Apocalypto
Apocalypto () is a 2006 American epic historical adventure film produced, co-written, and directed by Mel Gibson. The film features a cast of Native American and Indigenous Mexican actors consisting of Rudy Youngblood, Raoul Trujillo, Mayra Sérbulo, Dalia Hernández, Gerardo Taracena, Rodolfo Palacios, Bernardo Ruiz Juarez, Ammel Rodrigo Mendoza, Ricardo Diaz Mendoza, and Israel Contreras. All of the indigenous people depicted in the film were Maya. Similar to Gibson's earlier film "The Passion of the Christ", all dialogue is in a modern approximation of the ancient language of the setting. Here, the Indigenous Yucatec Mayan language is spoken  with subtitles, which sometimes refer to the language as Mayan. This was the last film Gibson directed until 2016's "Hacksaw Ridge" ten years later. Set in Yucatán, Mexico, around the year 1502, "Apocalypto" portrays the hero's journey of a young man named Jaguar Paw, a late Mesoamerican hunter and his fellow tribesmen who are captured by an invading force. After the devastation of their village, they are brought on a perilous journey to a Mayan city for human sacrifice at a time when the Mayan civilization is in decline. The film was a box office success, grossing over  $120 million worldwide, and received mostly positive reviews, with critics praising Gibson's direction, Dean Semler's cinematography, and the performances of the cast, though the portrayal of Mayan civilization and historical accuracy were criticized. The film was distributed by Buena Vista Pictures in North America and Icon Film Distribution in the United Kingdom and Australia. Plot. While hunting in the Mesoamerican rainforest, Jaguar Paw, his father Flint Sky, and their fellow tribesmen encounter a contingent of fleeing refugees, and the group's leader explains that their lands were ravaged and asks for permission to pass through the jungle . Flint Sky notes that the refugees were sick with fear and urges Jaguar Paw to never allow fear to infect him. Later that night, the tribe gathers around an elder who tells a prophetic story about a being who is consumed by an emptiness that cannot be satisfied, despite having all the gifts of the world offered to him, and who will continue blindly taking until there is nothing left in the world for him to take, and the world is no more. The next morning, the village is attacked by raiders led by Zero Wolf; huts are set  on fire, many villagers are killed, and the surviving adults are taken prisoner. During the attack, Jaguar Paw lowers his pregnant wife Seven and their young son Turtles Run into a pit. Returning to the fight, Jaguar Paw nearly kills the sadistic raider Middle Eye, but is eventually captured. When Middle Eye realizes that Flint Sky is Jaguar Paw's father, he kills Flint Sky and mockingly renames Jaguar Paw "Almost". The raiders tie the captives together and set out on a long forced march through the jungle, leaving the children behind to fend for themselves. Meanwhile, Seven and Turtles  Run remain trapped in the pit after a suspicious raider severs the vine leading out of it. As the party approaches the raiders' Mayan city, they encounter razed forests and vast fields of failed maize crops, alongside villages decimated by an unknown disease. They then pass a little girl infected with the plague who prophesies the end of the Mayan world. Once the raiders and captives reach the city, the females are sold into slavery while the males are escorted to the top of a step pyramid to be sacrificed before the Mayan king and queen. Two captives are sacrificed , but as Jaguar Paw is laid out on the altar, a solar eclipse gives the high priest pause, and the Mayans take the event as an omen that the gods are satisfied and conclude the ceremony, sparing the remaining captives. They are then taken by the raiders to be used as target practice and offered freedom if they can run to safety. Jaguar Paw suffers an arrow wound, but escapes into the jungle, killing Zero Wolf's son Cut Rock in the process. Zero Wolf and Middle Eye take their men to chase after him. Fleeing back into the jungle , Jaguar Paw remembers his father's lesson about fear and resolves to kill his pursuers. The raiders are killed off one by one, including Zero Wolf and Middle Eye, until only two men are left. Later, heavy rain begins to fall, threatening to drown Jaguar Paw's family, who are still trapped in the pit. Seven gives birth to another son, who is born under the surface of the dangerously rising water. Meanwhile, the two remaining raiders chase Jaguar Paw towards the coast, where all three are astonished at the sight of Spanish conquistadors making their way to the shore . As the two raiders are confounded by the Spanish ships, Jaguar Paw uses the distraction to flee and return to his village. Jaguar Paw returns just in time to save his family from the flooding pit, and is overjoyed at the sight of his newborn son. Later, the reunited family looks out over the water at the Spanish ships. Jaguar Paw decides not to approach the strangers, and they depart, returning into the jungle to seek a new