infrogmation: (Default)
infrogmation ([personal profile] infrogmation) wrote2006-12-23 11:53 pm
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Apocalypto

I never got around to posting about Apocalypto, which [livejournal.com profile] mshollie and I saw over a week ago.

Afterwards Hollie commented that the mass human sacrifice scene was the goriest part. That there'd there'd be serious competition gives you a good idea of the gore content of the film.

It was indeed a "chase movie"-- a very well done one, with lots of excitement and some excellent cinematography.

I'm glad I wasn't expecting much in the way of anthropological accuracy, and was able to enjoy the film as simple action adventure set in the usual b.s. Hollywood has often made of historical subjects.

The Mesoamerican content was really pretty minimal-- largely an exotic setting for the action, plus a platform for The Mel to suggest that destruction of the native civilization by at the hands of those well washed shiny faced conquistadores bearing crosses was the best thing that could have happened to the Mesoamericans.

BTW, It's in Maya, but not very good Maya, as most of the actors don't speak Maya. (The one handed story teller seems to have been about the only actor Gibson picked from the aproximately 1 million people still fluent in it.)

[identity profile] mmcirvin.livejournal.com 2006-12-24 04:27 am (UTC)(link)
Well, far and away the primary effect of the conquistadores (and other Europeans) arriving in the Americas was that the diseases they brought killed a substantial fraction, probably a majority, of everyone who lived there. While it was mostly inadvertent on the Europeans' part, I wouldn't wish that on even the most bloody and tyrannical civilization; surely not everyone there was evil to the point of deserving to die of infectious diseases.