Apocalypto

I watched Apocalypto tonight. This is a case where the small screen made some things more bearable than they would have been on the large screen. It is a relentlessly, horrifically violent movie that is mostly about our inhumanity, although some would see love and redemption under all the blood and cruelty. Not me. I don’t know how constant Mayan sacrifices were, but this seemed quite a sausage factory.

I imagine pre-Columbian cultures knew more about solar eclipses than Mel Gibson seems to. Sure, the masses might have been agitated, but the priesthood would have seen it coming well in advance. Gibson ignores the hours-long process of an eclipse and then speeds up the fun part. Of course, so did the Simpsons recently. Who has time for an eclipse anymore. (Heroes was worse with total darkness that lasted an hour. I stopped watching after that.) But, Jesus, Mel, how could you show a full moon the night of the eclipse? How have we become so disconnected from Nature.

And what exactly is the danger of a well filling with water, assuming you know how to tread water? I hope Mel never tries to drown himself in a slowly filling bathtub or pool.

Ah, but it’s not a documentary and it is Hollywood, so lighten up, eh? It is wonderful to hear two and a half hours of Nahuatl and to see a semi-mainstream American movie with subtitles throughout. And nothing but brown skin. That’s pretty amazing, in and of itself. And the perhaps subtle message about human-caused environmental degradation was interesting. The market and Coliseum scenes were pretty cool, especially some of the hairstyles. If you need a sampler of piercings and tattoos, this may be the biggest collection available. So what if the climactic beach scene was far less surprising than finding the Statue of Liberty half-buried. It’s only a movie.

peace,
mjh

PS: I’m reminded of a John Boorman movie, The Emerald Forest (1985). I highly recommend that over this, even if it made the central character a white guy. And Chac (1975), the only other all-Nahuatl movie I’ve seen. That one was more mystical and far less violent. Nyacola posh!

PPS: For readers: Daniel Peters wrote three books, one each about Azteca, Maya, and Inca, as well as a more modern story featuring an anthropologist. I liked the Mayan one most (Tikal: A Novel About the Maya). (I couldn’t remember Peters’ name, but I remembered I discovered his books in the library because they were near all the Cadfael mysteries by Ellis Peters. Ages ago, I read books by the shelf. Back before the Web.)

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One thought on “Apocalypto”

  1. Mark said: “It is wonderful to

    hear two and a half hours of Nahuatl …”

    And how about all that Aramaic in “Passion of the Kee-rist”? Gibson’s turning into some

    kinda foreign filmmaker or something.

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