beginning. Production. Screenplay. Screenwriter and co-producer Farhad Safinia first met Mel Gibson while working as an assistant during the post-production  of "The Passion of the Christ". Eventually, Gibson and Safinia found time to discuss "their mutual love of movies and what excites them about moviemaking". Gibson said they wanted to "shake up the stale action-adventure genre", which he felt was dominated by CGI, stock stories and shallow characters and to create a footchase that would "feel like a car chase that just keeps turning the screws." Gibson and Safinia were also interested in portraying and exploring an ancient culture as it existed before the arrival of the Europeans. Considering both the Aztecs and the Maya, they eventually chose the  Maya for their high sophistication and their eventual decline. The two researched ancient Maya history, reading both creation and destruction myths, including sacred texts such as the "Popul Vuh". In the audio commentary of the film's first DVD release, Safinia states that the old shaman's story (played by Espiridion Acosta Cache, a modern-day Maya storyteller) was modified from an authentic Mesoamerican tale that was re-translated by Hilario Chi Canul, a professor of Maya, into the Yucatec Maya language for the film. He also served as a dialogue coach during production. As they researched the script, Safinia  and Gibson traveled to Guatemala, Costa Rica and the Yucatán Peninsula to scout filming locations and visit Maya ruins. Striving for a degree of historical accuracy, the filmmakers employed a consultant, Richard D. Hansen, a specialist in the Maya and assistant professor of archaeology at Idaho State University. As director of the Mirador Basin Project, he works to preserve a large swath of the Guatemalan rain forest and its Maya ruins. Gibson has said of Hansen's involvement: "Richard's enthusiasm for what he does is infectious. He was able to reassure us and make us feel secure that what  we were writing had some authenticity as well as imagination." Other scholars of Mesoamerican history criticized the film for what they said were numerous inaccuracies. A recent essay by Hansen on the film and a critical commentary on the criticisms of the film is now published. Gibson decided that all the dialogue would be in the Yucatec Maya language. Gibson explains: "I think hearing a different language allows the audience to completely suspend their own reality and get drawn into the world of the film. And more importantly, this also puts the emphasis on the cinematic visuals, which are a  kind of universal language of the heart." Costumes and makeup. The production team consisted of a large group of make-up artists and costume designers who worked to recreate the Maya look for the large cast. Led by Aldo Signoretti, the make-up artists daily applied the required tattoos, scarification, and earlobe extensions to all of the on-screen actors. According to advisor Richard D. Hansen, the choices in body make-up were based on both artistic license and fact: "I spent hours and hours going through the pottery and the images looking for tattoos. The scarification and tattooing was  all researched, the inlaid jade teeth are in there, the ear spools are in there. There is a little doohickey that comes down from the ear through the nose into the septum – that was entirely their artistic innovation." An example of attention to detail is the left arm tattoo of Seven, Jaguar Paw's wife, which is a horizontal band with two dots above – the Mayan symbol for the number seven. Simon Atherton, an English armorer and weapon-maker who worked with Gibson on "Braveheart", was hired to research and provide reconstructions of Maya weapons. Atherton also has a cameo  as the cross-bearing Franciscan friar who appears on a Spanish ship at the end of the film. Set design. Mel Gibson wanted "Apocalypto" to feature sets with buildings rather than relying on computer-generated images. Most of the step pyramids seen at the Maya city were models designed by Thomas E. Sanders. Sanders explained his approach: "We wanted to set up the Mayan world, but we were not trying to do a documentary. Visually, we wanted to go for what would have the most impact. Just as on "Braveheart", you are treading the line of history and cinematography. Our  job is to do a beautiful movie." However, while many of the architectural details of Maya cities are correct, they are blended from different locations and eras, a decision Farhad Safinia said was made for aesthetic reasons. While "Apocalypto" is set during the terminal post-classic period of Maya civilization, the central pyramid of the film comes from the classic period, which ended in AD 900, such as those found in the Postclassic sites of Muyil, Coba, and others in Quintana Roo, Mexico, where later cities are built around earlier pyramids. The temples are in the shape of those of  Tikal in the central lowlands classic style but decorated with the Puuc style elements of the northwest Yucatán centuries later. Richard D. Hansen comments, "There was nothing in the post-classic period that would match the size