Mel Gibson's Apocolypto
So, if you have not seen the trailer for the new Mel Gibson flick Apocolypto, you are missing out. The cinematography looks great, and Mel Gibson is a good director, even if you disagree with his position on religion.
It promises to be West Side Story minus music plus Ancient Maya plus the Sandlot plus Dodgeball.
The best I can tell from what limited information the teaser trailer provides is that this is the tale of two rival Mayan gangs competing for the great Sun Award. The Sun Award is given to the winning team of the Ball Game Tournament. The Mayan ball game, for those discultured, is a sport in which hips, legs, and the head are used to get the ball in a hoop or across a line.
This is a surprisingly formulaic tale brought into new focus in the context of the Mayan culture. The underdog group of kids are not picked to be on the main team named The Solarz. Upset, they start their own team, The Scruffs.
In the first match of the season, the Scruffs and the Solarz are pitted against each other in league play. Needless to say, the Scruffs loses horribly and embarrassingly to the well-face-painted and heavily-jeweled Solarz.
The Scruffs quickly fall to the bottom of the Ball Game stats and give up hope. As they are hanging around a broken old temple, they come upon a old drunkard named Fulo McHuhcro. McHuhcro, along with his panther Pibil, help the Scruffs learn the skills of Ball Game well enough for them to make it to the tournament.
After they get to the tournament, the details released by Icon Productions are limited. What can be known is that McHuhcro used to be a great Apocolypto, or great player of Ball Game. His story is told in flashbacks throughout the film of his fall from grace. So there is that subplot.
I hope you enjoyed this sneak peek behind Apocolypto. Hopefully such a formulaic idea will turn out well in the context of Mayan culture and focusing more on the mentor figure than before.
Comments
When will Mel make a trilogy about the conquest of Mexico?
Ranger
Posted by: Ranger | January 21, 2006 10:25 PM
This movie looks as if mel combined gigli,the corre,and doom into one giant suckfest. mel gibson is an overconfident, egotistical asshole who in my opinion should get uninvolved with all of hollywood itself. i would rather gouge out my eyes and eat them rather than contribute 50 cents to this assholes movie.
Posted by: ryan coleman | May 21, 2006 08:41 PM
I'm glad to see that an obscure Mayan dialect is being used in the film, it would be worth going to watch it just to hear the dialogue!
Posted by: TerryAllen | August 1, 2006 12:05 PM
Hello, Hola, Bax Ka' Wa' Liik,
I lived in the Yucatan Peninsula for 2 years (2003-2005) preaching an ancient book called The Book of Mormon. Written in ancient "reformed" Egyptian. The Mayan language was certainly derived from this. This book tells of origins of the western hemisphere coming from the middle east some 600 years B.C.. I spent 2 years studying Mayan culture (Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Labna, Coba, and others). I met then President Fox of Mexico and told him about this story. I learned "chan piit" of the Mayan language (chan piit : a little). I never saw the
Passion of Christ as I was in Mexico at the time of its release. I know of Mr. Gibson's recent remarks after his arrest on suspicion of a DUI. I think he means good for all people and his comments shouldn't be misconstrued. I can link the recent events of Cuba into this email. My program director in Yucatan took this same book that I speak of into Cuba and introduced it to Fidel Castro. Mind you, he is a Mexican. I am excited about Apocolypto. The ancient Mayans were the strongest in revolt to the Spanish Conquest and still are very independent. There are ancient myths of a white bearded (feathered serpant) that was to "save" the people of that land. In Guatemala exists a stone panel relief of a depiction of a story of this book.. The relief is called: The Tree of Life. It depicts this story 600 years BC.
I would like to learn more about this (The Apocolypto) project.
Posted by: Trottier, Ian | August 2, 2006 11:24 AM
Take your mission elsewhere Moony. Maya Languages (there are more than 40 distinct indigenous languages in Guatemala alone!) are certainly NOT derived from Egypt. The writing style it is based on was developed by the Olmec people, and Olmec occupation of southern Mexico predates 600BC by a long shot. Anyone studying Anthropology, Archeaology, or language in Yucatan, Chiapas, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, or El Salvador can tell you the same. As far as Mel's movie goes - I heard the story was written before he chose the location and language of the movie. It could have been shot in Africa, or anywhere else. The costumes and language will draw me to the movie, but they are coincidental contexts decided upon by an extremely nutty director. ciao!
Posted by: Yunam Pax | August 3, 2006 12:10 PM
This ones for Ranger. Not to be rude or anything but, I can understand if ure callin Mel down because maybe you met him and found out hes an asshole or maybe you dont like his movies but, if ure dissing him because he made a christian movie about Christ then, go to hell buddy, better yet go join a hate group or a anti-christ/athiest group or something so you can waste ure time letting the whole world know how much you hate christians, geta life buddy. people like you are weak.
Posted by: Tony | September 19, 2006 08:56 PM
I think the movie will be good. But to this day we are still uncertain what exactly happened to the mayan civilization. truthfully I think it would have been cooler to have made a movie about the end of the aztec civilization, when the east truly met the west. Still, I honor Gibsons originality, this time period and location has not been covered by Hollywood in 40 years.
Posted by: Greyson Jones | September 20, 2006 11:19 PM
I wonder if Mel uses the famed plummed archers as depicted in the computer game age of empires II. I will see this movie to see them in action. Also... to see a famous mexican sacrifice. They take a captured beaten person, take he/she to the top of the pyramid, cut his/ her heart out, and then toss them down the stairs.
Posted by: Grey Jones | September 20, 2006 11:30 PM
what a coincidence! i have always been interested in studying maya culture (in my opinion, the coolest of the ancient central american cultures) and just recently have written up some historical fiction about it. i cannot wait to see this flick, regardless of the director, in the hopes that it will help me better visualize what their life was like.
and it is theorized that the ball games ended in human sacrifice, i would so much like to see a maya priest remove someone's heart and roll the body down the stairs.
Posted by: Taylor | October 9, 2006 03:15 PM