Apocalypto: Mel Gibson Interview

Epic Mayan adventure is a sparsely populated genre, and one filmed with a cast of unknowns speaking Mayan rarer still. So what is it that makes Mel Gibson confident enough to release Apocalypto in time for the Christmas crowds and Oscar nods?

Perhaps the story of a dying Mayan kingdom sacrificing its citizens to gods in the hopes of repelling Spanish colonization will attract history buffs. But the rebellion of warrior Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood), his escape and the subsequent chase to capture him, will draw mainstream crowds.

Gibson claims he has "been wanting to do a chase movie forever. And that's how it started, just a chase. I thought, well there's all kinds of chases, there's train chases, car chases, horse chases, I thought, a foot chase! That's a good idea, that's as minimum and as primal as it gets, it's just feet, just running."

The final result, however, includes a cast of hundreds of natives and elaborate set pieces in the jungles of Catemaco in the Mexican state of Veracruz. Heavy rains and extreme weather extended shooting from four months to eight. But the benefits of shooting on location enhanced not just the visuals, but historical accuracy. "There was a lot of evidence being unearthed as we worked. In fact, we changed the murals to emulate the murals that [the crew] found. They were a whole different colour scheme and we changed ours to match up with the stuff they found," said Gibson.

Historical accuracy may not be the director's strong point, as Braveheart painfully demonstrates. But that film's best achievements may be repeated here with memorable characters played by strong actors in beautiful locations. Jaguar Paw is a strong willed rebel, accurately played by Youngblood, a championship grass dancer and descendant of the Comanche and Yaqui tribal nations.

The rest of the cast is made up of natives often employed by chance. The Mayan king was found at the docks of Veracruz port city and most peripheral characters had never acted before. "It's kind of like having the Super Bowl and picking a guy who looks kind of able from the crowd and saying, 'you be the quarterback'." Gibson deliberately picked aesthetically suitable characters. So, like mythical archetypes, Paw's big loyal friend looks big and loyal, the crazy seer has crazy make-up and Paw himself is lean and chisel-jawed. This increases viewer empathy. Given the foreign language, it makes characters familiar, simpler.

Often, Gibson's attempts to simplify complex characters and situations goes too far. He compares Mayan human sacrifice with "Sending guys off to Iraq for no reason." But allowing the audience to pick up or ignore his opinions has become the director's signature, the way The Passion could be simply viewed as Jesus Christ's bad day. Gibson says "I tried to have [Apocalypto] be multilevel in the stories it was telling and the meanings you could extract from it but if you didn't want to extract those meanings you could always watch a damn good foot chase."