For Mel Gibson, a New Movie and More NotorietyAn early look at the movie—which is scheduled for release by Disney on Dec. 8—shows it to have at least some of the earmarks of an Oscar picture, including epic sweep and considerable ambition. The movie, shot entirely in an ancient Indian dialect, tells the story of a peaceful Mayan village that is violently conquered one morning by another Mayan tribe. Many of the inhabitants are brutally killed, and others are taken captive.
The story focuses on one villager, a man named Jaguar Paw, played by an American Indian newcomer named Rudy Youngblood, who survives the attack and struggles to escape captivity and save his wife and child.
In the course of the adventure, Mr. Gibson’s film portrays life in a huge Mayan city, constant warfare, slave culture and chilling scenes of human sacrifice.Comment: You can see a long trailer on the movie's
official website. Check it out.
Apocalypto may be violent and bloody, but it also looks like it could be the most spectacular movie about Natives ever.
11 comments:
Writerfella here --
As stated rather succinctly elsewhere in these blogs, opinions about the film APOCALYPTO at this early stage merely beg the question without truly answering it. Oscar buzz would be most premature and likely finds its source in clever (and not-so-clever) plants by publicists. Having won once as Best Director means Gibson has a chance he could repeat the feat but there is nothing evident now that says it might be this time around with this film.
We'll just have to bide our time, and wait, and see.
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
I don't want to create a positive buzz for a right-winger like Gibson. But judging by the trailer, Apocalypto does look gorgeous. I'm willing to speculate that it deserves a nomination for art direction, at least.
On the other hand, I get the sense that people are correct in saying the movie is bloody and violent. It appears to focus on warfare and human sacrifice as if that's all the Maya did. If that's the case, Gibson is likely to win a big, fat Stereotype of the Month award.
With his spate Bush bashing, Gibson is at least trying to look like a left-winger now.
My other comment is about the Apocalypto photo accompanying this news item. Am I the only one that thinks it looks like a still from a videogame? There's a CGI look to it.
Maybe it's just the resolution, but the image looks like it could be a painting. But watch the trailer. I don't think you'll see much that looks like CGI.
Writerfella here --
Great Coogamooga! What now? Are we to find ourselves the victims of Computer-Generated Stereotypes? What else will evolving technologies bring? (LOL)
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
Writerfella here --
Something happened today that has prompted me to write yet another post at this time. A Native photojournalist from Ch. 9 (CBS) in Oklahoma City convinced the head news editor to let him come to Anadarko and interview writerfella about his role in the STAR TREK mythos. The reason being that all of the TV stations in OKC were doing a 40th anniversary story about the STAR TREK original series, and the photojournalist knew that writerfella is the Oklahoma connection to that celebration. My story will be totally different, he promised, and so they sent him here. He arrived at 10 am, and writerfella was amazed to find that the man with whom he had spoken since last February was a Native, Choctaw in fact. By his telephone voice from February on, I was led to conclude he was Caucasian. He explained that he had been adopted by Caucasian parents when he only was two months old. What a surprise!
And so we conducted an interview about writerfella's role in the history of STAR TREK, and how it all came about. The item will be edited into a four or five minute special report on Ch. 9 news tomorrow (Friday) evening. Because the item will be a 'video stream' from the station's website, I will enclose the web address, should any of you wish to see the item.
To the point: my STAR TREK was about the Mayan god, Kukulkan, and it only peripherally deigns to explain why the Mayas became reduced to human sacrifice and barbarism. Because (in my story) Kukulkan did not reappear when they finished the requisite city, they built the city again, and again, and again, many times, until the Central American jungles were rife with abandoned Mayan cities. The god never came back and so, the Maya becoming desperate to call him back by any means possible, they built the human sacrifice wells and finally conducted human dismemberment sacrifices in their many temples. Finally, they subsided, and then quickly embraced the arrival of the Europeans because they thought the white men to be Kukulkan or at least his emissaries.
Thus, with the film APOCALYPTO depicting the strife and warfare and human sacrifice as if that was all the Mayas did, it is true to reality because at that point of nearness to final cultural collapse, it truly WAS all they were doing. Their entire racial energy had become focused on somehow bringing Kukulkan back to live among them, no matter the costs.
Strange how one kind of understanding then leads to further understandings of other aspects of the same topic. If the reception of APOCALYPTO even comes close to the audience acceptance of "How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth," then writerfella's own prediction that the film will open well and then fade away, may not come true. After all, I've been there, and done that, and then came away successful.
What a world, what a world...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
Writerfella here --
POSTSCRIPTUM: here is the we b address for that streaking video:
http://www.newsok.com
Hope that works!
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
Writerfella here --
Okay, no one 'streaked' in the video as was broadcast. Sometimes I type faster than my brain can control. The item played at 4:55 pm this afternoon. The 'streaming video' version of the same news report will be on the Ch. 9 (KWTV) website after 12 noon Saturday. Once again, the website is
http://www.newsok.com
writerfella is grateful that, roughly every 7 years or so, he gets another 15 minutes of fame, either nationally or merely in his own home state. With The Animated STAR TREK coming out on DVD two days before Thanksgiving this year, he might even get 30 minutes. What writerfella wishes to know is, where does he put the components of such fame this time? His closet almost is full!
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
I'm going to have to find the Animated Trek on DVD. My earlier ignorance about the episode you wrote is due to the fact that I saw the Trek cartoons when they were first aired (once or twice) and have not seen them anywhere since.
I suggest you get the novelizations of the animated Star Trek by Alan Dean Foster. They add the depth that was necessarily missing in the half-hour shows. Foster's version of Yesteryear is one of the best Trek stories ever.
Writerfella here --
As always, a most insightful suggestion by Rob. And please know that writerfella's episode is novelized in STAR TREK LOG 6. The original paperbacks from Ballantine were single books, but then they combined them into three books, and then again into two quality paperback (textbook size) issues. When Alan Dean Foster was set to do the Animated episodes as books, he latched onto me at the sci-fi gathering, WesterCon, in the LAX Hilton. I supplied him with the shooting script, all the background notes and research, the animation storyboard, and then all the bits and pieces that had to left out for time considerations. Later, at ComicCon, he thanked me and said writing the prose version of 'Serpent's Tooth' was the easiest one of them all because he had the whole picture to work with.
But I agree with Rob that Dorothy Fontana's "Yesteryear" is the best of all the animateds because the story pleases both adults and the children at which the show was aimed.
All Best
Russ Bates
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