Maybe it was Mad Max.
It was independently financed and was such a success that it had an entry in the Guiness book of records for the highest profit to cost ratio for a motion picture before it was recently overtaken by The Blair Witch Project. Had Mel not had that experience, maybe he would have not had the confidence to self finance 'The Passion' and 'Apocalptyo.'
It also had the Australian accents removed by the studio in post production. Maybe he felt so strangled he now likes to prove American cinema-goers are ok to stump up to see films in Aramaic and Mayan languages.
One of the tag lines for Max is: In the future, cities will become deserts, roads will become battlefields and the hope of mankind will appear as a stranger.
For Apocalptyo we have: When the End Comes Not Everybody Is Ready To Go.
Mel is also more than a bit mad and likes making extremely violent films. Given that he said of a New York Times writer who accused him of flaming anti-semitism: “I want to kill him. I want his intestines on a stick. I want to kill his dog” maybe it is not surprising to see his latest offering continuing the trend.
Apocalypto is an entertaining, bonkers movie set around 600AD in Mesoamerica, immediately before the Spanish conquest and the decline of the Mayan civilisation.
It opens with a small part of the tribe on a hunt and when they successfully kill a boar, there is a scene of easy tranquility as the group bonds and provides pre-Viagra fertility advice and treatment for a member seemingly desperate for the invention of the turkey baster.
Two scenes later comes the inevitable regime change as the community is raided by a hitherto undetected neighbouring tribe keen on recruiting some fleshy raw materials for their urban slavery and sacrifice initiative.
A young father, a Ronaldinho look-a-like called Jaguar Paw, is not ready for his family to become organ donors and hides his pregnant wife and child in a hole in the ground, and bravely gets himself captured.
The film becomes a “there and back again” tale of Jaguar Paw’s plight and it is rollicking, if over long, entertainment. We are asked to wonder if he can return to rescue his wife and child as he pursued by a group led by an antagonist who is an enthralling combination of Yul Brynner in Westworld mode, the crapped upon Orc in The Fellowship of The Ring and Lord Humungous from Mad Max 2.
One of Apocalypto’s joys comes from spotting how many bits have been pre-owned from other narratives as well known snippets are extricated from their comfort zone and placed in a superbly created Mesoamerica to see how they cope. Proudly displaying their adaptability are moments reminiscent of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance kid, The Planet of The Apes, the viewer’s choice of Sergio Leone showdown pics and, (spot this one childhood nerds!) Tintin’s 'Prisoners of the Sun'.
Sometimes a little bit of cheese wafts its way in, particularly towards the end, and we are asked to believe that Jaguar Paw is capable of some amazing feats of endurance but this is a boy’s own film to watch. It is beautifully shot, has some great action and, bizarrely, even features mother in law gags that are humourous, both intentionally and unintentionally.
It is historically inaccurate but no matter - it banishes the January blues and had Mel not turned up for the Mad Max audition, complete with bruised face from the previous night’s bar brawl, we would not be able to enjoy this projection of his persecution complex. Cinematically at least, we should be glad he’s not yet ready to go.
It was independently financed and was such a success that it had an entry in the Guiness book of records for the highest profit to cost ratio for a motion picture before it was recently overtaken by The Blair Witch Project. Had Mel not had that experience, maybe he would have not had the confidence to self finance 'The Passion' and 'Apocalptyo.'
It also had the Australian accents removed by the studio in post production. Maybe he felt so strangled he now likes to prove American cinema-goers are ok to stump up to see films in Aramaic and Mayan languages.
One of the tag lines for Max is: In the future, cities will become deserts, roads will become battlefields and the hope of mankind will appear as a stranger.
For Apocalptyo we have: When the End Comes Not Everybody Is Ready To Go.
Mel is also more than a bit mad and likes making extremely violent films. Given that he said of a New York Times writer who accused him of flaming anti-semitism: “I want to kill him. I want his intestines on a stick. I want to kill his dog” maybe it is not surprising to see his latest offering continuing the trend.
Apocalypto is an entertaining, bonkers movie set around 600AD in Mesoamerica, immediately before the Spanish conquest and the decline of the Mayan civilisation.
It opens with a small part of the tribe on a hunt and when they successfully kill a boar, there is a scene of easy tranquility as the group bonds and provides pre-Viagra fertility advice and treatment for a member seemingly desperate for the invention of the turkey baster.
Two scenes later comes the inevitable regime change as the community is raided by a hitherto undetected neighbouring tribe keen on recruiting some fleshy raw materials for their urban slavery and sacrifice initiative.
A young father, a Ronaldinho look-a-like called Jaguar Paw, is not ready for his family to become organ donors and hides his pregnant wife and child in a hole in the ground, and bravely gets himself captured.
The film becomes a “there and back again” tale of Jaguar Paw’s plight and it is rollicking, if over long, entertainment. We are asked to wonder if he can return to rescue his wife and child as he pursued by a group led by an antagonist who is an enthralling combination of Yul Brynner in Westworld mode, the crapped upon Orc in The Fellowship of The Ring and Lord Humungous from Mad Max 2.
One of Apocalypto’s joys comes from spotting how many bits have been pre-owned from other narratives as well known snippets are extricated from their comfort zone and placed in a superbly created Mesoamerica to see how they cope. Proudly displaying their adaptability are moments reminiscent of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance kid, The Planet of The Apes, the viewer’s choice of Sergio Leone showdown pics and, (spot this one childhood nerds!) Tintin’s 'Prisoners of the Sun'.
Sometimes a little bit of cheese wafts its way in, particularly towards the end, and we are asked to believe that Jaguar Paw is capable of some amazing feats of endurance but this is a boy’s own film to watch. It is beautifully shot, has some great action and, bizarrely, even features mother in law gags that are humourous, both intentionally and unintentionally.
It is historically inaccurate but no matter - it banishes the January blues and had Mel not turned up for the Mad Max audition, complete with bruised face from the previous night’s bar brawl, we would not be able to enjoy this projection of his persecution complex. Cinematically at least, we should be glad he’s not yet ready to go.
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