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It's not the Wickerman this time, folks...this time, it's Apocalypto. Don't know the movie? Here's the summary...
"Synopsis: From Academy Award winning filmmaker Mel Gibson (The Passion of the Christ, Braveheart), comes Apocalypto: a heart stopping mythic action-adventure set against the turbulent end times of the once great Mayan civilization. When his idyllic existence is brutally disrupted by a violent invading force, a man is taken on a perilous journey to a world ruled by fear and oppression where a harrowing end awaits him. Through a twist of fate and spurred by the power of his love for his woman and his family he will make a desperate break to return home and to ultimately save his way of life."
First of all...Mel Gibson must die!
Second of all, this movie was a gore-a-palooza. I don't know what is wrong with Mel Gibson, but some loose screw in that man's head gives him the sickest ideas for movies. Slow, graphic deaths, rotting, fly-ridden corpses, heads flying everywhere, and enough blood to fill an Olympic pool. Just a hint, Mel Gibson, but if you have one character stabbing another, we do not need to see the knife sinking slowly into his flesh and the blood gushing out. You have gone far past the boundaries of good taste, and into a realm beyond human decency.
But enough about the violence...
Let's talk about the movie's good points (yes, points, with an 's', as in plural).
One...either something is wrong with me, or the main character, Jaguar Paw, was hot. Or at least nice to look at. Until he got coated in blood. Blood is not so nice to look at.
Okay, I lied, that's the one good point. I think...kind of...umm...let me explain:
Jaguar paw is captured by the Mayans, about to be used is a sacrifice, saved by an eclipse, escapes to the jungle, survives an excruciatingly long chase scene, and lives happily ever after when the Spanish conquistadors finally come.
The good thing: The Maya are not glorified.
The bad thing: The Maya are demonized.
I know, you need a villain for a good plot, but the Maya are (were) good people of a culture with a strange worldview.
Their worldview was this: 'We are the people chosen to be nearest to the gods. All other peoples should become Maya, and it is our destiny to control the world. Natural laws do not apply to us. The earth was made for us to use and no one else.'
You may be thinking: "What a terrible way to view one's place in the universe. It's a good thing they were obliterated by the conquistadors. Didn't they deserve to be demonized in this film?"
Stop thinking that.
Now.
Clear your mind.
Prepare for a new perspective.
I was disgusted by the people in the theater. They laughed at the Maya. "What an absurd notion these people have," they thought smugly to themselves, "the world was not created for them, they are not closest to the gods."
These movie-goers applauded at the death of one of the 'bad guys'.
Besides it being disgusting to applaud anyone's death, it is even more disturbing to applaud at your own.
Let me tell you what I mean.
The Maya are our cultural kin. We have a very similar worldview. When I say 'we' I don't mean America, or the white people. I mean all of 'civilized' society. We are one global culture and our worldview is this:
"The gods (or God) chose us to rule this earth. The earth was created for us to use. Only us. Not the Maya, not the Gebusi, not any other people on earth. It was created for us to use and that was decided divinely."
Sound familiar? We are essentially the Maya. We are one culture out of thousands, with the extraordinary notion that people are meant to live the way we are. The only difference between us and the Maya is that they sacrifice the people they conquer, while we change the people we conquer so that they are part of our culture too.
This comparison was never made in the film. In the film, it was the Maya that were the anomalies. A disgusting obscenity that deserved to be destroyed.
But we are the obscenity now.
And when we sit in the movie theater and feel glad when one of the Maya dies, we are no better than the child in the movie who sat and watched as people were sacrificed. And he laughed. And so did those other movie-goers.
They didn't know that they were laughing at themselves. They were too blinded by their view of our inherent rightness to see that we are the Maya.
Does my view on the subject interest you? Did most of it go over your head?
It makes sense to me, but I have read several books by Daniel Quinn.
Don't watch Apocalypto.
Go read either Ishmael, My Ishmael, or The Story of B.
Then you can watch Apocalypto (if you have a strong constitution) and you'll see what I mean.