The Apocalypto is Upon Us

I’m in NRO today with a review of Mel Gibson’s latest maniac action-epic, Apocalypto. As many critics have noted, it’s a bloodbath, but it’s also a stirring, stunning action film—and, strangely enough—a rather passionate case for traditionalism. Here’s a starter:

As a filmmaker, Mel Gibson has guts, and he also loves to spill them. Like Braveheart and The Passion of the Christ, Apocalypto is a commercially risky film, as well as a bloody one. In Gibson’s signature style, it revels in grisly primitive carnage: battered bodies, slit throats, severed heads, ritual human sacrifice, ferocious animal attacks — you name the body part, and you’re likely to see it torn apart. Yet Gibson’s bloodlust cannot be easily dismissed. For not only is he an enormously talented filmmaker, he is also one of genuine conviction. And so we have Apocalypto, a stunning action epic, a gory personal indulgence, and a forthright defense of family, tradition, and local community against the decadence of urban modernity. It is a journey into an ancient foreign land filled with exoticism and excitement, but it is also a visit to the haunted, occasionally disturbing, yet undeniably compelling cinematic world of Mel Gibson.

Read the whole thing at National Review Online.