Birdie on Mel's Apocalypto

Read my review of Mel Gibson's Apocalypto.

Comments

[Stever]

I saw the movie too... and tripped all over it. I just can't believe there was a total eclipse of the sun, followed by a beautiful full moon. That pulled me right out of the movie and I couldn't climb back in...

[Birdie]

C'mon! Didn't you get lost in it up to the eclipse?! (Hell, he stole that from A Connecticut Yankee in King Aurthur's Court, anyway, bad astronomy and all...)

[Stever]

No... the dialog was too contemporary too... I tried to force myself along for the ride... just couldn't do it.

I thought the movie was FILMED exceptionally well... just didn't buy it story wise. It was eisagesis not exogesis. (Don't know if I spelled those right.)

Oh, I could see the arrival of the conquisadors as punishment... but I think Mel saw that as salvation.

DON'T get me started!!!

:P

[Rick]

Great review, Birdie. Gibson's dispicable, inexcusable behavior this summer (and on various previous occasions) is one thing. His films are another. He is, I think, a great filmmaker. An artist--and not the only one with a troubling bio, that's for sure.
Haven't seen this one yet, but I will.

[Louise]

I haven't seen it yet and probably wouldn't have bothered (my one-woman-protest against Mel G and his appalling lack of judgement)but after reading your review I will go!!

[Shrexy]

i maya go....or i maya not !!...am not really into his versions of history!!!

[Terri]

Our local professors of Meso-American studies are livid about this movie, because it does not portray Mayan culture accurately and jumbles together the history, mixing things from the sixth, ninth, and fifteenth centuries. People will take away powerful visual images as truth, and never learn about the real Maya, which is a shame.

[Shrexy]

Truth !! Truth !! since when is that required in movies !! lol..
Its just a despots version of yet another 'singular' view of history.

How often is History EVER portayed faithfully??

[Carroll]

(Warning: Shameless self-promotion alert)

Shrexy, today's post over at http://www.fluidpudding.com/ comes pretty darn close to the truth. And the "blood all over the floor" mentioned down in the comments? Actual factual truth, yessir!

[Rick]

But Teri! Remember what all those Elizabethan professors of Egyptology said about Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra? And where are they now?~,:^)

[Rick]

Alright--unduly snarky, and in defense of Mel Gibson! All apologies. (Every now and then the black rabbit gets the best of me!) I know the film deals with a stretch of history that has been distorted by various interested parties over the centuries. The profs no doubt have a point, Terri!

[Shrexy]

umm Carroll...what ecactly am i supposed to be reading at FP ?? :-))

[Terri]

The problem isn't with a few inaccuracies. We're used to that in movies. (Anytime you see a movie about something you have personal experience with, you see mistakes. I loved Stranger Than Fiction, even though it has a huge tax error in it.)

It's much, much worse than that. Human sacrifice as practiced by the Maya was not the bloodbath that Gibson portrays. The Mayans would not have been surprised by an eclipse; they were astronomers. And that's just getting started. If the movie inspires people to learn about an ancient culture that is largely neglected in schools (What did we get--two weeks in fifth grade on the Aztecs, the Maya, and the Incas all lumped together?) then that would be okay. But I don't think that's going to happen.

[Terri]

Just coincidentally, I just stumbled across this article, which nicely summarizes some of the key inaccuracies:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061208-apocalypto-mel.html

Now I'll be quiet on this.

[Birdie]

Oh Terry, I didn't mean my story to say that Gibson's portrayal of Mayan civilization was spot on or even in the ballpark real.

I didn't think it was a documentary when I attended the showing. It was just for fun, some kind of immersion experience I didn't expect. I know that Gibson doesn't follow the facts. But I also don't think you have to follow facts in art.

(Now the Passion of the Christ is another story since he did claim it was all historical and real as real can be.)

And yeah, the movie probably plays fast and loose with Mayan reality. I have no idea what the Mayans really did. (Although the idea of more humane human sacrifice makes me laugh.)

But this movie is fundamentally a chase flick, and it's beautifully filmed and interesting in ways I didn't expect. I even liked the weird modern "translations" in the subtitles. It reminded me of reading the Canterbury Tales for the first time and realizing that people have always engaged in ribald off the wall humor. I don't know, maybe I shouldn't have reviewed this movie, I didn't mean to promote something that would offend anyone. I just enjoyed it and was so surprised by that fact I wanted to share my experience.

Sorry I haven't been around much, I took a few days away to gather my thoughts, try to find my sense of self again. I'm getting there.

I'm still figuring out how to organize this site, what kinds of things to post here. I'm suffering from Beauty Dish withdrawl, it was a three year (almost) habit.

[Shrexy]

Birdie... i have no argument with art for art etc.,.. but good old Mel is offering this up as though it was fair dinkum...i see not disclaimers etc.. ..he expects it to be taken seriously...and on that basis..its a crock!!..another reinvention of history...im sorry Birdie..most ppl walking this planet arent sufficently wordly or educated to spot the con!! and WILL take it as gospel...which is his intention...the world according to MEL.. and we all know his views !!..

now on lighter subject >:-))

just to tide you over and get ya going again...why not finish off all those other stories huh!! hehehehhe :-))))))...now you know if it wasnt me...it would be Carroll !!
Ho Ho Ho !!! :-))

[Wandering Willow]

Interesting review. Maybe I'll see it after all. It's good to hear something about the Cowboy Physicist again!

I'll be passing through your neighborhood this weekend, en route to grandbaby...

[Terri]

Birdie, I apologize for the strident tone of my posts. I have been depressed, or I would have put in some social grace-notes to temper my words.

Your review was the a true account of your cinematic experience. I respect that. But I do have strong feelings about the way pre-Columbian peoples are depicted in mass media, because these images can be used to reinforce racist stereotypes. I think that people who go to see the movie ought to have more information. You wrote about your emotional response to the movie. I am more interested in an intellectual response, which in no way lessens the validity of what you wrote.

I also did not say that human sacrifice was humane.

I am sorry for disrupting the amiable tone of your comments section.