Is Mel Gibson completely crazy? Probably. But he’s also one helluva filmmaker. Ignore for a minute the controversy around The Passion and just look at it technically. It’s an extremely well made movie. Mel knows what he’s doing behind a camera, and you’re either as crazy as he is or biased beyond reason if you’re not interested in taking a look at what he’s doing with his next movie, Apocalypto. You have to respect him as a filmmaker. Maybe not as a person, but as a filmmaker.

While we’re at it, you have to respect his decision to follow up The Passion with a weird Mayan movie in a dead language without actors. Not just for the audacity of the project, but for the bravery to resist making another religion movie. After The Passion Mel became a religious hero of sorts. The guy could have spent the rest of his life simply cranking out religious flick after religious flick and would probably have ended up incredibly rich. Instead, he’s taking a risk. Respect to Mel.

Apocalypto will be here in a few weeks, but till then Disney has loaded us up with behind the scenes footage from the film. Get a feel for Mel’s latest dead language flick by clicking right here to watch it.