| Posted by: CosmicPuppet at May 2, 2008, 4:13 pm | | Topic: Apocalypto... One of the Most Underrated Films in Recent Memory? Forum: JoBlo | | Quote: Originally Posted by bigred760 They weren't Mexicans. They were Mayans. I believe he was referring to the fact that it was shot in Yucatan, Mexico, so I'm sure there were plenty of Mexican people running around in the film. Hell, the main actor was an American Indian, so I think the PC concept of "calling them Mayans" is kinda just tacky especially when the film wasn't even accurate to the Mayan civilization. It was like Gibson mixed cultures, borrowing heavily from the Aztec warrior-like state using Mayan culture. It really killed my ability to enjoy the film knowing a little bit about the culture and realizing Gibson simplified everything to make an action film about savages. It's an almost lost culture with many mysteries such as the calendar, its creation of geometry, the creation of the amazingly geometrically sound pyramids and all he can do is show a bunch of savage people chasing after some guy killing each other? I found it insulting. There was intelligence in these people that the film never dared to explore. Even the Fountain felt more accurate to the Mayan culture than this film and they barely had about 10 minutes of screen time. Now, I know some of you will say, "God, dude, get off your high horse, it's just an action movie." But not many films are ever made of the Mayan culture. A great deal of people will never even bother to read about them, so for one of the very few films to about it completely misrepresents it is very irresponsible and disrespectful to the culture. I've had people say, "Well, European period piece movies always change dates!" I agree, that they do, but those films outnumber films about the Maya. It's like a ratio of 50 films-to-every 1. I believe more care should be put into the accuracy of it since the culture itself has very seldom been depicted on film compared to other cultures such as classical Period piece films you find. And when a big name like Gibson is involved, with all the marketing that it got, he should have recognized his responsibility to tackling the subject. If PTA had Daniel Plainview use inaccurate oil drilling devices in There Will Be Blood it would have stuck out like a sore thumb because more people know what to look for, but with Mayans, they don't, so they end up just believing whatever they see. I just don't give people enough credit to differentiate what they see on screen than reality. That's something I've learned from hanging out with many people who have grown up with TV, we can often see it as reality when it's far from it. Either way, the movie didn't engage me a whole lot. Everything was so black and white about it. The action scenes were good in places, but I hate seeing DV cameras when they move fast because then you really notice the medium... just takes you out of the moment. |
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