During this holiday movie season I saw Mel Gibson’s APOCALYPTO and all I have to say is wow!
Mel Gibson may be, no IS an ass, but boy can he make a movie.
I will warn the faint of heart that this is one hell of a bloody, violent movie but I think, it is true to history and offers a realistic view of Mayan civilization as it was at one point on the Yucatan Peninsula. The fact that I have studied this civilization and have actually visited Chichen Itza on the Yucatan Peninsula made the movie that much more thrilling for me.
People that see the movie will come away with varied impressions. The main story is of one man, his tribe and his horrific adventure. I am not sure what Mel was trying to say if anything but I got some messages from it.
It tells of families and friends, peace and joy and also of man’s inhumanity to man, death and suffering.
The Mayans were extremely advanced in astronomy, building, writing, math, etc. but their religion was violent and oh so bloody. When things went bad like drought or sickness, the priests called for sacrifice to the gods. They would capture warriors of small tribes and subject them to a sacrificial ritual where their beating hearts are cut out of their bodies and offered up to the gods in the hope that this would appease the gods and restore tranquility.
Sacrificing to the gods is actually a common ritual among human societies throughout our history even up to the present. We may not be as violent in our sacrificial rituals where prayers are offered instead of bleeding hearts but our recent history is filled with acts of violence in the name of god(s) so really, things may not be as different as we want to believe.
The Mayans sacrificed out of ignorance. They did not know why a drought occurred or why people contracted disease, the priests assumed the gods were punishing them for some transgression and they wanted to appease those gods. The Jews followed a similar belief, blaming themselves for their awful plight including the Holocaust, some still hold to that belief.
Religious and political leaders use the people’s ignorance and superstition to their own advantage – to this day.
At the end of the movie, the main character and his family see strange looking ships and people landing on their shores. This was the Spanish invasion and on the landing craft you saw monks holding large crosses. The man’s wife asks if they should go to these people and greet them and he replies, no let us go back into the jungle and start a new beginning.
History tells us that the Spaniards brought small pox that decimated the remaining Mayan population and they did not come to win new souls for Christ, they really came for gold and they would kill for it.
I mentioned that the Mayan civilization was very advanced and left many objects for us to study but alas we will NEVER be able to know their meaning because we cannot translate their images.
You see the holy Spanish Christian/ Catholic monks considered the books that would have enabled us to translate the Mayan symbols as products of paganism that would insult the Catholic God and so they BURNED every one of the thousands of books of an entire civilization.
You see those monks were also acting in ignorance and I feel religions to this day, base their operations on people’s ignorance and superstition a subject I will be addressing more fully in the coming year.
So did Mel, the devout Catholic have an anti-religion message in his book? I don’t know. He may have just made a good movie with a compelling story. I will keep my eyes open for other reviewers of this movie to see what they speculate.
A MUST see movie ! ! !
Mel Gibson may be, no IS an ass, but boy can he make a movie.
I will warn the faint of heart that this is one hell of a bloody, violent movie but I think, it is true to history and offers a realistic view of Mayan civilization as it was at one point on the Yucatan Peninsula. The fact that I have studied this civilization and have actually visited Chichen Itza on the Yucatan Peninsula made the movie that much more thrilling for me.
People that see the movie will come away with varied impressions. The main story is of one man, his tribe and his horrific adventure. I am not sure what Mel was trying to say if anything but I got some messages from it.
It tells of families and friends, peace and joy and also of man’s inhumanity to man, death and suffering.
The Mayans were extremely advanced in astronomy, building, writing, math, etc. but their religion was violent and oh so bloody. When things went bad like drought or sickness, the priests called for sacrifice to the gods. They would capture warriors of small tribes and subject them to a sacrificial ritual where their beating hearts are cut out of their bodies and offered up to the gods in the hope that this would appease the gods and restore tranquility.
Sacrificing to the gods is actually a common ritual among human societies throughout our history even up to the present. We may not be as violent in our sacrificial rituals where prayers are offered instead of bleeding hearts but our recent history is filled with acts of violence in the name of god(s) so really, things may not be as different as we want to believe.
The Mayans sacrificed out of ignorance. They did not know why a drought occurred or why people contracted disease, the priests assumed the gods were punishing them for some transgression and they wanted to appease those gods. The Jews followed a similar belief, blaming themselves for their awful plight including the Holocaust, some still hold to that belief.
Religious and political leaders use the people’s ignorance and superstition to their own advantage – to this day.
At the end of the movie, the main character and his family see strange looking ships and people landing on their shores. This was the Spanish invasion and on the landing craft you saw monks holding large crosses. The man’s wife asks if they should go to these people and greet them and he replies, no let us go back into the jungle and start a new beginning.
History tells us that the Spaniards brought small pox that decimated the remaining Mayan population and they did not come to win new souls for Christ, they really came for gold and they would kill for it.
I mentioned that the Mayan civilization was very advanced and left many objects for us to study but alas we will NEVER be able to know their meaning because we cannot translate their images.
You see the holy Spanish Christian/ Catholic monks considered the books that would have enabled us to translate the Mayan symbols as products of paganism that would insult the Catholic God and so they BURNED every one of the thousands of books of an entire civilization.
You see those monks were also acting in ignorance and I feel religions to this day, base their operations on people’s ignorance and superstition a subject I will be addressing more fully in the coming year.
So did Mel, the devout Catholic have an anti-religion message in his book? I don’t know. He may have just made a good movie with a compelling story. I will keep my eyes open for other reviewers of this movie to see what they speculate.
A MUST see movie ! ! !
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