Apocalypto

Apocalypto was created by Mel Gibson and released in 2006. It follows the story of a character named Jaguar Paw whose village is attacked by Mayan slave traders. He then has to somehow find escape from a horrible fate involving a deadly ritual and return home to his family. Once safe he and his family begin to travel as the first Spanish explorers appeared on the continent.

One of the biggest problems with this movie is the idea that the Mayans (Native Americans) were a simply brutal and savage culture. In the first articles we read at the beginning of the year we read about how European mistreated Native Americans settles and that there was a belief that these cultures were somehow unable to establish any kind of civilized culture of their own. The character Jaguar Paw becomes a Caliban of sorts as the audience establishes a connection with him and sympathy for his situation. Then we are reminded of his “savagery” and natural wildness.

The next controversy we are presented with is the issue of the violence of the Mayan empire at that time. First those cultures had all but dissipated when the Spaniards had actually come to South America so the problem becomes the fact that the telling of this story comes from the perspective of privilege. Mel Gibson took an unfair liberty in his telling of this story because it was one that took the story from the people who’s culture inspired it and allowed him the opportunity to butcher it. Much like the Europeans before us a misrepresentation of Native American cultures is being formed and told not by the people who it represents but by whites, namely Mel Gibson. Again this relates to the earlier readings of Takaki and Zinn.

One positive of the film was the use of Native American actors and the opportunity to show their ability to act. The flipside of course is the potential that it may establish them as only being able to play their perceived “savage” ancestors. Rarely do you see a cast with anyone of this ethnicity but a movie like this comes along and suddenly the entire cast is Native American.

Now my reaction to the movie is this, it was dang cool to watch. Production, story, scene, and presentation wise it was really interesting. The problem, however, lies in the ridiculous misrepresentation of those people violently de-hearting and beheading a line of slaves and prisoners at the cheers of a crowd. Much like the example Bobcat had set Mel Gibson again proves that we may have not actually become as open and accepting of others as we thought we were. Believing that we’ve somehow surpassed the past discrimination of our forefathers and merely embraced a new look for those old ideas.