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Apocalypto
File:Apocalypto teaser.jpg
Apocalypto promotional poster
Directed byMel Gibson
Written byMel Gibson
Farhad Safinia
Produced byMel Gibson
Farhad Safinia
Bruce Davey
StarringRudy Youngblood
Raoul Trujillo
Mayra Sérbulo
Dalia Hernández
Gerardo Taracena
Rodolfo Palacios
Bernardo Ruiz Juarez
Ammel Rodrigo Mendoza
Ricardo Diaz Mendoza
Israel Contreras
CinematographyDean Semler
Music byJames Horner
Distributed byTouchstone Pictures (USA)
Icon Entertainment (non-USA)
20th Century Fox (Argentina)
Release dates
December 8, 2006 (theater)
May 22, 2007 (DVD and Blu-ray)
Running time
139 minutes
LanguageYucatec Maya
Budget$40 million

Template:Infobox movie certificates Apocalypto is an Academy Award-nominated 2006 film directed by Mel Gibson. Set in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula just before Spanish contact, it depicts one man's experience during the decline of the ancient Maya civilization. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on May 22, 2007, by Buena Vista Home Entertainment.

Taglines:

  • "When the end comes, not everyone is ready to go."
  • "No one can outrun their destiny."

Production details

Prior to filming and writing a script, Apocalypto writer and producer Farhad Safinia first met Mel Gibson while working as an assistant during the post production of The Passion of the Christ. Eventually, Gibson and Safinia found time to discuss "their mutual love of movies and what excites them about moviemaking."[1] Safinia notes:

"We started to talk about what films excite us and what he wanted to do next, and we specifically spent a lot of time on the action-chase genre of filmmaking. Those conversations essentially grew into the skeleton of ('Apocalypto'). We wanted to update the chase genre by, in fact, not updating it with technology or machinery but stripping it down to its most intense form, which is a man running for his life, and at the same time getting back to something that matters to him."[2]

The desire to portray and explore a culture as it existed before the arrival of the Europeans led Gibson and Safinia to choose the Mayas for their high sophistication and eventual, meteoric decline. Safinia notes why he and Gibson chose the ancient Mayas over the Aztecs:

"The Mayans were far more interesting to us. You can choose a civilization that is bloodthirsty, or you can show the Mayan civilization that was so sophisticated with an immense knowledge of medicine, science, archaeology and engineering ... but also be able to illuminate the brutal undercurrent and ritual savagery that they practiced. It was a far more interesting world to explore why and what happened to them."[3]

Gibson filmed Apocalypto mainly in Catemaco, San Andres Tuxtla and Paso de Ovejas in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The waterfall scene was filmed on a real waterfall called Salto de Eyipantla, located in San Andres Tuxtla.

Both did extensive research of ancient Maya history and read creation and destruction myths. Safinia and Gibson even used sacred texts such as the Popul Vuh.[4] In addition, the two personally traveled to the Yucatan to scout out filming locations as well as to see the Maya ruins to help write up the script.

Yucatec Maya language is used throughout [5] in Apocalypto, in the same way Aramaic and Latin were used for Gibson's religious blockbuster The Passion of the Christ (2004). Said Gibson about again using a foreign language:

“I think hearing a different language allows the audience to completely suspend their own reality and get drawn into the world of the film. And more importantly, this also puts the emphasis on the cinematic visuals, which are a kind of universal language of the heart.”[6]

Like the The Passion of the Christ, the movie has no opening credits and begins with a quotation. The title is only seen during the end credits.

Maya specialist Dr. Richard D. Hansen (the film's consultant), Gibson and Safinia all strived to create some authenticity in the film. Gibson had said of Dr. Hansen's involvement:

“Richard’s enthusiasm for what he does is infectious. He was able to reassure us and make us feel secure that what we were writing had some authenticity as well as imagination.[1]

Apocalypto features a cast of unknown actors from Mexico City, the Yucatán, numerous Native Americans from the United States and Canada, and locals from Los Tuxtlas and Veracruz. In the end, three cast members came from Canada, two from the USA and the rest from Mexico. There were at least 700 extras on set. Many of the younger actors from isolated communities had never set foot inside a hotel room prior to filming.

