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So, what happens when you get an authority on Mayan culture to review Mel Gibson's latest violent pornfest, Apocalypto? Traci Arden, writing in Archaeology magazine, was disturbed, and not only by the inaccuracies:
The thrill of hearing melodic Yucatec Maya spoken by familiar faces ... during the first ten minutes of the movie is swiftly and brutally replaced with stomach churning panic at the graphic Maya-on-Maya violence depicted in a village raid scene of nearly 15 minutes. From then on the entire movie never ceases to utilize every possible excuse to depict more violence. It is unrelenting.
Not surprisingly, the film is not historically accurate in any way, although considerable effort was made to keep it visually so, but this seems to be to support an evangelical and racist message:
And who really cares that the Maya were not living in cities when the Spanish arrived? Yes, Gibson includes the arrival of clearly Christian missionaries (these guys are too clean to be conquistadors) in the last five minutes of the story (in the real world the Spanish arrived 300 years after the last Maya city was abandoned). It is one of the few calm moments in an otherwise aggressively paced film. The message? The end is near and the savior has come. Gibson's efforts at authenticity of location and language might, for some viewers, mask his blatantly colonial message that the Maya needed saving because they were rotten at the core. Using the decline of Classic urbanism as his backdrop, Gibson communicates that there was absolutely nothing redeemable about Maya culture, especially elite culture which is depicted as a disgusting feast of blood and excess...
I know the Maya practiced brutal violence upon one another, and I have studied child sacrifice during the Classic period. But in "Apocalypto," no mention is made of the achievements in science and art, the profound spirituality and connection to agricultural cycles, or the engineering feats of Maya cities. Instead, Gibson replays, in glorious big-budget technicolor, an offensive and racist notion that Maya people were brutal to one another long before the arrival of Europeans and thus they deserve, in fact they needed, rescue.
The same excuses used to subjugate them for the last 500 years, it seems. Up until 10 years ago, the Guatemalen army was systematically killing off the Maya, simply because they were Mayan.
Is "Apocalypto" Pornography?—Archaeology, 5th December 2006.
Posted in
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at 14:07. Last modified on January 13 2007 at 01:28.
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Comments
1: Posted by: Oldfart | January 7, 2007 4:32 PM
Hogwash. Are NAZI technological achievements ignored while their atrocities are emphasized? No one talks about NAZI achievements at all. Except for their war machine and that's just boys loving toys. This is a MOVIE - not an archaeological study. You are implying that Mel Brookes did this whole movie to justify the crimes of the missionaries and conquistadors at the end of the movie? One wonders if Mel Brookes hadn't done his anti-jewish rant if anybody would be wasting time on this at all.
2: Posted by: Feòrag | January 7, 2007 5:13 PM
You're right - no-one ever remembers the autobahn. That would've revolutionised logistics had the German ones not been destroyed in an attempt to wipe out all positive traces of the Nazi regime. Same goes for swept wing aircraft - they would've allowed jet aircraft to go much faster and be more efficient, but the research was deliberately suppressed because it was done by German scientists during the Nazi regime. It was really hard making all those war films while pretending those planes didn't exist. Then there are the developments in rocketry that could've led to a moon landing had we not killed the scientists responsible. All we ever do with rockets now is use them as weapons of mass destruction.
Just think what the world could've been like if we'd taken advantage of Nazi science and engineering, and encouraged those scientists and engineers to continue their work after the war. I bet we'd even have cars that nearly anyone could afford, if Volkswagen hadn't been closed down in 1945.
3: Posted by: youngfart | January 7, 2007 5:22 PM
Okay, first of all, the guy's name is MEL GIBSON! Where the hell did you get Mel Brookes from? He does make movies, but trust me, nobody debates his movie plots and content because they are COMEDY. If you're going to argue a point, at least get the VERY BASIC information correct. Secondly, the Nazis have absolutely nothing to do with the Mayan civilization at all! The most the Maya did as far as atrocities and warfare was against other tribes, and over major disputes over resources, land, etc. Just like EVERY OTHER LARGE CIVILISATION, especially european ones. The Nazis were a political party and eventually the leaders of a nation that ended up brutally executing and murdering over 6 million people! Im pretty sure the Maya can not be compared to such genocidal extremes. Apocalypto IS historically inaccurate to a LARGE extent and certainly the cultural, social and technological advancements made by the Maya are downplayed or even ignored. Of course, you are correct in saying that MEL GIBSON's (notice the correct name)anti-jewish rant plays a large part in the hype and opposition to this movie, however, to make a movie implying that the Maya civilisation needed to be saved at the hands of the Spanish invaders is insulting, racist, ethnocentric, and unfair to the Mayan people and their heritage. The Spanish tried to wipe out these people, to completely eradicate or enslave them, and destroy their culture and civilization. So,in that sense, the Maya and all other peoples of Central and South America did need saving, but not from themselves.
4: Posted by: Jenn93 | January 7, 2007 5:25 PM
Was that last post a joke?
Mel Brooks is Jewish and would never make a film to justify atrocities, and instead made comedy films. Gibson is someone else. Yes, this is a movie. when a movie is supposed to have a historical aspect to it, you want to be as close to the real thing as possible. Unless Gibson made clear that the whole work is fantasy and has nothing to do with history, I say Apocalytico is propaganda. This isn't the first historical film Gibson made that was historically inaccurate: see Braveheart. Last I checked though, most historical movies are talked about and analysed for accuracy, it's nothing new. If I saw the movie and had never heard of Gibsons rant, it would still come off as propoganda, the movie speaks for itself. What does any of this have to do with nazis? Gibson is not a nazi, he's an idiot.
5: Posted by: Feòrag | January 7, 2007 8:01 PM
Oldfart is getting his Mels confused. Putting the right Mel in, his comment is still silly, because allegations of racism in The Passion of the Christ came well before Gibson proved what a racist idiot he was with that police officer.
6: Posted by: Andrew Ian Dodge | January 8, 2007 10:38 AM
What has made me laugh in the interview advert they are showing about Apocalypto with Mel prattling on. Surely reminding people that arse is behind it might not be deemed clever.
I have no intention of seeing anything Gibson is in now or in the future.
7: Posted by: Mrs.T | January 8, 2007 6:16 PM
Since when are most hollywood movies completely accurate in their dipictions of anything. This movie wasn't released for it's historical value, but it's entertainment value. I saw many interviews Mel Gibson did regarding this movie and i never heard him say anymore that it was a movie showing the courage and heart of the main character and to show how when a civilization becomes to powerful or greedy it can self destruct. I saw the movie and appreciated it for it's costuming and entertainment value. If i wanted to know facts on the maya, i would read about it.
8: Posted by: Feòrag | January 9, 2007 2:58 PM
Mrs. T., the reviewer's point (you did click on the link and read the whole review, didn't you?) is not simply that the movie is not accurate. It's more complicated than that. She notes that Gibson has gone to considerable trouble to make certain aspects of it accurate: the visual appearance of the setting, the language etc, and that people might therefore think that this means the Mayan civilisation is accurately depicted in the film. She suspects that the fact that it isn't is deliberate, to make it look as if the subsequent Christian persecution of the society (which was already past its peak when the Spanish arrived, to the point where the Mayans were no longer living in cities) was somehow justified and a Good Thing.
And you know, I wouldn't admit to enjoying violent pornography on a public forum...
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