Carmen Mendoza History 300 4/23/08 MEL GIBSON’S FILM APOCALYPTO
MEL GIBSON’S FILM APOCALYPTO
The Mayan civilization used hieroglyphics to keep important historical records, made many advancements in mathematics, and had a highly accurate astronomy system. Throughout their years of existence, the Mayans proved to be one of the most advanced civilizations ever recorded. Their hieroglyphic writing skills have been documented to be some of the most sophisticated in all of ancient America
The Mayans was a highly advanced civilization instead Mel Gibson chose to highlight human sacrifices and violence and demonstrated a negative view about the Mayans culture. In the movie apocalypto Mel Gibson is misrepresenting the Mayan culture and demonstrates minor flaws in inaccurate historical facts about the Mayans civilization. This issue is not whether the film demonstrated how accurate it is but how Gibson chose to highlight and focus in a negative image in the Mayan culture. For example the theme of violence and the mass human sacrifices. We know now that Gibson hired scholars who studied the classic Maya to represent an accurate view of the Maya in his film.
And Gibson did overall represent an accurate view of the Mayans. But their were some technical issues that demonstrated a negative image to the Mayan culture. The problem is rather what Gibson chose to focus on which were violence and mass human sacrifices.
Mel Gibson focus in violence in the Mayan civilization engaged in sacrificial ceremonies a civilization seen as a bloodthirsty and violent. Apart form the theme of violence and human sacrifices Apocalytpo tells a story on a family that lives in a village who lives during the fall of the Mayan civilization. This movie depicts a story of a man fighting to go back to his family and it’s a story of the Mayan downfall civilization and it depicts a negative image on the Mayan culture.
The story begins with Jaguar paw family who lives in a village with other families. Jaguar Paw has a small boy and has a pregnant wife. This family lives in a peaceful village that gets attacked and burned to the ground by a group of warriors. Jaguar Paw manages to hide his pregnant wife and child in a well. Jaguar Paw is captured in his village and taken to the Mayan city to be sacrificed. Arriving to the Mayan city Jaguar sees that the Mayan were suffering from drought and plague. Jaguar is caught up in the mass raids where the Mayans who are desperately trying to save their civilization by human sacrifices to their God.
Jaguar are painted in blue in sign to get sacrificed and other prisoners around him are to be sacrificed in an effort to appease their angry gods A Jaguar and other slaves were waiting their turn to be sacrificed their were a massive decapitated heads of victims bouncing down the temple stairs. Dozens of heads of with blood training down the temple stairs. And the screaming of the victims and their crowds victims hearts were cut out of their bodies it demonstrated major violence during human sacrifices. Then suddenly when Jaguar Paw took is turn he was saved by a solar eclipse. Jaguar later kills an attacker during a cruel execution game. He manages to flee, wounded, into the jungle. His running for his life and for his family, Jaguar runs back to his village to the site where he left his pregnant wife and child who are trapped in hole that was dried up well Then Jaguar Paw gets to the hole wear his wife are and he saves he family.
Apocalypto has some technical inaccurate flaws about the Mayans culture. The extreme violence is one is one of the technical inaccurate flaws in the Mayans culture. The Mayans were not extremely violent like showed in the movie Apocalypto. While I understand that extreme violence is necessary to keep the plot moving along in an action film and effective in capturing the audience’s attention, I thought the use extreme violence in this film was wrong .The scenes that most stand out in my opinion were those of unjust bloody battles, outright violent murder including of women and children.
Apocalypto depicts the Mayans as being violent. Ricardo Cajas, Guatemala
Gibson demonstrates the Mayans violent scenes through using massive human sacrifices using a negative view of the Mayan culture. According to an UC Riverside archaeologist Zachary X. Hruby who wrote recently in the San Francisco Chronicle: “There exists no archaeological, historic or ethno historic data to suggest that any such mass sacrifices numbering in the thousands, or even hundreds - took place in the Maya world. The fundamental problem with Apocalypto’s depiction of Maya culture is that, it imposes violence.”[3]
In a Spanish article Los Mayas “De Verdad” demonstrated a negative reaction of the Spanish community towards the movie Apocalypto. In this Spanish newspaper the author Canario has the opinion that the Mayans were demonstrated as a violent culture and all they did was killing like if they were videos games that repeatedly killed and killed. Canario says: “Que Barbaridad esta no es solamente un pelicula mala sino….Nunca habia visto tanta sangre en una pelicula…Seguro que Mel Gibson esta pensando en transformar a los mayas un uno de esos videojuegos de Violencia…Que forma de presentar a los mayas como unos salvajes que se la pasaban mate y mate…La verdad es que la pelicula le va a hacer dano a quien no conoce la cultura maya”.[4] Translated: “How ridiculous not only this film is bad ……But I bet that Mel Gibson is thinking to transform the Mayans in this film as a video game of Violence…I never saw so much blood in a movie…What kind of form to present the Mayans like if they were savages and that only thing they do is killing and killing…The truth is the film is going to do harm to those who don’t know about the Mayan culture.”
According to Gibson, the film focuses on the director’s negative view that the practice of mass ritual human sacrifice which the movie depicts as having been performed on a massive scale was one of the primary reasons for the downfall of the Maya. There is however no evidence that Maya practiced human sacrifices on a massive scale.
