Last posts on apocalypto2024-03-29T12:25:24+01:00All Rights Reserved blogSpirithttps://www.hautetfort.com/https://www.hautetfort.com/explore/posts/tag/apocalypto/atom.xmlRatatoskhttp://euro-synergies.hautetfort.com/about.htmlMel Gibson’s Apocalyptotag:euro-synergies.hautetfort.com,2018-10-12:60963482018-10-12T08:23:12+02:002018-10-12T08:23:12+02:00 Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto By A. Graham ...
<header class="entry-header"><p style="text-align: center;"><img id="media-5898749" style="margin: 0.7em 0;" title="" src="http://euro-synergies.hautetfort.com/media/01/00/2308752842.jpg" alt="bf45e630ea7aaeb7845d964f4b552fa2.jpg" width="598" height="336" /></p><h1 class="entry-title"><span style="font-size: 24pt; font-family: 'arial black', sans-serif; color: #ff6600;"><strong>Mel Gibson’s <em>Apocalypto</em></strong></span></h1><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'arial black', sans-serif;"><strong><span class="entry-date" style="color: #999999;">By <cite>A. Graham</cite> </span></strong></span></header><header class="entry-header"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'arial black', sans-serif;"><strong><span class="entry-date" style="color: #999999;">Ex: http://www.counter-currents.com </span></strong></span></header><div class="entry-content"><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999999;">Mel Gibson’s <em>Apocalypto </em>is set in present-day Los Tuxtlas, Mexico in the year 1511 and depicts the final days of Maya civilization through the eyes of a man named Jaguar Paw. The main theme of the film is summarized by the Will Durant quote displayed at the beginning: “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it destroys itself from within.”</span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999999;"><em>Apocalypto</em> is hard to find: it is not sold on iTunes (except in New Zealand & Australia) or offered by any major streaming service (except Amazon in the UK). You can either torrent it or purchase the DVD. A low-quality version is also available on YouTube. Given the extent to which Mel Gibson is reviled by Hollywood Jews, one wonders whether the film’s limited availability is not coincidental. One would expect a recent blockbuster film by a renowned director to have a wider distribution.</span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999999;">The plot of <em>Apocalypto </em>is straightforward, and there is not much dialogue. It is not a cerebral film, despite its weighty social commentary; it is a blood-soaked and brawny visceral action-adventure film. Gibson was influenced by Cornel Wilde’s survival film <em>The Naked Prey</em>.</span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999999;"><img id="media-5898751" style="float: left; margin: 0.2em 1.4em 0.7em 0;" title="" src="http://euro-synergies.hautetfort.com/media/00/01/1169634267.jpg" alt="51hGaUaZvLL._SX355_.jpg" />The film does not fall short of its epic ambitions, and its success is a testament to Gibson’s vision and his technical mastery as a filmmaker. Even his many enemies have to admit that he is one of the most talented directors alive today.</span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999999;"><em>Apocalypto</em>’s opening sequences depict village life among Jaguar Paw and his tribesmen, showing them hunting in the forest. The dialogue is in the Yucatec Maya language. The viewer gets a taste of their primitive customs: they are shown eating organs, running about flailing their limbs, etc. After a short while, the village is raided, and all adult villagers are either murdered or taken captive.</span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999999;">The captives are led on a long march to an unnamed city. Along the way are signs of the ecological destruction that contributed to Maya civilization’s decline. They pass by one forest that has been razed to the ground entirely. They also encounter a diseased girl who prophesies the demise of the Maya.</span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999999;">Upon their arrival in the city, the females are sold into slavery, and the males are brought to a pyramid in order to be sacrificed to the god Kukulkan. The inhabitants of the city are decadent, corrupt, and neurotic. There is a large gap between the poor and the rich, with laborers coughing up blood as they pound rock on the one hand and the extravagantly dressed, plump upper class on the other. The high priest is a sadistic executioner and a charismatic demagogue pandering to the restless mob with bread-and-circuses spectacle. He stabs his victims and holds aloft their still-beating hearts while the mob cheers. The victims’ heads are then tossed down the pyramid, and their headless bodies are dumped in mass graves.</span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999999;">Jaguar Paw is nearly sacrificed but is spared after a solar eclipse convinces the high priest that Kukulkan’s thirst has been sated. He manages to escape, and the rest of the movie is an extended chase scene. It is long, but the skillful camerawork and throbbing score give it momentum and a gripping immediacy. The chase does not end until the raiders meet Jaguar Paw on the shore and spot conquistadors on the horizon.