Apocalypto
The Mayan kingdom is at the height of its opulence and power but the foundations of the empire are beginning to crumble. The leaders believe they must build more temples and sacrifice more people or their crops and citizens will die. Jaguar Paw hides his pregnant wife and his son in a deep hole nearby their tribe and is captured while fighting with his people.
4 July 1964, Spain
14 August 1985, Veracruz, Mexico
15 May 1967, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
1970, Mexico City, Mexico
27 December 1960, La Guaiara, Venezuela
8 May 1955, New Mexico, USA
21 September 1982
November 07, 2012
Damn if the movie, through Mel's sheer determination, doesn't almost turn from a fight-n-flight gore fest into a moving meditation on a civilisation in the throes of decline. Almost.December 30, 2006
This is by no means a boring film, then, but it is a grotesque one, and that brings it pretty close to camp.December 08, 2006
It's unlike any other movie to reach theaters this year and, because it is as visual an experience as it is visceral, it is best seen on a large screen.November 06, 2010
Ignore Apocalypto's symbolic hubbub and instead view it for Gibson's perverse sense of entertainment. His passionate spectacle of human destruction and doom packs a terrific visceral punch.July 18, 2014
A quite exciting spectacle based on a racist version of indigenous history, one in which the genocidal conquistadors are the New World's liberators.June 29, 2007
Apocalypto demonstrates two things: that Mel Gibson is a hell of a filmmaker and that his imaginative world borders on the Neanderthal.December 30, 2006
As a piece of filmmaking it's certainly strong enough to restore his commercial viability. Whether that's to the good is another question entirely.October 22, 2013
Apocalypto isn't simply an effective movie, but an immensely powerful one: a benchmark and a foresight seemingly all rolled into one.August 28, 2009
Nothing if not visceralDecember 11, 2006
Mel Gibson is a real artist as a director.July 06, 2010
Shot with digital camera on location in Mexico, Mel Gibson has created a visually stunning action/adventure epic that although has divided many with its historical accuracy, has spared no expense in bringing life to a world before European colonization.December 11, 2006
[Gibson] has learned how to tell a tale, and to raise a pulse in the telling. You have to admire that basic gift, uncommon as it is in Hollywood these days, though equally you have to ask what obsessions goad it on.