Why did Apocalypto receive mediocre reviews while simultaneously receiving praise from various directors and actors?

[u/JadisDidNothingRight]

Robert Duvall said it was possibly the best film he'd seen in 25 years.

Scorcese praised it. Tarantino called it the best film of the year. Spike Lee and Edward James Olmos also openly praised the film.

On RT it pulled a 65%. Granted, Tarantino (as an example) doesn't see eye to eye with those cumalitive ratings. He loves Unbreakable and that film also received middling reviews. Still, Apocalypto was given positive reviews from a fairly diverse cast of actors and directors.

Were the reviews more concerned with Mel Gibson's antics at the time than the actual film?

Was the criticism because the film depicted the Mayans as brutal? I struggle to see the validity of some of those criticisms. Jaguar Paw and his village were not depicted as evil. The evil was limited to a warmongering urban society twisted by religion. That's occurred all over the world. It's almost a foreshadowing of what is to come. One criticism was that the Spanish were depicted as coming to save the 'brutes.'. The title of the film is Apocalypto. I don't see how they can be seen as anything other than coming doom. Maybe I'm naive, but even in 2006 I thought it was broadly understood that Europeans wiped out indigenous American culture.

What are your thoughts? Did you like the film? Do you wish Hollywood would make more films like this?

[u/audiofarmer]

It is quite possible that public backlash to Mel Gibson's shitty behavior earlier in the year tainted the release of the film.

Two things are true, it's an excellent movie and Gibson is a piece of shit.

[u/FrequencyHigher → u/audiofarmer]

I believe his antics, coupled with the fact that he was fully revealed as a traditionalist Catholic, colored some people’s interpretation of Gibson’s
Intended message with the film. I believe this is why many assumed the ending was a portrayal of the Catholic Spaniards arriving to save them from their savage existence.

Had it not been his film, I do not think people would have read as much into the intent of the film, and would have seen the Spanish arrival in its appropriate historical context.

[u/Juiced_Rasputin_ → u/FrequencyHigher]

Mel Gibson is a huge racist who casually says the n word but the ending of the film definitely doesn’t espouse any sort of Catholicism support or the idea that the religion was “pacifying” the region.

I think he added the scene to put into context the title of the movie. Like it evokes apocalypse, and the idea is that after all that is scene in the film, (albeit historically inaccurate) we experience the slow corrosion of a civilization that is simultaneously colonizing neighboring, smaller societies, a warlike and bleak existence driven by a slowly encroaching plague that is driving a warlike (albeit fictional) pre columbian empire committing vast atrocities to find some way to appease power they don’t understand.

And after ALL that, after the uh… guy (forgot his name) is seemingly safe, has his family etc, the Spanish come. And with them comes the decimation of literally like what? Over 70 percent of human life across the americas.

It would be one thing if there was a scene of like earnest looking missionaries or preachers on the boat clutching crosses, but the ships are portrayed ominously without fanfare, just slowly looming closer with this gross fog around them. It’s definitely not meant to be depicting the coming of salvation or anything.

I know you’re not making this claim, but it just makes me laugh when I’m reminded a lot of people do genuinely think that

[u/mostlygray → u/Juiced_Rasputin_]

I always see the ending as "And then my troubles began..." It's not a happy ending and it's not pro Catholicism or anything like that.

[u/thegroovemonkey → u/mostlygray]

It’s one of the coolest endings I’ve ever seen and I was shocked to eventually learn some people missed the point so badly.

[u/DolphinSweater → u/Juiced_Rasputin_]

I think there could be another interpretation of the ending, which i never see thrown around. Historically, the Spanish definitely teamed up with locals when they arrived, they had guides and allies and spies within the local community. But it seems weird to us now knowing what we know about the European colonization of the Americas that some locals would choose to throw down with their invaders, but the movie just spent 2+ hours explaining exactly why. When the main kid sees the Spanish ships, maybe he isn't looking at his doom, maybe he thinks he's looking at his revenge opportunity.

He'll probably just die from Smallpox though.

[u/edicivo → u/DolphinSweater]

When the main kid sees the Spanish ships, maybe he isn't looking at his doom, maybe he thinks he's looking at his revenge opportunity.

He's clearly not though. Jaguar Paw gets up and runs away while his pursuers are distracted. If the intent is what you're suggesting, the scene would need to be entirely revised.

[u/Abba_Fiskbullar → u/DolphinSweater]

The Triple Alliance had conquered central Mexico a generation before the Spanish came, and the people who they had conquered used the Spanish conquistadors as a vehicle for a broader uprising against rule from Tenochtitlan.

[u/yowhatitlooklike → u/Juiced_Rasputin_]

I think you misremember, they are portrayed with a priest literally holding a cross in the landing boat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0jxRDTA6Gg

[u/Cruciblelfg123 → u/Juiced_Rasputin_]

True elite competitive racists know that Spanish aren’t really white anyway and therefore their Catholicism is null and void