, the last Mayan survivors
lived probably dispersed in small towns in the Tropical Woods and
Jungles in Mexico's southeast. Jaguar Paw and his village belong to
this civilization.
Third, in spite of these facts, I understand Mr. Mel Gibson was not
interested in clearing facts because movie is not intended to be a
History class, but it was a GREAT way for telling a story (filled out
of mysticism and magic, of course) in a very unknown environment. This
means, he just avoid the history facts in order to tell his argument. I
really admire his determination for filming his movie in the Maya and
Nahuatl languages, and for showing these cultures moment at natural,
it's a honor for my country. All my respects and my admiration. The
BEST movie I've seen in YEARS and more than 1043.
