Mel Gibson's Apocalypto

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Wow! Couldn’t tell what this was about other than the Maya (awesome last scene of all the temple pyramids). So, where are the conquistadores? I assume that is what this movie is ultimately about.
 
Not sure… from what I can see so far, it’s probably a story of one man trying to escape being a human sacrifice… There seems to be a lot of hush hush on the film. That and apparently like ‘The Passion of the Christ’ this film will be in the original Mayan language.
 
I suspect I was right. I did some searches on the internet today and the movie is supposed to be set 500 years ago which is the time of the Spanish conquest. I suspect Mel Gibson read about the decyphering of the Mayan written language which has been going on in archaeolology for several years.

I don’t know how Gibson is going to handle this. The Franciscans burned almost all of the Mayan codices as “of the devil”. It turns out that the surviving codices which have been translated are astronomical treatises although the glyphs would have looked demonic to Rennaissance Europeans. The Mayans, while not as bad as the Aztecs, hand many unique ways of blood sacrifice to thier gods. Bernal Diaz in his book Conquest of New Spain describes vividly what the Spanish encountered in the lands of the Aztecs, Toltecs, and Maya. I cannot condemn the Spanish because from their eyes and religion, the religious practices of the indigenous peoples of Meso-America were demonic. So, where is he going with this?
 
No idea yet… though some think he might inject his morality into it. Other than that it’s supected he may play upon the whole apocalypse deal and tie it in with Christianity somehow. But this is just speculation. We have no idea what he’s doing. Might just be a straightforward explorer film.
 
I know this is a bit far-fetched, but I wonder if he will be injecting the third secret of Fatima here?
 
Can’t wait to see it! It might be a bit difficult with our little one, though! Maybe we will need to wait until it comes out for home viewing.
 
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Shoshana:
I know this is a bit far-fetched, but I wonder if he will be injecting the third secret of Fatima here?
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All I can say is, yay Mel. He’s going to deal Hollywood yet another BIIIIGGGGGGG BLOW!

It’s going to be a real bad one this time. He’s going to show truth which the flaming liberal socialists, Hitlerist media will accuse him of racism once again with their anti-catholic diatribes. I’m so fed up with those folks in Hollywood, that I hope God gives them a real kick in the rear! Hollywood is a big whorehouse. Don’t be suprised shoshanna if they get the punishment Sodom and Gohmrrah got only much, much, much worse. This is Hollywood’s judgement Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. That’s what I told them in a letter that I wrote them. They’ll die a terrible death, there is the second death and its a real one. Sorry folks, but I as devout orthodox Catholic had to get this off my chest.
 
It was one thing to watch Our Lord suffering so graphically but if he is accurate with the Maya you will be astounded. Some of their sacrificial practices cannot be written of in these forums.

The Mayans also had the concept of the “end times”. In fact, their predictions are that the world will end in 2012 so Mel may be doing something with this as well.
 
bones_IV said:
All I can say is, yay Mel. He’s going to deal Hollywood yet another BIIIIGGGGGGG BLOW!

It’s going to be a real bad one this time. He’s going to show truth which the flaming liberal socialists, Hitlerist media will accuse him of racism once again with their anti-catholic diatribes. I’m so fed up with those folks in Hollywood, that I hope God gives them a real kick in the rear! Hollywood is a big whorehouse. Don’t be suprised shoshanna if they get the punishment Sodom and Gohmrrah got only much, much, much worse. This is Hollywood’s judgement Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. That’s what I told them in a letter that I wrote them. They’ll die a terrible death, there is the second death and its a real one. Sorry folks, but I as devout orthodox Catholic had to get this off my chest.
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:rolleyes:
 
From what I read, the point of the movie is to show how the decadence and barbarism of Mayan civilization at that time led to their downfall, just as the decadence and barbarism of modern civilization will lead to our downfall.
 
My understanding of the history is, by the time the Spanish came around, the “High” civilization of the Maya had collapsed already–from war, ecological disaster, and the common people just giving up on a system that bloodily, horrificaly sacrificed their best & brightest–the people left the cities and went back to subsistence farming. The Spanish destruction of the codices was sort of a mop up after the fact–unlike the hammer sledge Cortez dealt the Aztecs
 
I believe it will be about the Aztecs butality on neighbouring tribes.
There will be A LOT of BLOOD as usual Mel seems to like a LOT of BLOOD.
The Myan language is what has thrown a lot of people off. The film will be an inditment against modern barbarism, like abortion , euthiansia etc… “Saying that great civilisations are destroyed from with-in.” The Spanish will probably show up at the very end and will show that they were really the saviours of the tribes being sacrificed by the Aztecs and hopefully will put to rest the “nobel savage” theoryspread about Aztecs.
 
Didi said:
Some things to think about regarding the decision to see this movie:

spiritdaily.com/mysticgibson.htm
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I take serious objection to the author reporting Gibson seeking advice from a witch and then stating that ir could not be confirmed. That is blantanly against Catholic teaching on slander, gossip and detraction. I don’t know about the effect of viewing dipictions of sacrifice, but I do know that these sins are damaging.
 
I didn’t say I agreed with everything in the article, but it does give us some things to think about.

The one that disturbed me most was the actual ritual sacrifice that may be depicted. I have a friend who has experienced demonic possession and felt the presence of evil arise even more while watching a movie with a witch’s incantation.

How can this affect us spiritually?
 
Already seeing. Going to see a civilization almost never depicted honestly in American film. Everyone needs personal beleifs, but when those personal beleifs prevent you from even knowing about the ways of life of other civilizations, they become a liability in an ever-changing world.
 
Well, as a Latin American Historian by profession, I can’t tell you how long I’ve been waiting for this one! I have to agree though that this isn’t going to be a “Spanish save the day” film, but a “corrupt civilization with no regard for life or the environment implodes on itself” film. By the time of the Spanish arrival, virtually every Mayan city was abandoned, with the principal exception of Tulum on the Yucatecan coast, and even that didn’t last much longer. I find it improbable, but not impossible, that the Spanish will show up in this film. If they do, I would predict that it would be in a cameo at the end, walking on shore to find a completely abandoned city, or something like that, with a cut to the credits. This may not even deal with the final downfall of the Maya, but the collapse of the “Classical” Maya around 900 AD. I suspect, given the location though, that it takes place around 1400. I’ll be sure to post a good objective historical review after I see it.
 
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