During filming, Gibson and cinematographer Dean Semler employed the use of Spydercam[7], a suspended camera system allowing shooting from atop:

"We had a Spydercam shot from the top of 150-foot waterfall, looking over an actor's shoulder and then plunging over the edge –- literally in the waterfall. I thought we’d be doing it on film, but we put the Genesis up there in a light-weight water housing. The temperatures were beyond 100 degrees at top, and about 60 degrees at the bottom, with the water and the mist. We shot two fifty-minute tapes without any problems – though we [did get] water in there once and fogged up."[8]

One particular scene where this equipment is used is when the captives are led through the river. Semler and Gibson also filmed Apocalypto digitally, using the high-definition Panavision Genesis camera.[2]

Gibson had persisted on making the main sets based on actual buildings rather than rely on computer-generated images. Most of the step pyramids seen at the Maya city were actual models designed by Thomas E. Sanders, who had previously been nominated for "Best Art Direction-Set Decoration" for his work in Saving Private Ryan[3].

Simon Atherton, an English armorer and weapon-maker who previously worked with Gibson on Braveheart, was hired again but this time to research and provide the Maya weapons. Gibson subsequently let Atherton play the cross-bearing Spanish priest who appears on the boat at the end of the film. In addition, the production team consisted of a large group of make-up artists and costume designers who worked tirelessly around-the-clock to recreate an authentic Maya look for the large cast.

While Gibson financed the film himself, Disney signed on to release Apocalypto for a fee in certain markets. The film was slated for an August 4, 2006 release, but Touchstone Pictures delayed the release date to December 8, 2006 due to heavy rains interfering with filming in Mexico. On September 23, 2006, Gibson pre-screened Apocalypto to two predominantly Native American audiences in the US state of Oklahoma, at the Riverwind Casino in Goldsby, owned by the Chickasaw Nation, and at Cameron University in Lawton.[9] He also did a pre-screening in Austin, Texas on September 24 in conjunction with one of the movie's stars, Rudy Youngblood.[10]

Themes

File:Posterredux.jpg
A different Apocalypto promotional poster, where the central figure is enlarged as well as a separate colored background. Note the solar eclipse that appears in the sky.

"Maya civilization in the Central Area reached its full glory in the early eighth century, but it must have contained the seeds of its own destruction, for in the century and a half that followed all its magnificent cities had fallen into decline and ultimately suffered abandonment. This was surely one of the most profound social and demographic catastrophes of all human history." Michael Coe, "The Maya" [11]

Mel Gibson notes that the precursors to the fall of the Mayan civilization, as Coe put it the "seeds of its own destruction, hold similarities across all fallen civilizations of past." Yet Gibson takes this comparison a step forward and claims these sames "forces" are "occurring in our society now." The movie is partially intended as a political allegory about civilizations in decline.[12] The movie is an attempt to illustrate the parallels between a great fallen empire of the past and great empires of today. Mel Gibson states, "People think that modern man is so enlightened, but we’re susceptible to the same forces—and we are also capable of the same heroism and transcendence.”[13][14]

This message of the movie is apparent from the very beginning to the very end of the movie. The movie begins with an opening quote by Will Durant which states "A great civilization is not conquered from without, until it has destroyed itself from within," giving viewers a context for which to view the rest of the film. Then after watching the horrific displays along side the gallant struggles for survival, the movie ends with the ultimate moral of the story, the final line by the hero of the story Jaguar Paw "seek a new beginning" suggesting this is what we all should do.

