Celluloid Confetti

In my last blog, I confessed that I had finally taken sides in the format war that - in a series of whimpers rather than bangs - is raging in seldom-visited corners of the internet.

So yes, I have a Blu-Ray player, and no, it hasn’t caused my hair to become thicker or more luxuriant.

(For that, I will require the blood of a virgin, and, I am guessing, a miracle)

While I am waiting for my hair to grow, you can browse MovieMail’s complete selection of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray titles here.

Making the jump to HD has allowed me to revisit one of my favourite films of the year - ‘Mad’ Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto.

Now, as I may have said elsewhere, if the Reichstag burns down, I do hope they don’t appoint Mel Gibson Chancellor, but there is no denying that the star of What Women Want has turned into a remarkable filmmaker.

Ok, actually, I can’t back that up.

You see, I didn’t like Braveheart at all - I thought Rob Roy was a much more satisfying kilts n’ caber caper. And I haven’t seen The Passion of the Christ.

So I am pretty much basing my entire opinion of Mel’s new-found talent on Apocalypto.

But if you can get past the fact that the plot is basically Tom and Jerry in the jungle, Apocalypto is a fantastic slice of cinema, and a perfect showcase for digital film-making.

Much of the movie is shot using High-Definition cameras, giving the freedom of motion provided by a camcorder, but with an output that approaches the quality of 70mm.

Many of the scenes are shot with natural lighting, lit entirely by flames and torches, and the effect reminded me of those anthropological documentaries I sat through at University, only you really feel you are there, sitting by the fireside, getting mauled by the mosquitos.

All this digital shenanigary means that Apocalypto is a perfect Blu-Ray film, and the perfect way to show off your new High-Def telly.

The pixels leap from Mel’s camera straight onto the screen.

(well, technically I am sure the image is compressed and processed in all sorts of clever ways, but you get the idea)

Infact, a friend I was watching the film with complained that the picture was actually too clear.

Well, I am resolutely pro-clarity. And I love Apocalypto to bits.

A lot of people hated it, however.

(though I think this probably has more to do with Mel Gibson than anything about the film itself)

Many of the film’s more outspoken critics are anthropologists, perhaps leery of a Hollywood director crossing over into their turf.

Cultural anthropologist Liza Grandia found Apocalypto to be “deeply racist”. She said:

The Maya in the film bore no resemblance to the hardworking farmers, teachers, lawyers, doctors, businessmen and women of Maya descent that I know personally and consider among my closest friends.”

(given that Apocalypto is set around 1500AD, this must surely come as an enormous relief!)

And in an article entitled Apocalypto flunks Anthro 101 criticises the film for showing Mayans in apparent awe of a solar eclipse - in fact, the Mayans had very good astronomers.

Well, I really think del Campo needs to watch the film again, because the scene in question is far cleverer than he gives it credit for.

Don’t forget, the Mayans may have had astronomers, but they also had politicians…

The main criticism levelled against Apocalypto is that it shows the Mayans as savages in need of redemption by the Conquistadors.

In an article titled Is Apocalypto Pornography? Traci Ardren of the University of Miami put it thusly:

Gibson replays, in glorious big-budget technicolor, an offensive and racist notion that Maya people were brutal to one another long before the arrival of Europeans and thus they deserve, in fact they needed, rescue.”

Maybe it’s just me, but I think Apocalypto’s ending says the exact opposite.

The only ‘rescuing’ that takes place is by our hero, an ordinary Mayan villager, who is neither brutal nor savage, and uses violence simply for the purposes of 1) killing and eating cute defenceless tapirs and 2) protecting his family.

Gibson’s point is that only so-called civilisations elevate the act of killing into a profession or an art-form.

Perhaps Apocalypto’s critics need to retake Film Studies 101?

All this controversy!

(Not bad for a film that’s just Tom and Jerry in the jungle!)