APOCOLYPTO CRITIQUE

Apocolypto is a formalist film with many technical elements.  The portrayal of emotion is reliant on many film techniques such as shot and angles.  This movie does a good job using these techniques to show emotional and intellectual ideas.

            Apocolypto has a lot of appealing qualities to it.  It has violence, romance, and a lot of suspense.  Generally speaking, it’s a good plot.  The viewer is drawn to like the Mesoamerican tribe and their simple yet happy lifestyle.  The outfits they have are earthy and non-threatening.  Then when the dominant Mayans are introduced, you loath their existence.  They are dressed in skulls and have many more tattoos/piercings.   A large part of the movie is that back and forth between the two tribes and the theme of the strong taking over the weak.  More specifically, you really feel for the main character, Jaguar Paw, who stands up against the Mayans.  Its pretty miraculous how he escapes from their imprisonment and fights off a lot of their men. 

            In this movie there were a lot of extreme close up/ close up shots.  They focused in on just the characters face or even closer areas such as the mouth or eyes.  The reason for this type of shot was to let the viewer clearly see what the character was feeling by their facial expressions.  Especially when the prisoners were waiting to be sacrificed, you could really see fear on their faces.  Fear was probably the most prominent emotion in the movie.  By knowing what the character is feeling, the viewer can understand what is going on and also speculate as to what will come next.

            I thought this movie was exiting and suspenseful.  The props/outfits were really believable and it felt like a very accurate representation of the Mayan civilization.  It was clear that a lot of work went into visual aspects of the film.  It directing also won me over, with the use of different shots and angles.   I would definitely recommend it to someone.