I bought Apocalypto on iTunes for some long trip. I managed to watch it on my beautiful Mac during my flight to London for some meetings. (I’m in Oslo now and preparing for meetings and a lecture tomorrow.) It was……outstanding. For one thing, the acting was quite good and the story very gripping. For another, it didn’t sugar coat the cruelty of much of Meso-American culture. The scenes of human sacrifice should be (if anything should be, which, in all honesty, it should not be) compulsory viewing for all those who opine about how peaceful non-European cultures are. (I heard a load of that from flakey north Americans on the temple of the sun in Tikal when I witnessed the sunset; I asked them what they thought the temple was used for, or what the gigantic aspirin-like stone with the engraved image of a man stretched on his back and the words “Break Spine Here” was for.)
P.S. I should also add that the movie raises a lot of question about religion; I suspect that perhaps those it raised for me were not the same it raised for Mel Gibson.
I agree that the movie was phenomenal; one of the best I’ve seen in years. I suspect it got short changed by the Academy due to Mel’s drunken Antisemitic rant. I think Gibson is a right-wing zealot, but I can still appreciate his art, and this movie was just that. I watched it once alone, and then prodded my wife to watch it with me again the following night. I definitely wouldn’t mind seeing it again, either.
One thing, though: I did read some Christian-supremacy and even anticapitalist vibes — probably only because of Gibson’s reputation, but I picked up them up nonetheless. Particularly at the end of the movie, where it is implied that the white Christians are coming to “civilize” the Mayans — by force, of courI agree that the movie was phenomenal; one of the best I’ve seen in years. I suspect it got short changed by the Academy due to Mel’s drunken Antisemitic rant. I think Gibson is a right-wing zealot, but I can still appreciate his art, and this movie was just that. I watched it once alone, and then prodded my wife to watch it with me again the following night. I definitely wouldn’t mind seeing it again, either.
One thing, though: I did read some Christian-supremacy and even anticapitalist vibes — probably only because of Gibson’s reputation, but I picked up them up nonetheless. Particularly at the end of the movie, where it is implied that the white Christians are coming to “civilize” the Mayans — by force, of course. Yet the protagonist ambles off into the jungle, suggesting some back-to-nature/survivalist themes.
Even if these messages were not purely figments of my imagination (which they very well may have been), I still recommend this movie to everyone. It may not be as classically excellent as Braveheart, but in its own way, it is just as good.se. Yet the protagonist ambles off into the jungle, suggesting some back-to-nature/survivalist themes.
Even if these messages were not purely figments of my imagination (which they very well may have been), I still recommend this movie to everyone. It may not be as classically excellent as Braveheart, but in its own way, it is just as good.
Apocalypto is a phenomenal movie, with a beautiful story line, and a very unique way of telling it. I love apocalypto and I think it is by far one of the best movies Ive ever seen.
mel gibson doesn’t like it when you twist his nipples
Yer it is a heaps good movie. Really takes a good look at the Mayan culture and shows us how brutal it was.
Apocalypto was extremely inaccurate,
it plays on the public’s ignorance of pre-Colombian history.
Human sacrifice did indeed occur in the Mayan civilization, but the level of brutality that was shown was used to help reinforce Gibson’s message that Christianity is somehow morally superior (despite leading the charge of leveling the indigenous population of the Americas 90%).
Nods to using an all indigenous cast though,
and all in Mayan..nice touch. That’s where the pros stop though.
Totally, because of biased European accounts, the natives of Mexico must have sacrificed people and ripped their hearts out daily, if not by the hour! Really, because of a few select instances, Cortes used his keen estimation skills and wrote back to Spain saying that these people MUST sacrifice people for the hell of it, all the time. Indeed, a few lives were offered to Cortes because the Aztec confused him for a deity at first. The good natured Spaniards never would do something like that to another man. It’s not like Cortes didn’t mercilessly slaughter everyone in his welcoming celebration when he arrived, NOT AT ALL! He just wanted to give the Aztec’s hugs 😀 He hugged them so hard they tripped over their own intestines as their heads rolled on the ground…
What a load of lies this movie is. It perpetuates the need to justify the invasion and murder of the peaceful people of this continent. To paint with blood and sacrifice a culture that gave you the concept of zero and the only pyramids in the western hemisphere. A culture that knew more about pharmacopeia, anatomy, physiology, math, agronomy and astronomy than the horde of idiots invaders that landed here in 1492.
The Mayan people didn’t burn the Spanish priest that came here on a stake, it was the Spanish priests that did that to the Mayan. The british were no different when they invaded this continent. Let us look at your crimes in this continent in a movie. Expose your own lack of culture and your need for blood and war. Mel Gibson is a fake if he wants to give you a glimpse of the Mayan people then and now. He could never do it because he thinks like a white man, money, power, destruction and blood.
Apocalypto is one of those movies for which we become speechless.
I would like to thank Mr Director to make such a wonderful movie.
Should have been given tha Oscar at the time.
Apocalypto is one of amazing movie which i had seen.Thanks to Mr. Director to make such an ultimate movie