</span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999999;">The dichotomy between the primitive tribesmen and the decadent city people illustrates the extremes of the excesses of savagery and the excesses of civilization (luxury, neuroticism, etc.). Faced with the choice, Gibson’s sympathies lie with the former. The savages at least have a sense of honor: when one of the captives spots a sickly city-dweller wailing in the streets, he tells him to “die like a man.” Yet there are limits to their primitivism, evidenced by their inability to progress beyond an animal-like state. This is most obvious at the end of the film when the splendor of the Spaniards’ ships is juxtaposed with the tribesmen. Perhaps Gibson is making a statement about the necessity of achieving a balance between barbarism and civilization.</span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999999;">There are a few deviations from historical accuracy in the film. The large-scale practice of human sacrifice was more characteristic of the Aztecs, and victims of Maya human sacrifice were typically of higher status. The ships at the end would place the film in the early sixteenth century, but the setting and costumes are generally more reminiscent of the Late Classic Period (c. 600–900). But such quibbles are of secondary relevance; the greater themes of the film would be valid even if the setting were fictional.</span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999999;">One thing the film gets right is that the burning of trees in order to facilitate the conversion of limestone to mortar was a likely factor in contributing to the Maya’s demise. Every major monument was covered in lime mortar, and the increasing scarcity of wood exacerbated the internecine conflicts that were already ravaging the empire. Other contributing factors included overpopulation, drought, etc. (it is one of the most debated questions in archaeology, and there are dozens of theories). By the time the Spanish arrived, most Maya cities had been abandoned, and Maya civilization had been in decline for centuries.</span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999999;">Gibson has compared the environmental destruction and overconsumption in the film to the consumerism of modern society. He has also likened the Iraq War to a form of human sacrifice (I am reminded of <em>Adjustment Day</em>).[1] It is clear that Gibson believes that modern Western civilization is likewise in a state of decline and that overconsumption, decadence/softness, and corruption are among the causes of this. He rejects the Whig view of history espoused by modern liberals: “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.”[2] The title of the film itself comes from the Greek for “I reveal” and alludes to Gibson’s view that decline is followed by the uncovering of a new order in a cyclical process.</span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999999;">Critics who object to the unfavorable depiction of the Maya are missing the point. The film does not purport to depict the Maya at their height. Gibson and his co-writer deliberately chose to depict the Maya rather than the Aztecs precisely because they wanted to make a film about the fall of a great civilization, and the Maya were the more advanced of the two. The artistic and scientific achievements of the Maya during the Classic Period heighten the dramatic import of their downfall.</span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999999;">The distinguishing features of a civilization in decline are generally consistent across geography and time, and the parallels to the modern West are clear. We were once conquerors, but now we are the conquered. But, if Gibson’s view holds, a new beginning will someday emerge from the ruins of our dying civilization.</span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: #ff6600;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Notes</span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999999;">1. <a style="color: #999999;" href="https://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=2670750&page=1" rel="external">https://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=2670750&page=1</a> <sup>[2]</sup></span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999999;">2. <a style="color: #999999;" href="http://doubleexposurejournal.com/in-focus-mel-gibson/" rel="external">http://doubleexposurejournal.com/in-focus-mel-gibson/</a> <sup>[3]</sup></span></strong></span></p></div><div class="comments"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999999;"> </span></strong></span></div><footer class="footer"><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999999;">Article printed from Counter-Currents Publishing: https://www.counter-currents.com</span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999999;">URL to article: https://www.counter-currents.com/2018/10/mel-gibsons-apocalypto/</span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999999;">URLs in this post:</span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999999;">[1] Image: <span dir="ltr">https://www.counter-currents.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Apocalypto.jpg</span></span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999999;">[2] https://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=2670750&page=1: <span dir="ltr">https://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=2670750&page=1</span></span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999999;">[3] http://doubleexposurejournal.com/in-focus-mel-gibson/: <span dir="ltr">http://doubleexposurejournal.com/in-focus-mel-gibson/</span></span></strong></span></p></footer>
centrifugehttp://eklektik.hautetfort.com/about.htmlApocalyptotag:eklektik.hautetfort.com,2007-01-25:8309022007-01-25T18:00:00+01:002007-01-25T18:00:00+01:00 Une chose est certaine, Mel Gibson aime le sang. Apres la révolte écossaise...
