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“Apocalypto” focuses on a family, and the struggle of a man to return to his wife and children. Mayans too are members of the human race.
#Movie apocalypto movie#
The movie deals with universal themes which people of any culture can relate to: the struggle to survive, infertility, the urban/rural divide, and even the stock comic figure of the meddling mother-in-law. Although historical fiction in an exotic locale, it still follows the basic canons of an action movie, and the jungle chase scene is a cinematic tour de force. The Mayan elite understood eclipses, but not necessarily the Mayan masses.ĭon’t forget that “Apocalypto” is, above all, an action movie. The movie does not, as some critics have charged, portray the Mayan culture as being ignorant of eclipses. It also had war, imperialism, torture and human sacrifice. The Maya civilization had its great accomplishments in architecture, mathematics and astronomy. The Mayan culture it had its diverse regions and social classes.Īn earlier belief that Mayan culture was peaceful has been debunked by archaeology, including the decipherment, in recent decades, of Mayan hieroglyphs.
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All the Mayans didn’t live in the ceremonial centers visited by tourists. But Mayan civilization was complex and multi-layered. An action movie nearly always requires bad guys, and in this film all the significant characters – both villains and heroes – are Mayan.Ĭritics have charged that “Apocalypto” presents the Maya as unicivilized savages. The bad guys in “Apocalypto” are Mayan – but then, so are the protagonists. Besides, “Apocalypto’s” plot is admittedly fiction – historical fiction, but fiction nonetheless. As a matter of fact, historical howlers are quite common in historical movies. Some of Gibson’s earlier movies, “Braveheart”, which he directed and starred in, and “The Patriot”, which he starred in, were filled with historical inaccuracies. That’s all true, but not particularly suprising. And it’s hard to locate the film’s setting, geographically. Though set in the early 1500s, the actors speak the Mayan language of today’s Yucatan Peninsula, which nobody spoke in the 1500s. The art, architecture and setting of the movie mixes aspects of different epochs and regions within the Mayan civilization. Historically, there was much diversity within the Mayan culture itself. In contrast, the Mayan culture had various rises and falls in different regions. Another difference is that the Spaniards (and their Indian allies) overthrew the Aztecs when their empire was at its height. The Mayan Civilization was never a unified empire as was that of the Aztecs. They peopled a large geographical area, in present-day eastern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras. The history of the Mayan culture spans millennia. Mel follows up in “Apocalypto” with all dialogue in Yucatec Maya, with subtitles. Gibson’s previous blockbuster, “The Passion of the Christ”, was in Aramaic and Latin with subtitles.
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The movie was filmed in the state of Veracruz on the Gulf Coast of Mexico, where six pyramids were constructed for filming. The protagonist is a Mayan hunter named “Jaguar Paw” portrayed by actor Rudy Youngblood. To summarize the movie, without giving it away for those who haven’t seen it (I hate it when people do that!), “Apocalypto” deals with the downfall of the Mayan civilization. Ricardo Cajas, “Racism Commissioner” for the Guatemalan government, has blasted the movie as racist Mel Gibson’s “Apocalypto” has been criticized for inaccuracies and for misrepresenting the Mayan culture. (Pirated DVDs, of course, had been available on the streets before that). “Apocalypto”, a thriller dealing with the Mayan civilization, opened in Mexican theaters on January 25th. “Racist” Apocalypto Opens In Latin America