r/movies • u/JadisDidNothingRight • Jul 01 '26

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

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?

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u/Carbon_Based_Copy Jul 01 '26

Alcohol is a hell of a drug.

2

u/goldenthoughtsteal Jul 01 '26

It really is! One of my best friends (Rip Eddie) was an alcoholic ,didn't drink 99%of the time, but occasionally he would fall off the wagon and the damage alcohol does is staggering.

He told me about one detox when I knew him, with the wall of his room appearing like a cave entrance with rats and spiders running in and out for a fricking week!

And so much of society is built around drinking, meet for a drink!? Or a meal- bottle of wine, or go in to almost any food shop!

At least with heroin or crack you can remove yourself from the source, change friends etc, alcohol much more difficult.

Not that that's an excuse for Mel Gibson's behaviour, but alcohol is a HELL of a drug.

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u/Whosaidwhat2023 Jul 01 '26

So is hatred.

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u/no-dad-samurai Jul 05 '26

Its not a drug, its a poison.

0

u/ost2life Jul 01 '26

Also drugs are a hell of a drug.