Apocalypto: Fact or Fiction?

A review by Romy Smith and Kirk Pearson 2/20/08

During the first fifteen minutes alone, Mel Gibson’s gruesome horror flick

“Apocalypto” dishes out enough misinformation and gory special effects to last a

lifetime. The film confuses the Aztec and Mayan cultures simultaneously, crunches

thousands of years of culture into a week and depicts the people closer to blood thirsty

zombies than the technological advancers they were. One almost never envisions these

types of movies to be historically accurate, but “Apocalypto” is simply so over the top,

one can’t believe that the film comes even close to accuracy. Although the motion picture

was badly researched, the plotline itself managed to keep you on the edge of your seat

and occasionally turn your head from the screen in fear and disgust. We believe

“Apocalypto” was a good recreational film, but depicted cultures very falsely.

Many renowned historians agree with our point of view as well. As Mayan

scholar Andrea Stone says, “The fact is, this concoction [Apocalypto] of the ancient

Maya, which, to the film’s credit, includes many accurate details, but anachronistically,

drawn from over a 1,700 year period.” She describes her view in the article Orcs in

Loincloths as an entertaining movie, but very badly planned out. On the other hand, critic

Marc Norton comments that “Apocalypto” will “create interest in the field on Mayan

archeology.” Both views of the film point out the inaccuracies as well as the

entertainment factor. We believe that the film was indeed an intriguing one, yet was a

horrible way to express Mayan values to the public.

The film starts out with the violent slaughter of a tapir and the consumption of its

testicles. Here we meet the man who slaughtered the tapir, our protagonist, the Mayan

Jaguar Paw. Just as a side note, Mayans were an agricultural community and rarely ever

hunted unless for royalty (news.nationalgeographic.com). Jaguar Paw is next in line to be

the head of their tribe, somehow a subsidiary of the Mayan civilization. Sounds peaceful,

right? But sticking with cheap movie 101, another subsidiary of the Mayan culture

interrupts Jaguar Paw’s nightly siesta to pillage their village with 21st century fighting

techniques and weapons that didn’t evolve in the Mayan culture for another couple

hundred years.

Once the good guys are captured, they take a nice day long walk to a giant

industrial city. It is here where Jaguar Paw and his friends are set to have their hearts

extracted and their cadavers thrown down a Chichen Itza replica. The ceremony was set

to appease “the sun god”, which is ended when an eclipse occurs. If any culture really did

as graphic a sacrifice as seen in the movie, it would have been the Aztecs, who were a

much more violent culture. Naturally, the Aztecs weren’t a convenient 24 hours away. If

anything was that close to where they were living, they would certainly know about it.

However, Mayan culture was centered around cities built for religious practice and

sacrifice, although not the same kind you saw in the movie. Even still, the Mayans never

had a sun god to appease. They did have “Kukulkahn” however, which was the god for

sacrifice. However, the actual Mayan sacrifice would have been more sacred and much

less public.

Another clue to the poor research done for the movie was the appearance of the

Mayans in Mel Gibson’s movie. Ms. Stone points out that the Mayans did not have the

stereotypical stick-through-the-nose piercing that we saw in the movie as well as the

elaborate scarring applied to the chest and abdomen of the warriors. The list describing

the inaccuracies in the character’s appearance could go on. Many of the physical

characteristics were invented to make the characters appear more exotic and exciting.

Even the weapons were inaccurate; the film featured more Aztec weapons, such as

macuahuitls, a blunt cosh resembling what you think an Aztec baseball bat would look

like.

But in his article “Beyond Chron” by Marc Norton, it is argued that “Apocalypto”

is bringing awareness to the Mayan culture and therefore, keeping it alive. Mr. Norton

points out that although the film is a gore-fest, it should not be flamed by the critics for

this reason. He brings to light the fact that we expose ourselves to massive amounts of

violence just by turning on the TV or picking up a newspaper. The viewers also witness,

not only the “Maya-on-Maya” violence that makes up roughly ninety-percent of the film,

the destruction brought on by the Spanish. The film shows us an eerie reflection of our

own society.

Overall, “Apocalypto” is a great film to see as long as one isn’t too critical of the

historical precision. Although Gibson repeatedly points out how traditionally accurate the

movie is, “Apocalypto” is a popcorn picture, and nothing else. The movie is a very poor

stab at a historical fiction film and should not, under any circumstance, be taken as an

actual portrayal of any culture seen in the film. The simple reason the movie is shown

this way is all due to the appeal of gore, violence, sex and “ancient barbarianism” which

the public loves so very much. In conclusion, we recommend Apocalypto to see as a time

waster, but serves as a pitiful source to a history project.