Research went into exactly what was the cause behind the Mayan collapse from power. The problems "faced by the Maya are extraordinarily similar to those faced today by our own civilization" Co-writer Safinia stated during production, "especially when it comes to widespread environmental degradation, excessive consumption and political corruption.” [15] The peek through time at this culture of the past serves as a looking glass to our own lives today. The movie serves as a cultural critique, in Dr Hansen's words a "social statement", sending the message that it is never a mistake to question our own assumptions about morality. [4]

These forces of corruption are illustrated in certain scenes through out the movie. The theme of "excessive consumption" can be seen in the Maya's extravagant life style, their vast wealth contrasted to the extremely poor, sickly and slave driven. "Environmental degradation" can not only be seen through the exploitation of natural resources such as the over mining and farming of the land, but also through the treating of people, families and entire tribes as a resource to be harvested and sold to slavery. Political corruption is obviously seen through the manipulation by the leaders and human sacrifice on a large scale and the mass slave trade. These themes are prevalent through out the movie and often overlap and blend together, creating an overall sense of sadness, devastation and destruction.

The Greek verb ἀποκαλύπτω apokaluptō means "I uncover, disclose, or reveal". Gibson commented about the movie's title:

"[It] just expresses so well that I want to convey. I think it's just a universal word. In order for something to begin, something has to end. All of those elements are involved. But it's not a big doomsday picture or anything like that"[5].

Plot Summary

File:Apocalypto Jaguar Paw and Flint Sky.jpg
Jaguar Paw (in middle played by Rudy Youngblood) and his father Flint Sky (to the right played by Morris Birdyellowhead) in their village.

Opening quote: "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within." — W. Durant

After a tapir hunt in the Mesoamerican jungle, Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood), his father Flint Sky (Morris Birdyellowhead), and their fellow tribespeople encounter a procession of traumatized and fearful refugees. The procession's leader explains that their lands have been ravaged, and with Flint Sky's permission, the procession passes through the forest. When Jaguar Paw and his tribespeople return to their village, Flint Sky tells his son not to let the procession's fearful state seep into him. At night, the tribe's elder tells the village a fable of humans dangerously never filling their want, despite having the capabilities of the world's animals. The villagers follow the story with music and dance, leaving Jaguar Paw to ponder.

The next morning, after Jaguar Paw wakes from a nightmare, he sees strangers enter the village, setting aflame homes with their torches. The raiders, led by Zero Wolf (Raoul Trujillo), attack the villagers and subdue as many as possible. Jaguar Paw slips out of the village with his pregnant wife Seven (Dalia Hernández) and his little son Turtles Run, lowering them on a vine into a small cave (a chultun, shaped something like a well)[16] to hide them. Jaguar Paw returns to his village to fight against the raiders, but he is subdued with the rest of his tribespeople. A raider whom Jaguar Paw attacked, the vicious Middle Eye (Gerardo Taracena), prepares to execute Flint Sky in front of his son. Flint Sky tells Jaguar Paw not to be afraid, and Middle Eye slits Flint Sky's throat.

Before the raiders leave the village with their prisoners, one suspicious raider severs the vine leading into the ground cave, trapping Jaguar Paw's wife and son within. The raiders and their captives trek toward a Maya city, encountering failed maize crops and slaves producing plaster. They also pass a small girl stricken with plague who warns the raiders that their end is near. In the city's outskirts, the female villagers are sold as slaves, and the male villagers are escorted into the city to the top of a step pyramid. The high priest sacrifices several captives by pulling out their hearts and then decapitating them. When Jaguar Paw is on the altar to be sacrificed, a solar eclipse stays the priest's hand. The priest declares the sun god Kukulkan satisfied with the sacrifices, and he asks the sun god to restore light. The eclipse passes, and light returns to the world.

