Apocalypto

Apocalypto

Apocalypto is based on the Mayan civilization. They are reaching the end of their period while they suffer from famine and illnesses like leprosy. Mayan warriors attack the village of Jaguar Paw a local hunter, so they can capture the men for sacrifice and the woman for slavery. Jaguar Paw goes through a great ordeal and obstacles to escape driven by the love of his family to return and rescue them from a water hole he placed them in to avoid capture.

The realism of Apocalypto lies in every scene. There are many actual events similar to the film for example the capture of village tribes by the Mayans for sacrifice. The Mayans believed that blood from the sacrifice men would cure the thirst of the gods and they would be rewarded with the removal of the plague that was over running there city. The high temples shown in the film is another form of realism. The Mayans build pyramids for the gods to show their love and devotion to them in the film the temple city that we see is Chichen itza which was the major focal point in the northern Maya lowlands.

The lighting and camera motion used was incredible. In the scene where Jaguar Paw is placed on the stone for his sacrifice was fantastic they were able to reproduce a solar eclipse. The color contrast on that particular scene was well maintained the lighting made everything still stand out even with the shadow over seeing the people. The Angel shot over seeing the eclipse was key for them to be able to pull it off as well as they did especially when focusing from the top of the pyramid down. They had a fast paced camera motion there was so much background movement that they needed to keep up with like the rolling of the severed heads rolling down the pyramid while the people jumping up and down celebrating.

Mel Gibson wanted to reproduce the reality of the Mayan people the struggles and beliefs that surrounded them and the local tribes in that period. That’s why I believe he choose to the shoot the...