Apocalypto....I am now officially "Violenced OUT"

[Cacia]

Man, I thought September Dawn about the Mormon wagon train massacre was tough to watch the night before (and the movie irresponsible), but Mel Gibson's Apocalypto last night almost made me lose my cookies with the human sacrafice and the Jaguar scene....

Both movies had us googling tons of stuff. (Why do LDS's refer to protestants as gentiles, were the big falls in Chiapas?,...stuff like that)

Even JB said he has never seen a more violent movie than Apocalypto, pretty tough to take, be forewarned. At least don't watch it over a steak, like we did.

I'm thinking maybe I don't like HD tv.

 

[JeffG]

I'm thinking maybe I don't like HD tv.

Pagan

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

I think Mel Gibson is just friggin' deranged. "Signs" was the first "sign" of it. "The Passion Of The Christ," was just gratuitous and barbaric. This latest movie looks to be more of the same... Ick...

 

[Cacia]

Pagan

lol

That crossed my mind too Frank. I've always liked him but I think the man has demons to even come up with this ****. (Does alcohol do that to you?)
he used to be normalish... well, nice butt, way back anyway.

It was pretty good though....was the other tribe Incan? I get that it was about the Mayans, but who were the other ones? too many butts...nobody needs that many butts in a movie.

I had bad dreams.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

Like Tom Cruise, ol' Mel has jumped the shark... Crazy...

 

[DiverBeth]

Catherine regarding the Mormans referring to Protestants as gentiles it is my understanding that they refer to Catholics and Jews as gentiles as well. Being Jewish myself, I was brought up that all Christians were gentiles. However, a few years ago at a conference in Salt Lake City a Jewish friend came up to me and said "guess what? Here we're gentiles!"

In the end it does it really matter?

 

[drbill]

I've been told I'm pretty "gentile."

While I agree with Catherine on the level of violence, I personally don't feel it was gratuitous in "Apocalypto" (or "The Passion of the Christ" for that matter). I see both as realistic depictions of actual violence. Much of my opinion on this regarding "Apocalypto" comes from my house mate who is a native Costa Rican with a mother who is a mix of Aztec and Mayan.

 

[eclipse785]

Ya know,.. Mel has received a lot of flack for his recent movies and tirades, but IMHO I liked all of his movies, including Passion and Appocolypto. Yeah they were violent and gruesome, but I think they were all stories that almost required the gore to be true to the time and events that took place. Mel may have taken some artistic license to his movies, but I think there is little doubt that those type of events (wars, beheadings, human sacrifices, etc) occurred.

Now I don't agree with his drunken tirade, and I will keep that in mind when I consider him as a person, but I wont let that color my impression of him as an actor or director.

What I can't understand is that people are so disgusted at Appocolypto and Passion, yet movies like SAW, Hostel, and others of the like are so damn popular. I am more shocked that someone has the mind to think that crap up than someone like Mel has the guts to show historical facts in a true (albeit gruesome) manner.

 

[Cacia]

oh I liked the movie and did not find the violence gratuitous, just tough.

I guess Incans were more in Peru...so who were the violent temple freaks with all the beads???

Aztec

In the end it does it really matter?

well, just as an historical perspective, I guess. I am just curious about that. My children are "half Jewish" (as they put it), so I only know the concept from that perspective. Gibson did not do the September Dawn movie but I am just saying it was pretty violent too. I thought it was irresponsible of the movie to drag B. Young into the whole thing without substantiating that he knew anything about the plan to kill the Christians (because the movie was very powerful). You could have given the historical account of the massacre without the implication that BY sanctioned the massacre. And if there is evidence that HE DID---give it. But it was sleazy to just imply it. Mormons take a lot of bad heat in society, IMO. I am surprised John Voight signed on to the movie.

 

[TSandM]

I've had it with graphic violence in movies. After I watched, "We Were Soldiers", I told Peter, "No more war movies. Ever." Saving Private Ryan, We Were Soldiers, and another one about a special ops team in Africa, were just more than I could stand.

In the old days (she says, from under her grey hair), it was understood that people died. You heard bangs and people fell down and that was it. Nowadays, you have to see the muscle spattering, blood pouring, and bone sticking out, see sweating faces contorted in pain, and the like. Sorry, I get enough of that in my day job.