Stupid Movie Review: Apocalypto

The Movie Review in Question

First of all, I'm not defending Mel Gibson per se, I'm attacking a stupid movie review, linked above.

Of Mel Gibson's new movie Apocalypto, Bruce Kirkland of the Calgary Sun writes:

"As a filmmaker, Mel Gibson is an 'anti' and not a 'pro' person, so his films are violent, brutal and reactionary.

"In Braveheart, he was anti-English (with good reason, if you look at the English conquests through Scottish eyes). And in The Passion Of The Christ he was anti-Semitic (his recent alcohol-fuelled, anti-Jewish rant was no surprise). "

Hold up. All this proves is that Kirkland is an "anti" and not a "pro" movie goer. For me, Braveheart was pro-Scottish and The Passion of the Christ was pro-Christian. (Well, The Passion was more complicated than that, since there were many positive portrayals of Jewish people and one supreme portrayal of a bad Christian, ie Judas; it was more a movie about good and bad than Jewish person or non, but it's an extraordinarily violent interpretation of an historical event, and one which I wouldn't recommend seeing more than once, if at all. But that's a subject for another post.)

But I mean, is Kirkland kidding? What does it take for a movie to be "pro"? The rise in Scottish nationalism and pride after the release of Braveheart was immense; the "anti" factor, the rise of hatred for the English? Non-existent.

Kirkland continues:

"Once the chase [sequence in Apocalypto] is on, any pretense that Mayan culture will be explored is thrown out. Gibson portrays Mayans only as brainless, bloodthristy savages. "

Pretense of exploring Mayan culture? Was he expecting a documentary? I'm sure we're all distraught and concerned that Bruce Kirkland's expectations were violated, and Mel Gibson has probably taken note. But I wonder how Kirkland would carry his theory of Mel Gibson as an "anti" film maker into all this. Anti human sacrifice? Anti allowing-the-killing-of-one's-family?

All art is a story of oppositions, and hence the dynamism that compels us to the artistic experience: good versus evil, light against dark, "anti" and "pro." The story where everyone is the hero is no story at all. Ever seen a movie before, Bruce?

I don't know if Apocalypto is a good movie or not, but man, watch out for those contrived, disingenuous movie reviews that want to keep you from a movie you might actually like.