Product Description From Mel Gibson, director of THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST and the Academy Award(R)-winning BRAVEHEART (Best Director, Best Picture, 1995) comes the thrilling historical epic APOCALYPTO. This intense, nonstop action-adventure transports you to an ancient South American civilization, for an experience unlike anything you've ever known. In the twilight of the mysterious Mayan culture, young Jaguar Paw is captured and taken to the great Mayan city where he faces a harrowing end. Driven by the power of his love for his wife and son, he makes an adrenaline-soaked, heart-racing escape to rescue them and ultimately save his way of life. Filled with unrelenting action and stunning cinematography, APOCALYPTO is an enthralling and unforgettable film experience. .com Forget any off-screen impressions you may have of Mel Gibson, and experience Apocalypto as the mad, bloody runaway train that it is. The story is set in the pre-Columbian Maya population: one village is brutally overrun, its residents either slaughtered or abducted, by a ruling tribe that needs slaves and human sacrifices. We focus on the capable warrior Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood), although Gibson skillfully sketches a whole population of characters--many of whom don't survive the early reels. Most of the film is set in the dense jungle, but the middle section, in a grand Mayan city, is a dazzling triumph of design, costuming, and sheer decadent terror. The movie itself is a triumph of brutality, as Gibson lets loose his well-established fascination with bodily mortification in a litany of assaults including impalement, evisceration, snakebite, and bee stings. It's a dark, disgusted vision, but Gibson doesn't forget to apply some very canny moviemaking instincts to the violence--including the creation of a tremendous pair of villains (strikingly played by Raoul Trujillo and Rodolfo Palacias). The film is in a Maya dialect, subtitled in English, and shot on digital video (which occasionally betrays itself in some blurry quick pans). Amidst all the mayhem, nothing in the film is more devastating than a final wordless exchange of looks between captured villager Blunted (Jonathan Brewer) and his wife's mother (Maria Isabel Diaz), a superb change in tone from their early relationship. Yes, this is an obsessive, crazed movie, but Gibson knows what he's doing. --Robert HortonBeyond Apocalypto More films directed by Mel Gibson Apocalypto soundtrack by James HornerStills from Mel Gibson's Apocalypto (click for larger image)
M**A
Very interesting movie for anyone interested in Mayan culture and who appreciate Mel Gibson films
I had never heard of this movie but I kept hearing actors talk about it in interviews saying how great it was and what an amazing job Mel Gibson had done with it and was intrigued…I’ve always been interested in the Mayan culture as well, so I gave it a shot. I had to agree…it is a very good movie with a strong storyline and very well made. My husband and I both really enjoyed it.
E**2
Outstanding recreation to the Mayan World
Highly recommended. It's just unbelievable that Apocalypto didn't win a single Academy Award. This movie is so refreshing, original and realistic. For the first time we have a chance to see how the natives of the Americas lived before the Spaniards came. Realistic on every aspect, what a photography, the beautiful natural sceneries and all the details: the wall drawings, the clothes, the use of Jade, the Mayan City. And the set was built just for the movie, it's impressive that Gibson chose not to use computer generated FX!. The "behind the scenes" bonus included in the DVD explains in rich details the hard work required to recreate the Mayan World so faithfully. More authenticity to the movie is given by the use of Yucatec Maya language, still spoken by Mayan descendants in Southern Mexico and Guatemala.Though a little bit exaggerated in the amount of human sacrifices, it was good to have a more realistic idea of how the Mesoamerican natives lived, specially when some modern revisionist have been trying to make us believe that all natives were just some peaceful environmentalists, living in harmony with nature, the famous myth of the noble savage. This movie produces the same reality shock as "Saving Private Ryan" gave us regarding the savage killings on both sides at WWII. So, for me the dose of violence was justified to crack this myth.Obviously a fiction story was required against this realistic historical background (such as in "The Titanic"), but to set the record straight, at least a couple of historical inaccuracies need to be clarified, as well as an astronomical glitch, just to remember that this film is not a history class despite its realism.(1) The Mayan civilization was over before the Spaniards came to America, so the end of the film was just a historical inaccuracy necessary to give closure to the film. The classic Mayan period shown in the movie ended almost 600 years before the Spaniards came to America. The reasons for the decline of this civilization are not well known, but the movie gave us some clues (such as deforestation, hunger and illnesses). By the way, this was a nice way to raise environmental awareness without words.(2) The massive human sacrifices depicted in the movie actually resemble a practice more common of the Aztecs (Central México), rather than Mayan (they did, but not in the "industrial" scale presented in the movie). The sun god Kukulkan did not demand human sacrifice, as presented in the movie.(3) The astronomical glitch has to do with the total eclipse of the sun. Not only an eclipse actually takes much longer to occur (a license acceptable for a time-constrained movie), but also a total eclipse only happens during a new moon (when the moon is invisible to us because the sun is behind, illuminating the dark side of the moon). Therefore, Jaguar Paw's wife could have never been under full moon later on the same day.And finally for those who really enjoy the movie and became interested in our ancient roots, such ruins of a Mayan city do exist. Visit Tikal, the largest existing ruins of a city from the Maya civilization. Plan a nice vacation to Guatemala and flight to Flores, in the Department of El Petén. The Tikal pyramids are located in the middle of a tropical rainforest. Quite a spectacle. If you like Tikal, then Teotihuacan (México) and Machu Pichu (Perú) will be your next stops.
J**C
Great Movie
Great movie glad it arrived unbroken and unscratched
D**R
Buy it
A superb movie by Mel Gibson.
I**T
A Finely Made Film for Strong Hearts and Spirits
Mel Gibson film Apocalypto, as a director I find to be very controversial, but I think people judge him to much from some of the changes of life we all experience or will experience when we are approaching our middle age time of life, in regards to Mel Gibson's more personal and controversial experiences in living his life . As an actor I've always admired his ability, as a director I admire Mel Gibson even more so, in his completer determination to tell the story as it really is, and lets face it, the ancient Aztec Peoples as portrayed in Mel Gibson film 'Apocalypto' is really raw, but when investigate archaeologist findings of this ancient Aztec civilization previous to colonial times, this civilization was doing no more then any civilization of its time whether this cultural reality can be compared to Europe, India, China, or Asia, Mel Gibson's film simply tells it like it was, even if what it was in the Ancient Aztec Civilization was raw, bloody, and very graphic. The Ancient Aztec Civilization believed in human sacrifice, that in a manner of speaking was their communion with God – the film definitely portrays that reality and Mel Gibson as a director does not hold back from telling that very real truth by way of film making. That this might be to much for some peoples stomach and so called moral values – my suggestion to such people is simple, 'don't look at the film 'Apocalypto' if you have personal standards of moral values. However as piece of good film making, beside the judgmental values of moral values on the films subject matter, Mel Gibson's Film Apocalypto' is some mighty fine film making. I look forward to Mel Gibson making more real historical films, which I personal wish Mel Gibson would make a real film about the social psychology of 'African American Slavery in the United States of America' if we must consider the value of moral values in contrast to democracy, which non existent in 2014.
