Apocalypto

[infrogmation]

I never got around to posting about Apocalypto, which 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.)

Comments

[pentomino.livejournal.com]

I did some research on the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs in college, but not much -- practically all of it was from the POV of Cortez, so naturally I reached the same conclusion. As I see it, at least as far as the Aztecs were concerned, it was peripheral societies that had to send humans as tribute to the Aztecs. The Spanish put human sacrifices to an end, or at least replaced them with traditional money-based taxes. But they also forbade sodomy. Would it have been worth it to keep both?

But I'm only vaguely aware of the current situation south of the border, that the brown people are poor and the white people are rich. That means there's evidence of a big cultural imbalance, but remember the English didn't let that many of the brown people live to future generations.

[wrayb.livejournal.com]

ok, i guess i'll wait for it to come to cable.

thanks for the comments.

wrb