Zero Wolf, told to dispose of the captives by the priest, takes them to a ball field. Their captives are released in pairs to run the length of the field while the raiders target them with javelins, arrows, and stones. Jaguar Paw successfully reaches the field's end and though injured by an arrow, bypasses a raider "finisher", Zero Wolf's son, Cut Rock, by killing him. An enraged Zero Wolf pursues Jaguar Paw into the jungle with his fellow raiders. During the chase, a jaguar pursuing Jaguar Paw switches its victim and attacks one of the pursuers. The pursuers' morale breaks as they interpret the jaguar attack as an omen. The chase leads back to the forest in which Jaguar Paw's village was located. As he flees, Jaguar Paw jumps over a high waterfall and survives. He declares from the riverbank below that the raiders are now in his territory. The raiders jump over the falls as well and continue their pursuit.

Zero Wolf's raiders fall to both the forest's elements and Jaguar Paw's traps. A heavy rain sets in, which begins to flood the ground cave in which Jaguar Paw's wife and son are still trapped. Jaguar Paw bludgeons Middle Eye in hand-to-hand combat and kills Zero Wolf by luring him into a trap meant for hunting tapir. He is chased by two remaining raiders out to a beach where they encounter conquistadors and missionaries. The amazement of his pursuers allows Jaguar Paw to flee. He returns into the forest to rescue his wife and son from the cave. He finds that his wife has water birthed a healthy second son, and the family is rescued. Later, as Jaguar Paw leads his family away, he and his wife steal a glimpse of the conquistador's ominous ships anchored off the beach. She suggests that they approach these visitors. But Jaguar Paw does not agree and leads his family further into the forest to "seek a new beginning."

Critical reception

File:Tn2 apocalypto 3.jpg
This scene from Apocalypto contains an actual waterfall that was filmed at San Andres Tuxtla.

The film was released in the United States on December 8, 2006 to mostly positive reviews from film critics according to Rotten Tomatoes. Apocalypto was given "two big thumbs up" by Richard Roeper and guest critic Aisha Tyler on Ebert & Roeper at the movies.[17] Michael Medved gave Apocalypto four stars (out of four) calling the film "an adrenaline-drenched chase movie" and "a visceral visual experience."[18] Overall, the review tallying website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 107 out of the 164 reviews they tallied were positive for a score of 65% and a certification of "fresh".[19]

Contrary to the omens that the film would not have a warm reception in Mexico, it registered a wider number of viewers than Perfume and Rocky Balboa. It even displaced memorable Mexican premiers such as Titanic and Poseidon.[20] And according to polls performed by the newspaper Reforma, 80% of polled Mexicans labeled the film as “very good” or “good”[21]

Historical Inaccuracies and Historicity

Apocalypto has been criticized by a number of anthropologists and archaeologists working in the field of Mayanist studies who charge that the film depicts late Maya society as extremely violent.[22][23][24]

The film has also been accused of historical inaccuracy and racism by historians, Chicanos, Native Americans, and many in the archaeological community[23] Some of these people charge that the film helps fuel a stereotype that shows native Mesoamericans as bloodthirsty savages, while failing to portray their achievements in metalworks.[23] For example, it was more typical of the Aztecs to practice the kind of human sacrifice depicted in the movie, rather than the Maya. The sun god Kukulkan, to whom the sacrifices are offered, is in fact the Maya equivalent of the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl and did not demand human sacrifice. However, Sara Zapata Mijares, who is president and founder of Federacion de Clubes Yucatecos-USA which is a group of Yucatec Mayans, disagrees on any perceived negative portrayal stating, "It was a great action film that kept me on the edge of my seat." Louis E. V. Nevaer has pointed out as well that many of the 90,000 actual Yucatan Mayan living in America with such prominent positions as lawyers and doctors enjoyed the movie immensely. One such actual Mayan after hearing his native tongue displayed on the big screen for the first time in history, called the movie a "bold affirmation of identity."[25]

