Apocalypto

I just returned from an evening with the Meso-American archaeological group who had a film showing – Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto.  They were mostly specialists in Mayan archaeology and so were interested in how this ancient civilization was portrayed.  This post will share some of my impressions of the film (from an “outsiders” view – being an Egyptian archaeologist) and also give some of their, more expert, opinions.

For those who have never watched it, Apocalypto, is not for the faint of heart.  It is a “thrilling” story of a young tribal prince in the Mayan jungle who is taken captive in a brutal attack by another tribe.  He is ripped apart (very violently) from his family (his wife, who is very pregnant, and his young son he manages to hide in a well only to be taken captive leaving them trapped at the bottom).  He, and the other men and women of the tribe, are forced to painfully march to the capital where most of the women are sold into slavery and the men are painted blue and taken to the temple to be ritually sacrificed (hearts cut out while alive and then decapitated – I said this was not a movie for the faint heart).  When it is his turn, an eclipse fortuitously occurs and his life, and those of his friends, are temporarily spared.  They are then taken to be made sport of.  He manages to escape by killing the “general’s” son.  To get revenge, he is chased by the “general” and his men back into the jungle.  It is a race against time, his determined pursuers, and the elements in his attempt to get back to his wife and son before it rains (as she and their son will drown in the well if he doesn’t get back to save them).

All in all, it was an “entertaining” movie (for those who like this sort of thing).  It was very bloody.  This (the violence) was not really something I enjoy, but it did bring dramatically home to me the family behind the wars.  I study ancient history.  Often much of that history revolves around whatever written record we have; and unfortunately, much of it has to do with war.  I have often thought about the men who fight these wars, but I must confess to have not thought as much of the families behind these men.  We are truly blessed to not live in a war-torn country.  But this is not true of everyone on earth.  Unfortunately there are people who want to force their wills, beliefs, religions, etc on other people or simply just take more (“greed” motivation) for themselves.  Naturally, this has to be stopped, or prevented or the world we live in of relative peace will disappear, as it did to this small tribal village.

I also was faced with the realization that at some point in history, various tribal centers did become more ambitious and begin to build.  Those in the neighboring areas who didn’t want to “bow” to the new “rulers” were forced to bow or become slaves (or worse).  That is another unfortunate reality of the ancient (and to some degree, modern) world we study (and live in).  It is one thing to be part of the “rulers”.  It is quite another to be one of the “ruled”.

My Mayan archaeological companions viewed the movie in quite another way.  The professor was distraught over the “clean” jungle, the poor costuming, and the horrid pronunciation of the language (the entire move was in the foreign tongue – which I liked because it was more believable then the Mayan suddenly speaking English – probably with British accents like most of the ancient Egyptians are portrayed as doing in most movies).  Unfortunately, only one of the actors could speak the language fluently (again, fortunately, they were all local people and not “white” men acting like locals – Mel Gibson was the director, he was not in the movie).

One student pointed out that at the time when the Spanish came (which took place at the very end of the movie) everything was very agricultural and urban and nothing like the movie portrayed the Mayan civilization as being.  It is doubtful that the Mayan ever did ritual sacrificing.  And the city was not believable.  She also wondered why the village was only a day’s journey away, and yet they had no idea what was happening.  This was the general tenor of my companions and the other comments were along these lines.

In the end, we all agreed that these sorts of movies, while not true to the archaeological reality, do serve good purposes.  They make us think about our stereotypes.  They also make us think and evaluate what we perceive as reality.  But probably the best thing they do is inspire people to become interested in these areas and eventually grow up to be archaeologists who can study them and discover the truth (most of us became interested in our fields of study along similar lines).

And we all wished that the movie makers would do better research (for the same story could be told – and be accurate at the same time).