<p align="justify"><img src="http://eklektik.hautetfort.com/images/thumb_apocalypto.jpg" alt="medium_apocalypto.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0.2em 1.4em 0.7em 0px; border-width: 0px" />Une chose est certaine, Mel Gibson aime le sang. Apres la révolte écossaise emmennée par William Wallace contre Edouard 1er d'Angleterre (<em>Braveheart</em>, 1995) et le calvaire de Jesus Christ (<em>La passion du Christ</em>, 2004), le neo-réalisateur s'attaque à l'énigme maya. Civilisation légendaire, les Mayas se sont brusquement effondrés, sans que l'on sache comment, ni pourquoi. Les archives sont incomplètes et le mystère demeure. Gibson a donc proposé une refléxion. Celle-ci est annoncée en tout début de film, à la fois comme problématique et comme solution : une citation qui affirme que toute civilisation détruite de l'extérieur, le fut d'abord de l'intérieur (c'est ce qui arrive la plupart des fois). En gros, le message est clair : les Mayas se sont entredéchirés (toute société est plus ou moins hetérogène) avant que les envahisseurs européens ne débarquent en Amérique et terminent le travail de mise à feu et à sang. Ainsi, dès la première minute du film, nous savions comment celui-ci allait se dérouler. Après la citation, une première scène décrivant une chasse au sanglier, nous annonce la couleur, et surtout la composition de la suite : une brutalité et une cruauté sans précédents (de nos jours, celles-ci revêtent d'autre formes, on emploie le gaz moutarde, sarin, polonium...), le pauvre animal est empalé par un énorme pic. Puis le mouvement lineaire se poursuit, 2 tribus se croisent dans la foret, il n'y a pas de confrontation mais les regards sont circonspects, méfiants, annonçant que les relations entre tribus d'une même civilisation ne sont pas nécessairement au beau fixe. Ensuite, un village est attaqué, décimé, les survivants sont faits prisonniers, emmennés à l'autre bout de la jungle pour être sacrifiés au dieu Kukuklan (comme Ku Klux Klan ?). On notera que les scènes de sacrifices sont exactement les mêmes que celles figurant dans la bande dessinée <em>Thorgal</em> (Les yeux de Tanatloc ; La cité du dieu perdu). Un seul prisonnier parvient a s'évader, la meute se met en mode poursuite et la suite du film est une impressionnante chasse à l'homme à travers une forêt aussi magnifique que dangereuse (le tout est tourné en caméra numérique). A la fin, notre héros se retrouve près du bord de mer. Il aperçoit les "conquistadors" débarquer... C'est ce qui gêne un peu, la structure du film est un peu simpliste, on dirait le schéma d'une dissertation : une intro (citation), le corps du sujet (attaque d'une autre tribu, chasse à l'homme), la conclusion (débarquement étranger APRES le déchirement inter-communautaire). Simpliste mais également flou au niveau du message idéologique. Que cherche vraiment à montrer le film ? que cette civilisation grandiose (très avancée culturellement et scientifiquement, disent les spécialistes) s'est tout d'un coup éteinte pour des raisons très simples finalement ? en raison du caractère stupide, primaire et violent de l'homme ? Car le film se résume en gros à cette course poursuite effrénée, et la refléxion