and majesty of that pyramid in the film. But Gibson ... was trying to depict opulence, wealth, consumption of resources." The mural in the arched walkway combined elements from the Maya codices, the Bonampak murals (over 700 years earlier than the film's setting), and the San Bartolo murals (some 1500 years earlier than the film's setting). Filming. Gibson filmed "Apocalypto" mainly in  Catemaco, San Andrés Tuxtla and Paso de Ovejas in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The waterfall scene was filmed at Eyipantla Falls, located in San Andrés Tuxtla. Other filming by second-unit crews took place in El Petén, Guatemala. The film was originally slated for an August 4, 2006, release, but Touchstone Pictures delayed the release date to December 8, 2006, due to heavy rains and two hurricanes interfering with filming in Mexico. Principal photography ended in July 2006. "Apocalypto" was shot on high-definition digital video, using the Panavision Genesis camera. During filming, Gibson and cinematographer Dean Semler employed  Spydercam, a suspended camera system allowing shooting from above. This equipment was used in a scene in which Jaguar Paw leaps off a waterfall. A number of animals are featured in "Apocalypto", including a Baird's tapir and a black jaguar. Animatronics or puppets were employed for the scenes injurious to animals. Soundtrack. The music to "Apocalypto" was composed by James Horner in his third collaboration with director Mel Gibson. The non-traditional score features a large array of exotic instruments and vocals by Pakistani singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. Distribution and marketing. While Mel Gibson financed the film through  his Icon Productions, Disney signed on to distribute "Apocalypto" for a fee in certain markets under the Touchstone Pictures label in North America, and Icon Film Distribution in the UK and Australia. The publicity for the film started with a December 2005 teaser trailer that was filmed before the start of principal photography and before Rudy Youngblood was cast as Jaguar Paw. As a joke, Gibson inserted a subliminal cameo of the bearded director in a plaid shirt with a cigarette hanging from his mouth posing next to a group of dust-covered Maya. A clean-shaven Gibson also filmed  a Mayan-language segment for the introduction of the 2006 Academy Awards in which he declined to host the ceremony. On September 23, 2006, Gibson pre-screened the unfinished film to two predominantly Native American audiences in the US state of Oklahoma, at the Riverwind Casino in Goldsby, owned by the Chickasaw Nation, and at Cameron University in Lawton. He also did a pre-screening in Austin, Texas, on September 24 in conjunction with one of the film's stars, Rudy Youngblood. In Los Angeles, Gibson screened "Apocalypto" and participated in a Q&A session for Latin Business Association and for  members of the Maya community. Due to an enthusiastic response from exhibitors, Disney opened the film on more than 2,500 screens in the United States. Themes. According to Mel Gibson, the Mayan setting of "Apocalypto" is "merely the backdrop" for a more universal story of exploring "civilizations and what undermines them". The background to the events depicted is the terminal Postclassic period, immediately prior to the arrival of the Spanish, 1511, which the filmmakers researched before writing. The corrosive forces of corruption are illustrated in specific scenes throughout the film. Excessive consumption can be seen in the extravagant lifestyle of  the upper-class Maya, their vast wealth contrasted with the sickly, the extremely poor, and the enslaved. Environmental degradation is portrayed both in the exploitation of natural resources, such as the over-mining and farming of the land, but also through the treatment of people, families and entire tribes as resources to be harvested and sold into slavery. Political corruption is seen in the leaders' manipulation, the human sacrifice on a large scale, and the slave trade. The film shows slaves being forced to create the lime stucco cement that covered the temples, an act that some historians consider a  major factor in the Maya decline. One calculation estimates that it would take five tons of jungle forestry to make one ton of quicklime. Historical consultant Richard D. Hansen explains, "I found one pyramid in El Mirador that would have required nearly 650 hectares (1,600 acres) of every single available tree just to cover one building with lime stucco... Epic construction was happening... creating devastation on a huge scale." The filmmakers intended this depiction of the Maya collapse to have relevance for contemporary society. The problems "faced by the Maya are extraordinarily similar to those faced today by our own  civilization," co-writer Safinia stated during production, "especially when it comes to widespread environmental degradation, excessive consumption and political corruption". Gibson has stated that the film is an attempt at illustrating the parallels between a great fallen empire of the past and the great empires of