The Chicano cultural magazine Xispas[26] has a detailed critique of the film on its blog, including the following charges against the film: "According to Gibson, Mayan elites used religion as a means to control and manipulate the people, and the film focuses on the director’s view that the practice of ritual human sacrifice — which the movie depicts as having been performed on a massive scale, was one of the primary reasons for the downfall of the Maya. That is what raises the eyebrows of archaeologists — since there is absolutely no evidence that the Maya practiced human sacrifice on a massive scale." [6]On the other hand, in Maya rituals prisoners of war were in fact killed "on top of the pyramid […] by having his arms and legs held while a priest cut open his chest with a sacrificial flint knife and tore out his heart as an offering."[27] In an article in the newspaper Reforma, Juan E. Pardinas wrote: "The bad news is that this historical interpretation bears some resemblances with reality… Mel Gibson’s characters are more similar to the Mayas of the Bonampak’s murals than the ones that appear in the Mexican school textbooks."[28]

Likewise in the movie, another key cause of the fall of the civilization was "excessive consumption" and "environmental degradation" of there is plenty of supporting evidence. It has been discovered that the Mayan process of creating the lime stucco cement that covered their temples required a great deal of energy to heat up the lime stone to convert it to quick lime. One calculation estimates that it would take five tons of jungle forestry to make one ton of quick lime. Dr. Hansen explains, "I found one pyramid in El Mirador that would have required nearly 1,600 acres of every single available tree just to cover one building with lime stucco... Epic construction was happening... creating devastation on a huge scale" [29] Michael D Coe author of "The Maya" also lists "environmental collapse" as one of the leading causes of the fall of the great empire, along side "endemic warfare", "over population", and "drought". "There is mounting evidence for massive deforestation and erosion throughout the Central Area" explains Coe, "The Maya apocalypse, for such it was, surely had ecological roots". [30]

Likewise, Dr. Richard D. Hansen, an assistant professor of archaeology at Idaho State University and the director of the Mirador Basin Project in Guatemala (a forest reserve home to a number of Maya archaeological sites) states that the impact the film will have on Maya archaeology will be beneficial: "It is a wonderful opportunity to focus world attention on the ancient Maya and to realize the role they played in world history."[7]

In Hollywood on a large scale, there is an "active set of debates" between historians and filmmakers as both attempt to create meaning out of the past. [31] Using a historical perspective to portray a work of fiction automatically thrust the work into this debate and undoubtedly will cause outcries from all types of groups. Safinia addresses such concerns by stating, "The final decision when making a film is, 'What is the right balance between historical authenticity and making it exciting visually as well?' The film is an all out entertainment thrill ride, and that is what it was always designed to do." [32]

Mesoamerican History

On a very basic level, the movie contains a number of items unknown in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.

Apocalypto depicts the latter days — the post classic period — of Maya civilization, but the main pyramid where the human sacrifices occurred actually comes from classic period, when the Mayas were at their zenith. Dr. Richard D. Hansen comments[33]:

"There was nothing in the post-classic period that would match the size and majesty of that pyramid in the film. But Gibson was trying to make a story here. He was trying to depict opulence, wealth, consumption of resources."[8]

The Maya city inaccurately combines details from different Maya and Mesoamerican cultures widely separated by time and place.[24] For example, temples are in the shape of those of Tikal in the central lowlands classic style while decorated with Puuc style elements of the north west Yucatan centuries later.

Co-writer and co-producer Farhad Safinia states the mixing of architectures had been simply done just for aesthetic reasons.[9]

The mural in the arched walkway includes elements from the Maya codices combined with elements from the Bonampak murals (over 700 years earlier than the film's setting) and the San Bartolo murals (some 1500 years earlier than the film's setting) — as in most civilizations, the styles of Maya art changed dramatically over the centuries. Elements of such non-Maya civilizations as those of Teotihuacan and the Aztec are also seen. Robert Carmack, an anthropology professor from SUNY Albany's renowned Mesoamerican program, said "it's a big mistake — almost a tragedy — that they present this as a Maya film."[24] His colleague, Walter Little, agreed, stating how "a lot of people will think this is how it was, unfortunately."[34]

Stephen Houston, Professor of Anthropology at Brown University, points out that human sacrifice victims among the Maya were captured kings, members of royal families, and other high-ranking nobility.