n'est pas assez approfondie. Qu'en est-il par exemple de l'organisation politique de ces tribus ? des dissenssions internes ?... Il reste à ajouter que ce film est excellent dans sa forme (bien plus que dans son fond). Une photographie impressionnante (plusieurs prix remportés à des festivals), de très bons acteurs, pour la majorité d'entre-eux amateurs (recrutés au Mexique et en Amerique Centrale - le casting a dû couter des millions), un grand souci d'authenticité de la part du realisateur puisque le film est tourné en Yucateque (un dialecte maya), et au Mexique (les Mayas s'etendaient du Mexique au Honduras, en passant par le Bélize et le Guatemala).</p> <p align="justify"><strong>Apocalypto</strong> (Mel Gibson, USA, 2006, 137 mins). Avec Rudy Youngblood, Dalia Hernandez, Jonathan Brewer, Morris Birdyellowhead, Carlos Emilio Baez, Amilcar Ramirez, Israel Contreras.</p> <p align="justify"> - Meilleure photographie - Festival de Dallas 2006.</p> <p align="justify"> - Meilleure photographie - Festival de Phoenix 2006.</p> <p align="justify"> - 1 nomination aux Golden Globe 2006 - meilleur film de langue étrangère.</p> <p align="justify"> - Nominé comme meilleur film de langue étrangère - Festival de Chicago 2006.</p> <p align="justify"> - Nominé - meilleur film de langue étrangère - Festival de Londres 2006.</p>
Oderikhttp://lesvoyagesoderik.hautetfort.com/about.htmlVoyage de Patte de Jaguartag:lesvoyagesoderik.hautetfort.com,2007-01-11:8230002007-01-11T12:17:21+01:002007-01-11T12:17:21+01:00 Je suis allé voir hier soir le dernier film 'polémique' de Mel Gibson. Je...
<p><img src="http://lesvoyagesoderik.hautetfort.com/images/thumb_apocalypto.jpg" alt="medium_apocalypto.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0.2em 1.4em 0.7em 0px; border-width: 0px" />Je suis allé voir hier soir le dernier film 'polémique' de Mel Gibson. Je m'imaginait plus de monde dans la salle pour sa sortie, peut-être l'effet soldes.</p> <p>C'est effectivement assez violent, ce n'est pas un film de gonzesses comme the holyday. Mais ce n'est pas aussi sanguinolent que prédit. L'histoire est assez banale, l'intéret résidant dans le fait qu'elle se situe dans une cité précolombienne d'amérique centrale. On voit assez peu la cité hélas, je ne sait si la représentation est conforme ou non, je laisse ça aux spécialistes.</p> <p>J'ai été troublé par quelques incohérences comme une poursuite en pleine jungle en pleine nuit en courant. Je veux bien que d'excellents traqueurs puissent suivre une piste mais en courant dans la jungle avec des torches j'ai un doute. Je ne sais pas pourquoi mais la fin du film me fait un peu penser à Rambo. j'ai aussi eu du mal avec quelques mouvements de caméra lors des courses dans la jungle ainsi qu'avec la fausse panthère/jaguar.</p> <p>En résumé un film qu'on peut aller voir si l'on n'est pas rebuté par un peu de sang et de violence, sans espérer un chef-d'oeuvre, qui a pour mérite de présenter un environnement peu connu.</p> <p>-------------------</p> <p><img width="82" src="http://lesvoyagesoderik.hautetfort.com/images/thumb_fleur-de-sel.jpg" alt="Sel" height="84" style="float: left; margin: 0.2em 1.4em 0.7em 0px; border-width: 0px" /></p>