In the movie hundreds of people appear to be sacrificed at once. According to the article, titled Apocalypto tortures the facts, expert says “The Aztecs were known to have sacrificed large numbers of people, though according to the archaeological record, we are unsure of how many would be sacrificed at one time. There are no data to support that the Maya carried out sacrifice on such a large scale. The evidence we have suggested that sacrifice was a very personal thing, and so even the captives were personal objets.Another form of sacrifice to the Maya is auto-sacrifice, or bloodletting ….”[5]
The treatment of sacrifice is also misleading. Much of what we see recorded by the Maya is a form of sacrifice known as auto sacrifice meaning self sacrifice for example bloodletting involving piercing eats lobes, fingernail, and tongues. This practice was often the duty of ruling families on behalf of the people to the gods. Animal sacrifice was common in fact Gibson villagers would have conducted such sacrifices for their household and agricultural rites, although we never see them do so in Apocalypto.
Hhistorians suggest that in many Mesoamerican societies, was based on the interdependence of the human and divine realms. “Blood was the vehicle of life energy, circulated within ecology among humans, nature, and the gods. Because blood was the most sacred substance a human could offer to the gods, Maya nobles were often depicted in scenes of solemn bloodletting, giving of their own blood through piercings through the tongue, lips, genitals, and other quick-healing parts of the body, usually in private ritual. Sacrifice was a spiritual practice.”[6] In Apoclayoto the human sacrifices demonstrated a negative view about the Mayan and sacrifice scenes in Apocalypto, in contrast, are meant to horrify the audience and not seen as a spiritual practice.
Historically, Charles George and Linda George suggest that “Among the Maya, human sacrifice was not a common occurrence as it was among the Aztec. Only major rituals, such as the coronation of a new ruler, a natural disaster, or dedication of a new temple or ball court, required human victims….The Maya often offered captured prisoners, as human sacrifices for their gods.”[7]
Another minor technically inaccurate flaw demonstrated in Apocalypto towards the end of the movie was the scene of the arrival of the Spaniards. In addition to how Mel Gibson portrayed the arrival of the Spanish here was a negative theme in the end of the Mayan culture and civilization. Gibson portrayed the Mayans as a civilization that needed to be saved through Christianity. The theme that violence and human sacrifices will come to an end is the message Mel Gibson portrays because Christianity will save them. This portrayal that the Mayans need to be saved is very offensive to any culture.
According to history, “the fall of the Mayan Empire was during the late Classic period, during some time between 700-900 AD.”[8] Instead, towards the end of the movie of Apocalypto when it showed the arrival of the Spanish ships, this scene was inaccurate.Gibson included the arrival of clearly Christian missionaries in the last five minutes of the story while the Spanish arrived 300 years after the last Mayan city was abandoned. .Apocalypto historically is inaccurate but the negative message that Mel Gibson portrayed about the Mayans is incorrect.
In conclusion, the Mayans were a great civilization. Instead, Mel Gibson’s movie Apocalypto demonstrates a negative image towards the Mayan culture. For example, the themes of mass human sacrifices and violence in the Mayan culture demonstrate a negative view on the culture. Mel Gibson misrepresents certain themes inaccurately, but the message that he chooses to focuses on in Mayan culture is that they were negatively viewed. Gibson overall represented the Mayans accurately but the message about the culture should have been demonstrated differently. In my opinion, even though the movie does highlight some positive images of the Mayans (architecture and clothing styles), I believe Mel Gibson should have highlighted other areas in the culture. For instance, he could have focused on the Mayans’ advanced calendar, arts, and mathematics.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Apocalypto Tortures the Facts, National Geographic News, (6 December 2006) http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news 8 February 2008
Canario, Apocalypto Criticado por Racista, La Opinion Apocalypto (12 April 2005) http://www.laopinion.com (3 March 2008)
Charles and Linda George, Exploring Mesoamerica, Library of Congress ( New York
Peter Ackroyd , Cities of the Blood: Voyagers Through Time, Library of Congress ( New York
Ricardo Cajas, Ancient Mayan News Scientist Environment (5 December 2001) http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn1650 (5 March 2008)
Zachary X. Hruby, Betraying the Maya, Archaeology (27 November 2006) http://wwww.archaeology.org 3 March 2008
[1] Ricardo Cajas, Ancient Mayan News Scientist Environment (5 December 2001) http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn1650 (5 March 2008)
[2] Ricardo Cajas, Ancient Mayan News Scientist Environment (5 December 2001) http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn1650 (5 March 2008)
[3] Zachary X. Hruby, Betraying the Maya, Archaeology (27 November 2006) http://wwww.archaeology.org 3 March 2008
[4] Canario, Apocalypto Criticado por Racista, La Opinion Apocalypto (12 April 2005) http://www.laopinion.com (3 March 2008)
[5] Apocalypto Tortures the Facts, National Geographic News, (6 December 2006) http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news 8 February 2008
[6] Peter Ackroyd , Cities of the Blood: Voyagers Through Time, Library of Congress ( New York
[7] Charles and Linda George, Exploring Mesoamerica, Library of Congress ( New York
[8] Charles and Linda George, p. 40.
I apologize for not commenting on your paper sooner. Carmen, you seem to have done a lot of research on your subject. You know a lot of the information necessary to write on this subject. Your bibliography seems to be a little short but you do seem to get a lot of information from the websites and books that you did gather.
However you need a lot of help on your grammar. I do not think that you completely know what it is exactly you are conveying in your paper. Some of the time I get confused as to what it is exactly you are saying in this paper. You need to get some help with your wording as quickly as possible. I suggest the writing tutors on the first floor of Robinson A.
If you can fix up your grammar your paper will be an A for sure. I also really liked your presentation. You put a lot of work into this paper, and into your presentation. We all appreciate it.
Posted by: Andrew White | May 07, 2008 at 12:54 PM