Run Through the Jungle

Apocalypto. Rudy Youngblood, Dalia Hernandez, Jonathan
Brewer, and Morris Birdyellowhead star in a film written by Farhad
Safinia and Mel Gibson and directed by Gibson.

Reviewed by Josef Woodard

Mel Gibson has been getting a bad rap lately for assorted
misdeeds and misspeaking, and most of the scowling scrutiny is due
to a focus on the artist rather than the art. Meanwhile, however,
his directorial chops have soared. He has effectively transformed
himself from a goofy B-level marquee actor to an important voice in
American film, not to mention a bold individualist who dares to
work outside the system to follow his heart and mind as an
artist.

The Passion of the Christ is a brilliant film, the finest
crucifixion story to hit the big screen (and necessarily, the most
violent). The new Gibson film, Apocalypto, doesn’t quite rise to
that level, but Gibson does deliver a riveting and unprecedented
vision of native Maya life, in the Maya tongue and without the
Dances with Wolves syndrome of a white heroic interloper in the
mix.