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Gibson Talks About Mayan Apocalypto

MTV News' Kurt Loder interviews Mel Gibson here:

Loder: Did you have any doubts about making this movie in Mayan, with unknown actors?

Gibson: Yeah. But I just felt a compulsion to tell that story in that way. It's hard and it's brutal, but I think it's appropriate for the time and the subject matter. I've been criticized ...

Loder: By people who haven't seen movies like "Hostel," apparently, which is a far more violent picture.

Gibson: Well, I think so. "Hostel" was a horrifyingly violent film. I don't think ours is gratuitous. I think it's less violent than "Braveheart." It is violent, yeah. But it was a violent culture. Just thank God we didn't show you the enemas.

Loder: The enemas?

Gibson: Yeah. There are whole Mayan wall murals devoted to guys getting enemas from these women in public. It would have been like public enema number one. So we did spare you that. Critics who call this movie a bloodbath — I don't know, I think that's a little over the top.

Here's a part of a long dissection of Apocalypto's Mayan culture by Luis J. Rodriguez, author of Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. Via the RockRap newsletter:

Two weeks ago, Trini and I went to see Apocalypto, the Mel Gibson film about Mayans in the Yucatan a moment (according to Gibson) before the Spanish conquerors arrived to the so-called New World (in reality most Mayans had abandoned the thousands of structures in culturally advanced urban centers some 600 years before the Spanish ever set eyes on these shores). ...

Schickel's LAT Op-Ep: Apocalypto = Infantile Porn

The Los Angeles Times has a must-read Op-Ed by Time film critic Richard Schickel psychoanalyzing Mel Gibson and "Apocalypto:"

I know the movie topped the box-office charts last weekend. But I suspect that in the end, "Apocalypto" will perform like your average horror movie — doing well with bloodthirsty adolescent males for three days, then dropping 50% or 60% the following week. Maybe we should just let it die its death. Generally, we do not comment extensively on road kill. We just avert our eyes and hurry on past it.

Like Kenneth Turan ("Bloody movies needn't be black and white"), Schickel too contrasts Gibson's take on violence with Clint Eastwood's:

I thought that was particularly true of Kenneth Turan, writing a follow-up piece in this newspaper in which he compared Gibson's approach to that of Clint Eastwood in his two current releases, "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters From Iwo Jima," both of which depict death and make us question its military necessity but do not linger on the agonies of the final moments of people we've come to admire in the course of the films. This is, one might say, old-fashioned moviemaking, and the two films are the better for Eastwood's discretion. Or should we say his maturity? Full story. -- posted by sheigh

Gibson's Apocalypto: Super-Real, Super-Violent

Any cinephile will want to see Apocalypto, because it boasts bravura filmmaking. The squeamish may want to put down their popcorn, especially in the opening scenes. Director and co-writer Mel Gibson loves to shock us. Red-blooded action fans will get their adrenaline rush, assuming they can manage the subtitles. One could imagine actors playing these roles in English, but it wouldn't be as real. Gibson is seeking authenticity.

There's never a dull moment. The best sequences are like the one pictured above: Indians running full-tilt through the jungle, muscles rippling, hearts pumping to the max, tracked by cinematographer Dean Semler's cameras whizzing through the blurry underbrush. (Sheigh Crabtree reports on those cameras in the LAT on Sunday.)

Gibson wanted to film a chase movie, close to the ground, and that's exactly what he did. Some scenes make us gasp at their audacity and beauty—there's a moment when the sky turns dark and our exhausted hero turns to see the flash of his pursuers' torches in the forest, moving relentlessly toward him. The cameras go everywhere: over the river, through the trees, under the water.

But Gibson is compelled to go too far, sometimes ludicrously. He removes pumping hearts from heaving chests, lops off sacrificial heads and bounces them down the Mayan Temple steps. Blood spurts out of an artery at a 90 degree angle. Much of the mayhem and carnage is hard to take. One can argue for realism, but on the other hand, the many strokes of luck that spare our young hero's life—and we very much want him to live—stack up a tad implausibly.

Apocalypto recalls John Huston's The Man Who Would Be King (without any English-speaking white people) in the way Gibson takes us back to an exotic ancient culture. It also has the atavistic violence of the Indian films Black Robe and The Fast Runner. Apocalypto is unpredictable. Even Green. ("I'm no tree hugger," Gibson insisted to EW.) The message seems to be: don't mess with Mother Nature, or she will kick your ass.

