SHJIHM :: Passion of The Christ :: Apocalypto ~ Runboard
"There are not over a hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions, however, who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church, which is, of course, quite a different thing." -Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
Placating terrorists, meeting with dictators, compassion for murderers... but no humanity for the unborn... incredible.
OOT
I've heard it's even more violent than Braveheart or Passion. Mel has also made comments that he thinks it somewhat parallels our current situation with Iraq.
Mel Gibson on Bush's 'Fearmongering'
Time magazine is running an exclusive feature on Mel Gibson's forthcoming film "Apocalypto," shooting right now in Mexico. For those of you who haven't heard about this film, it's a $50 million action picture dealing with the collapse of Mayan civilization some 500 years before Europeans arrived in the Americas. The film will star mostly Mayan locals, who will speak the Yucatec Mayan language in the film.
The film's trailer looks quite exotic and compelling, and this is actually one of the very few films this year we're looking forward to seeing. According to the Time article, Gibson apparently "... wants to 'shake up the stale action-adventure genre,' which he feels has been taken hostage by computer-generated imagery, stock stories and shallow characters. To rattle the cage, he says, 'we had to think of something utterly different.'"
All well and good - that's certainly the impression one gets from the film's trailer, and from some of the film's production stills. At the same time, Gibson seems motivated by other factors. Thus, we read:
"[Gibson] likes to confound expectations - he wears a cross containing relics of martyred saints, but he can swear like a Quentin Tarantino character - and those who peg him as a reactionary may be surprised to learn that his new film sounds warnings straight out of liberal Hollywood's bible.
"'Apocalypto,' which Gibson loosely translates from the Greek as 'a new beginning,' was inspired in large part by his work with the Mirador Basin Project, an effort to preserve a large swath of the Guatemalan rain forest and its Maya ruins.
"Gibson and his rookie co-writer on 'Apocalypto,' Farhad Safinia, were captivated by the ancient Maya, one of the hemisphere's first great civilizations, which reached its zenith about A.D. 600 in southern Mexico
and northern Guatemala.
"The two began poring over Maya myths of creation and destruction, including the Popol Vuh, and research suggesting that ecological abuse and war-mongering were major contributors to the Maya's sudden collapse, some 500 years before Europeans arrived in the Americas.
"Those apocalyptic strains haunt 'Apocalypto,' which takes place in an opulent but decaying Maya kingdom ... Gibson, who insists ideology matters less to him than stories of 'penitential hardship' like his Oscar-winning 'Braveheart,' puts it more bluntly: 'The fearmongering we depict in this film reminds me a little of President Bush and his guys.'"
Now, it's disappointing to read this for any number of reasons. Let us begin by saying we've generally avoided referring to Gibson himself as a conservative, focusing instead on the content of his film "The Passion"
and on the justifiably positive reception the film had among conservative audiences.
We've actually never been under the impression that Gibson was a conservative in the political sense, nor do we think that's deeply relevant to his filmmaking. Gibson appears to be an iconoclast, with a healthy rebellious streak in him, all of which is fine - in fact, it's the best thing possible within an increasingly conformist Hollywood.
Here's the problem, however: A great many of President Bush's supporters in "The Passion's" audience just made Mr. Gibson a very rich man, essentially purchasing the creative freedom he now enjoys to make "Apocalypto." Is it asking too much that he now not gratuitously insult their sensibilities?
Gibson did not mind appearing on Rush, Hannity and O'Reilly's shows, etc., in order to promote his product at the time. He cried persecution at the hands of the Hollywood system and then threw himself on conservative audiences to bail himself out. Are we to assume now those audiences are no longer useful to him?
Frankly, with his film being set about a thousand years ago on the Mayan peninsula, "Apocalypto" would appear to have exceptionally little to do with American politics of today. Could Mel and everyone else just possibly leave the domestic politics alone for a while? For example, are we soon to be told that Wolfgang Peterson's "Poseidon" is actually a metaphor for Bush's response to Hurricane Katrina? Or that "Superman Returns" is a meta-narrative of the Barak Obama presidential campaign? Where does this lunacy end?
It's infinitely frustrating that the storyline of every film these days - from "V For Vendetta" to "Syriana" to "Good Night, and Good Luck" to now, apparently, "Apocalypto" - must be contorted by its creators into a sub rosa diatribe against the Bush administration. This practice is becoming extraordinarily tedious, creatively stultifying, and we'd hoped Gibson was above it. Apparently he isn't.