today, saying "People think that modern man is so enlightened, but we're susceptible to the same forces – and we are also capable of the same heroism and transcendence." The film serves as a cultural critique – in Hansen's words, a "social statement" – sending the message that it is never a mistake to question  our own assumptions about morality. However, Gibson has also stated that he wanted the film to be hopeful rather than entirely negative. Gibson has defined the title as "a new beginning or an unveiling – a revelation"; he says "Everything has a beginning and an end, and all civilizations have operated like that". The Greek word (, "apokaluptō") is in fact a verb meaning "I uncover", "disclose", or "reveal". Gibson has also said a theme of the film is the exploration of primal fears. Reception. Critical response. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 65% based  on 200 reviews, with an average rating of 6.40/10. The site's critical consensus reads: ""Apocalypto" is a brilliantly filmed, if mercilessly bloody, examination of a once great civilization." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. Richard Roeper and guest critic Aisha Tyler on the television show "Ebert & Roeper" gave it "two thumbs up" rating. Michael Medved gave "Apocalypto" four stars (out of four) calling the film  an adrenaline-drenched chase movie and "a visceral visual experience." The film was released less than six months after Gibson's 2006 DUI incident, which garnered Gibson much negative publicity and magnified concerns some had over alleged antisemitism in his previous film, "The Passion of the Christ". Several key film critics alluded to the incident in their reviews of "Apocalypto": In his positive review, "The New York Times" A. O. Scott commented: "say what you will about him – about his problem with booze or his problem with Jews – he is a serious filmmaker." "The Boston Globe"s review came to a  similar conclusion, noting that "Gibson may be a lunatic, but he's our lunatic, and while I wouldn't wish him behind the wheel of a car after happy hour or at a B'nai Brith function anytime, behind a camera is another matter." In a negative review, Salon.com noted "People are curious about this movie because of what might be called extra-textual reasons, because its director is an erratic and charismatic Hollywood figure who would have totally marginalized himself by now if he didn't possess a crude gift for crafting violent pop entertainment." "Apocalypto" gained some passionate champions  in the Hollywood community. Actor Robert Duvall called it "maybe the best movie I've seen in 25 years". Director Quentin Tarantino said, "I think it's a masterpiece. It was perhaps the best film of that year. I think it was the best artistic film of that year." Martin Scorsese, writing about the film, called it "a vision," adding, "Many pictures today don't go into troubling areas like this, the importance of violence in the perpetuation of what's known as civilization. I admire "Apocalypto" for its frankness, but also for the power and artistry of the filmmaking ." Actor Edward James Olmos said, "I was totally caught off guard. It's arguably the best movie I've seen in years. I was blown away." In 2013, director Spike Lee put the film on his list of all-time essential films. In Mexico, the film registered a wider number of viewers than "" and "Rocky Balboa". It even displaced memorable Mexican premieres such as "Titanic" and "Poseidon". According to polls performed by the newspaper "Reforma", 80% of polled Mexicans labeled the film as "very good" or "good". Awards. For his role as producer and director of the film, Mel Gibson  was given the Trustee Award by the First Americans in the Arts organization. Gibson was also awarded the Latino Business Association's Chairman's Visionary Award for his work on "Apocalypto" on November 2, 2006, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. At the ceremony, Gibson said that the film was a "badge of honor for the Latino community." Gibson also stated that "Apocalypto" would help dismiss the notion that "history only began with Europeans". Representation of the Maya. Many writers felt that Gibson's film was relatively accurate about the Maya, since it depicts the era of decline  and division that followed the civilization's peak, collapse, re-settlement, and proto-historic societal conditions. One Mexican reporter, Juan E. Pardinas, wrote that "this historical interpretation bears some resemblances with reality ... Mel Gibson's characters are more similar to the Mayas of the Bonampak's murals than the ones that appear in the Mexican school textbooks." "The first researchers tried to make a distinction between the 'peaceful' Maya and the 'brutal' cultures of central Mexico", David Stuart wrote in a 2003 article. "They even tried to say human sacrifice was rare among the Maya." But in carvings and mural  paintings, Stuart said: "we have now found more and greater similarities between the Aztecs and Mayas." Richard D. Hansen, who was a historical consultant on the film, stated that the effect the film will have