Dare I say it? The movie could nab an Oscar nom or two. Maybe Cinematography, like The Passion of the Christ, which also earned noms for Makeup and Original Score. If Gibson hadn't misbehaved, it might have been more.

Here's Peter Travers in Rolling Stone. And here's THR's Kirk Honeycutt.

EW Coverboy Gibson Talks

I'm seeing Apocalypto tonight. Mel gave his early interview to EW's Allison Hope Weiner, and while the internet will be raging about his sympathetic comments about Michael Richards—the rest of the interview makes fascinating reading. Having gotten to know Gibson a bit over the years, I've always liked him. That doesn't mean he doesn't have issues. He admits he gets angry, especially when he drinks, and messes up. And he loves to make violent movies (he says this one isn't as violent as Braveheart, but he includes some shots he wants most people to look away from!).

The movie started out as a chase movie. And then he thought it could be a foot-chase movie. With Indians. And it took off from there. He cast unknowns, and wanted the movie to be virtually silent and dialogue free. Acting is about breathing with the emotions, he says. Read it yourself.

I like this guy for being interesting, original, independent. (He voted neither Democratic or Republican in the last election—he went Independent.) Hollywood messes up every movie star in its own way. They are paid way too much to stay sane about it. How can they possibly deserve those millions? They're all narcissists, by default. Some become raging egomaniacs. Some are power-mad. Some try to fix the world. Some are control freaks. Some are just strange and wacko. At least Gibson—who is still married, and has seven kids— puts his money into his art, and tries to give us stuff we haven't seen before.

After I see the movie, more anon.

Apocalypto Screening Reaction

An exhibitor wrote in with a response to Apocalypto, which I cannot wait to see tomorrow night:

Saw APOCALYPTO yesterday. Gibson borrows from everything...NAKED PREY, CARRIE, APOCALYPSE NOW, WOMAN IN THE DUNES, etc. Unbelievable violence, non-stop action, way too looooong, lots of grotesque ugly warriors and one stunningly beautiful pregnant Bollywood-looking actress in danger and a particular subtitle that will have the audience (unintentionally) on the floor laughing.

Masters on Mel's Apocalypto

How will Disney market a Mayan movie with subtitles, directed by tarnished star Mel Gibson? NPR's Kim Masters explains Apocalypto.

Gibson and Mad Max 4: Fury Road

It's hard to believe that the original Mad Max was first released back in 1979. George Miller's Australian post-apocalyptic sci-fi film starred Mel Gibson as a motorcycle-riding loner bent for revenge in the dystopian gang-ridden Australian wilderness. Two viscerally stylish sequels followed, Mad Max 2 (The Road Warrior), and Mad Max 3 (Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome). Gibson was set to shoot Mad Max 4: Fury Road with Miller in Namibia in 2003, but the filmmaker couldn't get his equipment in by ship after the start of the Iraq War, and the movie was cancelled two months before it was to start filming.

Now that Miller's Happy Feet and Gibson's Apocalypto are about to hit theaters, Miller is ready to set up Fury Road again, although he has two other projects to make first, he says, and he doubts that Gibson is very interested in acting anymore. He's still pals with Gibson, whom he has known since he was 21 years old. "With all the turmoil and his brilliance," he says, "he's a sweet man. He's got his dark side, which is what gives him his charisma. There's a lovely quality to him that he has not lost over the years. I have seen the worst side of him when he is drunk, too. He's angry at himself, he's got that in him."

Pitching Apocalypto

Pitch of the Week:

From: "Amy Currie"
To:
Sent: Tuesday, November 07, 2006 8:50 AM
Subject: Interview Opp: Gibson's "Apocalypto" Raises Questions About Mayan Calendar Doomsday Predictions
Hello,

With the upcoming release of Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto" (Dec. 8), his first film since the 2004 blockbuster "The Passion of the Christ," public interest in both the troubled actor and the film has sparked debate about the ancient Mayan civilization depicted in the film. Will the world end in 2012? The Mayan calendar says yes. According to Mayan calculations, the current cycle of the world is due to end on the winter solstice, December 21, 2012, when there is an astronomical alignment of the sun in the center of our galaxy.

