Apocalypto: over the top carnage

Mel Gibson makes it clear what we are supposed to find in Apocalypto by beginning the film with a quotation from historian Will Durant: A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within. The film is designed to show us the self-destruction of the once great Mayan society. We should then also be able to see the parallels between the decline of that society and what could be our own decline.

Without the Durant quotation, I'm not sure I'd see the film in that way. Come to think of it, I don't think I see it that way even with the quotation.

The story focuses on an agrarian Mayan village and the life of the people there. They are mostly hunter-gatherers. Their village is pleasant. The people are in many ways an extended family. They are a community in every sense of the word. Their lives are tied together in both times of joy and times of pain. Although their life is primitive, we see them as very like us with developed senses of humor, love and spirituality.

The film's conflict starts when invaders from the Mayan city come, destroying the village and taking the survivors as captives on a perilous journey to the great city where all manner of depravity is to be found. In the city there is opulence surrounded by terrible poverty. There is cruelty. There is corruption. After one of the villagers escapes, there is a vast chase as several of the invaders pursue him through the jungle as he tries to get home to rescue his family from their hiding place.

The film's strife is indeed an intercultural battle since all those involved are Mayas. But it really seems more a battle between the noble savage of the agrarian people and the evils of civilization. We are encouraged to identify with the villagers. They are the ones we've been allowed to get to know in a more intimate way. We have seen clearly how like us they are. We don't get a chance to understand the invaders or the city dwellers. They come across as purely evil and sadistic.

Perhaps part of what is missing from our understanding of this broad culture is about four thousand years of backstory. The Mayan civilization grew over millennia to reach a high level of sophistication, but we never see any of that. We see only the civilization after it has fallen into this level of corruption and depravity. Nothing in this film points to a better time in Mayan history. We see the fallen state, but have no idea from whence they fell. We don't see that the civilization "has destroyed itself from within."

Some viewers, of course, don't care what the director wants to say; they just want a thrilling movie. Those people might well be attracted to Apocalypto. The scenes of fighting, human sacrifice, and the pursuit through the jungle all fit into the adventure film mold. The chase through the jungle is exciting and stimulating.

But it needs to be mentioned that this is a very violent film. It is filled with grisly and graphic carnage. Gibson's previous films, Braveheart and The Passion of the Christ, also have high levels of violence. This one may be the most violent and gory of his films. The violence is far more than many, if not most, viewers will deem excessive.

Often violence is necessary in a film. The Godfather, Saving Private Ryan, Flags of our Fathers, and Hotel Rwanda all have significant violence that is intrinsic to the story. This story also requires violence to tell the story. But while violence must be shown in the film, here it is shown far more prominently and graphically than is needed. The film becomes not so much about the story as it does about how much carnage an audience can stand. When the violence takes precedence over the story, a film is badly off track. And even though this story may need violence, it is hardly worth the cruelty that viewers are assaulted with.