on Maya archaeology will be beneficial: "It is a wonderful opportunity to focus world attention on the ancient Maya and to realize the role they played in world history." However, in an interview with "The Washington Post", Hansen stated the film "give[s] the feeling they're a sadistic lot", and said, "I'm a little apprehensive about how the contemporary Maya will take it." Some  observers were less cautious. William Booth of "The Washington Post" wrote that the film depicts the Maya as a "super-cruel, psycho-sadistic society on the skids, a ghoulscape engaged in widespread slavery, reckless sewage treatment and bad rave dancing, with a real lust for human blood", despite its historical accuracy. Gibson compared the savagery in the film to the Bush administration, telling British film magazine "Hotdog", "The fear-mongering we depict in the film reminds me of President Bush and his guys." Just prior to its release, "Apocalypto" was criticized by activists in Guatemala, including Lucio Yaxon, who charged  that the trailer depicts Maya as savages. In her review of the film, anthropologist Traci Ardren wrote that "Apocalypto" was biased because "no mention is made of the achievements in science and art, the profound spirituality and connection to agricultural cycles, or the engineering feats of Maya cities". "Apocalypto" also sparked a strong condemnation from art history professor Julia Guernsey, a Mesoamerican specialist, who said, "I think it's despicable. It's offensive to Maya people. It's offensive to those of us who try to teach cultural sensitivity and alternative world views that might not match our own 21st  century Western ones but are nonetheless valid." Human sacrifice. "Apocalypto" has been criticized for portraying a type of human sacrifice which was more typical of the Aztecs than of the Maya. Archaeologist Lisa Lucero said, "the classic Maya really didn't go in for mass sacrifice. That was the Aztecs." Anthropology professor Karl Taube argued that, "We know the Aztecs did that level of killing. Their accounts speak of 20,000." According to the film's technical advisor, the film was meant to describe the post-classic period of the Maya when fiercer influences like the Toltecs and Aztecs arrived. According  to Hansen, "We know warfare was going on. The Postclassic center of Tulum is a walled city; these sites had to be in defensive positions. There was tremendous Aztec influence by this time. The Aztecs were clearly ruthless in their conquest and pursuit of sacrificial victims, a practice that spilled over into some of the Maya areas." Anthropology professor Stephen Houston made the criticism that victims of sacrifice were more likely to be royalty and elites rather than common forest dwellers, as shown in "Apocalypto". Anthropology professor Karl Taube criticized the film's apparent depiction of widespread slavery, saying, "We  have no evidence of large numbers of slaves." Another disputed scene, when Jaguar Paw and the rest of the captives are used as target practice, was acknowledged by the filmmakers to be invented as a plot device for igniting the chase sequence. Some anthropologists objected to the presence of a huge pit filled with rotting corpses near the fields of the Maya. Hansen states that this is "conjecture", saying that "all [Gibson was] trying to do there is express the horror of it". "The Washington Post" reported that the famous Bonampak murals were digitally altered to show a warrior holding  a dripping human heart, which is not present in the original. Ending. According to the DVD commentary track by Mel Gibson and Farhad Safinia, the ending of the film was meant to depict the first contact between the Spaniards and Mayas that took place in 1511 when Pedro de Alvarado arrived on the coast of the Yucatán and Guatemala, and also during the fourth voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1502. The thematic meaning of the arrival of the Europeans is a subject of disagreement. Traci Ardren wrote that the Spanish arrivals were Christian missionaries and that the film had a  blatantly colonial message that the Mayas needed saving because they were 'rotten at the core.' According to Ardren, the Gibson film "replays, in glorious big-budget technicolor, an offensive and racist notion that Maya people were brutal to one another long before the arrival of Europeans and thus they deserved, in fact, they needed, rescue. This same idea was used for 500 years to justify the subjugation of Maya people." On the other hand, David van Biema questions whether the Spaniards are portrayed as saviors of the Mayas since they are depicted ominously and Jaguar Paw decides to return to  the woods. This view is supported by the reference of the Oracle Girl to those who would "Scratch out the earth. Scratch you out. And end your world." However, recalling the opening quote to the film ("A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within"), professors David Stuart and Stephen Houston have written the implication is that Postclassic Mayans had become so corrupt that they were "a civilization ... that deserves to die."