At a recent pre-screening of "Apocalypto" in Austin, Texas, Gibson said, "I don't mean to be a doomsday guy, but the Mayan calendar does end in 2012, boys and girls. Have fun!" With the increasing interest in doomsday predictions, evidenced by the ongoing popularity of the "Left Behind" series among Evangelical Christians, many Biblical scholars are weighing in with their opinions on the Mayan calendar and how it relates to Christian end-times prophecy. Biblical prophecy expert Terry James, editor of RaptureReady.com, the #1 Biblical prophecy website on the Internet, believes that the Mayans might not be too far off in their calculations. "Certainly, this generation is looking today at
things geopolitically,geophysically, socio-economically, spiritually, and even astrophysically, that line up almost precisely with the way Jesus and the Old and New Testament prophets foretold they would be aligned just before Christ's second coming," says James.

James is the author of "The Rapture Dialogues: Dark Dimension" (VMI/Musterian Press, 2006), a new book that explores the connection between UFOs, spiritual warfare and end-times prophecy, as well as "Are You Rapture Ready? Signs, Prophecies, Warnings, Threats, and Suspicions that the Endtime is Now" (Penguin/Plume 2004). He is also a member of the PreTrib Research Center Study Group, founded by Dr. Tim LaHaye, co-author of the "Left Behind" series. As a source, James can discuss issues such as:
The Mayan calendar and its accuracy: will the
world end in 2012?
"Apocalypto" and its relation to the popular trend of doomsday predictions
How current events connect to end-times prophecy
Future world events that will bring about the Rapture
Would you like to set up an interview or receive a review copy of his book?

Thank you for your consideration,

Amy Currie, Phenix Publicity, Austin, TX

Gibson Puts DUI Behind Him

While I was pleased that the LAT's Tim Rutten quoted from Friday's THR Mel Gibson piece, he was a tad rough on Gibson's motives for submitting to grilling from Good Morning America's Diane Sawyer. Of course he's trying to clear the air so that he can move on to sell his December release, Apocalypto. Nor does Gibson want the DUI controversy to be used to publicize the movie. His PR handler's mission is to help his client accomplish these things. It was up to Gibson to do a good job of it. (I loved the bit about splashing water on his face and hair to make his mug shot look good.) Clearly, it is easier for Gibson to cop to his alcoholism, which is a nasty disease to battle, than it is to dig into the root causes of his feelings about Jews. Yes, he was angry about how The Passion of the Christ was handled by the press, sight unseen, and he has issues with the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East. But he still hasn't untangled all the old tapes in his head. I'm a Yankee fan and a knee-jerk Democrat mainly because I was raised that way.

Gibson Makes Amends

Mel Gibson is a raging alcoholic, and I felt for the guy as he submitted to grilling from Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America. Clearly, he was sweating it as he talked about his "public humiliation on a global scale." When he cited his wife Robin, I saw his pain. But his usual jokey charm didn't serve him well in this situation. Tomorrow he will try to answer the question of where the raw material for his anti-semitic comments came from. "It has to come from somewhere," he said.

Gibson's ABC Confessions

With his December Disney movie Apocalypto to flog, Mel Gibson taped his double-whammy appearances on Disney-owned ABC's Good Morning America, set to air Thursday and Friday. Here's the advance promo with video clip on ABC.com. Gibson's anti-semitic comments when he was pulled over for drunk driving on July 28 were "just the stupid rambling of a drunkard," he told Diane Sawyer. He said that he had not had a drink in 65 days: "it's...it's poison," he said.

Gibson Meets Sawyer

Set your TiVos for Good Morning America Thursday and Friday, when Diane Sawyer will give Mel Gibson a chance to explain himself. The guy knows what he is doing, so we can assume that he will be duly penitent about his drinking and driving and anti-semitic ranting. But I wonder if Sawyer will push Gibson to repudiate his father the holocaust denier's beliefs. That will be the Big Question.

Gibson Inspires Law & Order Episode

Poor Mel. He previews Apocalypto in Austin to change the conversation to the film—and maybe some anti-Iraq politics—and now Law & Order is putting his infamous DUI arrest back in the news.