Spring Break
Gibson takes a stab at another epic film with 'Apocalypto'
Ian Pugh
Issue date: 12/8/06 Section: Entertainment
Mel Gibson's Apocalypto is less of an apologia and more of an apology in response to the accusations of anti-Semitism leveled against The Passion of the Christ. Of course, we might not be making these kinds of assumptions if Mad Mel hadn't become a DUI Road Warrior this summer, but if anything that incident exemplified that the man indeed had some deep-rooted anti-Semitism, and left his defenders of the time, yours truly included, retracting their defense of the man. (Certainly, one of the most awkward moments at the movies this year for me was seeing Who Killed the Electric Car? the weekend after the incident, where crazy Saddam-bearded Mel babbles about the electric car suppression conspiracy.)
But even though filming wrapped up long before that potential career-ender, Apocalypto - Mel's latest epic about the fall of the Mayan Empire - speaks to a certain self-awareness of Gibson's flaws by operating as a parable against racist and xenophobic tendencies, including his own; a stab at historical precedent that questions why we seem so intent on killing each other when we're all essentially the same. "Except people who don't believe in Christ," a colleague corrects, referencing Gibson's Catholic beliefs. "Those guys are going to hell." True, I guess, but along with the man's belief in original sin, the film carries the realization that someone can believe in something without being an unhelpfully medieval, separatist prick about it. The most striking image of the film, the one that stays with me the longest - unfortunately lodged into the condescending, disrespectful third act - is that of a Spanish friar, staring forward and steadily approaching in a boat full of conquistadors; he's holding a cross like a self-righteous club about to descend on the heads of the Mayans. It's self-questioning and self-criticism at its most incisive; many admired The Passion of the Christ for its filmmaker's own passion (the reason why so many of us were blind to anything else in the film, I think), and here Gibson is illustrating that the same quality existed in the terrifying scope of global religious indoctrination and the Spanish Inquisition.
But even though filming wrapped up long before that potential career-ender, Apocalypto - Mel's latest epic about the fall of the Mayan Empire - speaks to a certain self-awareness of Gibson's flaws by operating as a parable against racist and xenophobic tendencies, including his own; a stab at historical precedent that questions why we seem so intent on killing each other when we're all essentially the same. "Except people who don't believe in Christ," a colleague corrects, referencing Gibson's Catholic beliefs. "Those guys are going to hell." True, I guess, but along with the man's belief in original sin, the film carries the realization that someone can believe in something without being an unhelpfully medieval, separatist prick about it. The most striking image of the film, the one that stays with me the longest - unfortunately lodged into the condescending, disrespectful third act - is that of a Spanish friar, staring forward and steadily approaching in a boat full of conquistadors; he's holding a cross like a self-righteous club about to descend on the heads of the Mayans. It's self-questioning and self-criticism at its most incisive; many admired The Passion of the Christ for its filmmaker's own passion (the reason why so many of us were blind to anything else in the film, I think), and here Gibson is illustrating that the same quality existed in the terrifying scope of global religious indoctrination and the Spanish Inquisition.
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Jenny
posted 12/20/06 @ 5:25 PM EST
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