Registered: 09-2006 Location: Washington, DC Posts: 25
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Re: Apocalypto Here's some more about it:
Mel Gibson Makes Maya Culture 'Cool'
Breaking from NewsMax.com
Mel Gibson defied the critics when he produced "The Passion of the Christ" with a soundtrack entirely in Latin and Aramaic - a tactic his detractors said would doom the movie.
Now he's at it again with his latest film, "Apocalypto," and this time he's chosen an obscure language hardly anybody understands - Yucatec Maya - to tell the story.
Due to premiere this summer, the film is vintage Mel Gibson, full of sound and fury, violence and buckets of blood. It's also expensive, topping the $30 million "The Passion" cost by $20 million.
In an exclusive story, Time magazine reports from the scene of the action near Veracruz, Mexico, where director Gibson has built an authentic Maya city complete with pyramids and markets that production designer Tom Sanders' crew spent six months constructing.
"Apocalypto," Time notes, takes place in "an opulent but decaying Maya kingdom, whose leaders insist that if the gods are not appeased by more temples and human sacrifices, the crops will die."
But the theme is the more modern conflict between ecology and progress as defined by the state.
"The parallels between the environmental imbalance and corruption of values that doomed the Maya and what's happening to our own civilization are eerie," Gibson's co-scriptwriter Farhad Safinia told Time.
Gibson put it this way: "The fear-mongering we depict in this film reminds me a little of President Bush and his guys."
"Apocalypto," which Gibson told Time loosely translates from the Greek as "a new beginning," was inspired in large part by his work with the Mirador Basin Project, an effort to preserve a large swath of the Guatemalan rain forest and its Maya ruins.
Gibson and Safinia said they were captivated by the ancient Maya, one of the hemisphere's first great civilizations, which reached its peak about 600 A.D. in southern Mexico and northern Guatemala.
They began poring over Maya myths of creation and destruction and research suggesting that ecological abuse and war-mongering were major contributors to the Maya's sudden collapse, some 500 years before Europeans arrived in the Americas.
Cast members say they expect some criticism of the film from Mexican nationalists because of its depiction of human sacrifice. But scholars don't believe sacrifice was a common Maya practice until after A.D. 900, when the Toltecs and Aztecs arrived. It is in that period that "Apocalypto" is set.
"I'm frankly surprised and excited that someone is making a film about an indigenous Mexican culture that most Mexicans don't even know all that well," one Mexican cast member, Mayra Sérbulo, told Time.
"I feel valued by this movie."
Since "Apocalypto" is fully financed by Gibson's Icon Productions, the project was eagerly sought by the various majors, Variety has reported. It is believed that several agreed to the deal terms that Gibson demanded but Disney got the prize.
Variety also reported that Disney's interest was keen since the studio has already committed over $400 million for the two sequels to "Pirates of the Caribbean," now in production, adding that the prospect of distributing a potential hit film that would require little or no production was particularly tempting.
And Walt Disney Studios chairman **** Cook knows Gibson well, having worked on the distribution of his films "Signs" and "Ransom."
"We couldn't be more excited about working again with Mel and his team," says Cook. "This is one of the most original and unique scripts we've had the opportunity to read recently and we plan for this to be an anchor on our summer schedule."
Gibson agrees. According to Time, he seems certain that the film's "kinetic energy" will make Maya language and culture "cool" enough to attract a crowd.
Maya prophecy, by the way, says the current world, which began 5,000 years ago, will end in 2012.
Registered: 09-2006 Location: Washington, DC Posts: 25
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Re: Apocalypto Yes, I suppose so. But if you look at his film history, violence isn't foreign to him. I'm not sure why that is, but it was at least that part of him that helped bring the reality of the brutality of Jesus' sacrifice for us unlike any other filmmaker. It does appear to be an innate part of his being, though, expressed in various forms.
… Tony - it's amusing that you consider Mel obsesed with violence , considering that violence is a fundamental part of the world we live in . Truth be told , Mel is producing movies with a message , and violence is only used to accentuate the realism , without being fake or excessive like in most movies of today .
Considering the pointless violence of the western world today , both inside and directed towards foreigners , it's refreshing to see somebody taking a realistic approach towards it .
It's interesting to see USA portrayed as the Mayan Empire - I must confess that I see various common points between them that I missed before - maybe because I compare USA with the Roman one all the time .
I will comment further , when new information will be available . As for me , the movie is a must see , because , like POTC , it will be telling the unconfortable truth .
