Tag Archives: apocalypto

Apocalyptic Monster Mash

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I was drawn to how the films, like Professor Quinby noted in the essay, differed in their specific messages and the willingness of each film (or director/writer) to deliver a socially pertinent message.

I echo the sentiments that Eric made in his post – I found myself watching clips of Apocalypto before seeing the film as a whole, and struggled to make sense of how it “fit” with me. It is clear to me now that it lies within the film’s means of being unsettled with itself, by which I mean that it kind of splits between being post-apocalyptic and pre-apocalyptic, instead of having any definite message that underlies the piece.

I was largely interested in the gender dynamic and the idea of a futuristic, or urban setting versus the, as Colby worded, “rural,” setting of Apocalypto. In a way, the apocalypse that occurs within Apocalypto happens with such an emphasis on the “natural” – the birth, the wilderness, and of course the on-coming threat of the Spanish invasion that, to me, was a step into modernization and colonialization that can be considered “unnatural.” However, the theme in Apocalypto is split regarding its thematic message.

Then there is 28 Days Later which focuses on this very present, but also futuristic idea of a pandemic. This setting is also tied to this specialization – people being pets, people being prostitutes, and things serving both very specific animalistic and scientific needs. There is also this idea of experimenting – when Major West examines the man to see how long he’ll starve, which is a reiteration of the experimenting on the chimp, or the “natural world.” That obviously leads to a kind of destructive pandemic, which is both the natural – a bodily, biological thing – and also an unnatural.

Then, with Children of Men set in 2027, there is this totally futuristic setting but this problem, of science and nature, of people no longer being able to procreate. There is the attempt to save this one, natural, pregnant woman but it’s also a very unnatural event. This movie to me felt very layered and I still am thinking through aspects of it.

Apocalypto’s Ending

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Viewing Apocalypto, 28 Days Later, and Children of Men (All for the second time, incidentally) and reading “The Days are Numbered,” I found it most difficult to wrap my head around Gibson’s film, mainly because of how it ends. I first saw each of these movies shortly after they were released in theaters and enjoyed them all, though something about Apocalypto didn’t sit right, even with 14-year-old me. Quinby articulates my formerly ineffable misgivings in her essay, stating how Apocalypto “is both pre-apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic. This doubled effect of pre-and post-apocalyptic action is part of what gives the film its contradictory set of messages” (8).

Jaguar Paw’s journey as a hero is compelling enough, but the arrival of the Spanish coming on its heels–to me, at least–devalues the story somewhat; it’s almost as if Gibson calls “take backs” on the tale he just presented to his audience. Can one really imagine that Jaguar Paw and his family will hide and somehow survive the Spanish decimation of the Mayans? I guess it could be argued that the ending is ambiguous, but knowing the history, even the most fervent of optimists would have to learn toward “no”. If that’s the case, then the “new beginning” Jaguar Paw and his family go back to the forest to find is nothing more than a deferral of their obliteration at the hands of a different violent, oppressive group. That strikes me as an incredibly Nihilistic ending, one that a devout man such as Gibson probably didn’t intend to place in his film.

The movie’s tag line is “No one can outrun their destiny” (Quinby 7). Does this mean that being struck down by a larger, violent group is the destiny for Jaguar Paw and his family, and their escape at the end is merely a futile attempt to outrun the inevitable? This seems to be in direct opposition with sentiment of finding a “new beginning”. Maybe the more pertinent question is one that’s a bit more metaphysical: if Jaguar Paw and his family are soon found and killed by the Spanish, does that truly diminish his escape and his and Seven’s heroics that make up much of the film?