Apocalypto

Mel Gibson has officially gone insane, said Lisa Schwarzbaum in Entertainment Weekly. To his drunken binges and anti-Semitic rants now add 'œthe weirdest, most violent movie of the year.' A movie about a young tribesman on the run from his cruel Mayan overlords, starring mostly unknown actors speaking ancient Yucatec, would have been bizarre enough. But Apocalypto ups the ante with a never-ending parade of violence, including but not limited to testicle-chomping and ritual slaughter. Gibson films the orgy of human sacrifice at the film's center with a sadistic glee that's 'œperilously close to porn.'

I can't imagine watching Apocalypto again, said Joe Morgenstern in The Wall Street Journal. But I wouldn't have missed it. 'œA visionary work with its own wild integrity,' this gory and gorgeous work overflows with thrilling action sequences, dazzlingly staged and beautifully filmed. Gibson seems to be following in the steps of early cinematic masters Erich von Stroheim and D.W. Griffith, controversial directors 'œwho combined the power of primitivist themes with the razzle-dazzle technique at their command.' As in a great silent film, there are breathless chases, damsels in distress, an ill-boding solar eclipse, and even (literal) cliffhangers.

In other words, though Apocalypto claims to be history, it's pure Hollywood, said Claudia Puig in USA Today. The impressionistic blur of incident and brutality seems intended to hide a total lack of context. The Maya were a scientifically advanced people that built cities and developed writing. But 'œfor Gibson, the Mayans seemed to have been all about decapitated heads and extracted, still-beating hearts.' Set aside their language and costumes, and they could be any oppressive regime, anywhere.

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That seems to be Gibson's point, said A.O. Scott in The New York Times. Mayan civilization, he suggests, was conquered by the Spanish only after rotting from within. Draw your own lessons about contemporary America. Like two previous Gibson films, Braveheart and The Patriot, Apocalypto concerns simple folk standing up to illegitimate authority. But though this fits with Gibson's 'œconservative, anti-imperialistic' politics, it also taps into audiences' natural tendency to root for the underdog. Mischaracterized as 'œeither a monster or genius,' Gibson is a shrewd businessman who knows his customer.

So let's stop the psychoanalyzing, said Mick LaSalle in the San Francisco Chronicle. Apocalypto only 'œseems like it was made by a crazy person.' More disturbing than anything that it says about Mel Gibson may be what it tells us about ourselves. During the decapitation sequences, 'œthe onscreen crowd's screaming affection for blood-sport rituals, of the kind in which Gibson specializes, is offered up as evidence that their culture is heading into the abyss.' Looks like we've beaten them to it.

Rating: R