They didn't run around rounding up ordinary people to sacrifice.[35]

However MSN Encarta[27] mentions decapitation of royalty and heart extraction of slaves and prisoners. Karl Taube, Professor of Anthropology at the University of California Riverside, objects to the huge pit filled with corpses in the film, citing the lack of evidence for mass graves.[36]

On the contrary, Dr. Richard D. Hansen responds it is "conjecture", citing that "all [Gibson was] trying to do there is express the horror of it [whether those pits existed]"[10].

Professor Taube also objects to the large number of slaves, something for which there is also no evidence [37] Also, there is little possibility that the Maya would have been "dumbstruck" by the sight of a city.[24] As agricultural people, they also would not have allowed fields of rotting corpses near their crops.[24] Zachary Hruby, of UC Riverside, lamented the use of the Yucatec Maya language, as it gives a sense of authenticity to a film that he says has taken many unfortunate liberties with the subject. Specifically these liberties include: the style and scale of the sacrifices, the presentation of the Maya villagers as isolated people living off the wild forest, the chronological compression of the more urbanized Terminal Classic Maya and the primarily village-dwelling Late Postclassic Maya.[38] Gibson also includes the arrival of clearly Christian missionaries in the last five minutes of the story even though the truth is that the Spanish arrived 300 years after the last large Maya city was abandoned. However, despite the Maya having largely abandoned their intensive agricultural system at the time of the Spanish arrival, there were still comparatively smaller Maya cities: Mayapan, Tiho, Coba, Chetumal and Nito.

Some Mayanists disagree with the romantic view about the Mayas. "The first researchers tried to make a distinction between the 'peaceful' Maya and the 'brutal' cultures of central Mexico", David Stuart wrote in a 2003 article. "They even tried to say human sacrifice was rare among the Maya." But in carvings and mural paintings, Stuart said:

we have now found more and greater similarities between the Aztecs and Mayas,

— including a Maya ceremony in which a grotesquely costumed priest is shown pulling the entrails from a bound and apparently living sacrificial victim[39] and even child sacrifices.[40]

Interviewed by the Sunday Times, Gibson defended his film before the attacks of the critics:

I didn't show half the stuff I read about. I read about an orgy of sacrifice: 20,000 people sacrificed in four days. They were also very fond of impaling genitals and torturing people for years on end. For instance, if they captured a king or queen from another place, they would humiliate them for a decade. They would cut off their lips, have their tongues ripped out, they would have no eyes and no ears. Oh, and they would chew their fingers off. The guy would be alive but was just a babbling mass of nerve endings, then they'd roll him up in a ball after nine years of this stuff and roll him down the temple stairs and pulverise him.[41][42]

UCLA archaeologist Dr. Richard D. Hansen[43] has defended research that had been done on the film. Hansen was asked to be technical adviser on the film after Gibson had seen one of Hansen's documentaries, called Dawn of the Maya, which was done at El Mirador in northern Guatemala. While Gibson's fictional story is set near the coast of Mexico's Yucatan during the collapse of Classic Maya civilization, Hansen's work in Guatemala's Mirador Basin serves, in large part, as the movie's factual basis:

"A lot of the overall ideas that are in the story come from El Mirador, there were a lot of individual scenes that we provided for him [Gibson]. Working on the set was a time machine for me. The Maya houses were exactly like you would expect to see ... the corn husks, the pottery sherds, the feathers and textiles, the baskets and mats on the ground."[44]

Asked about if there was any historicity of the physical portrayal of the Mayas in Apocalypto in regards to the makeup and body paint, Hansen responded:

"Oh, absolutely. I spent hours and hours going through the pottery and the images looking for tattoos. The scarification and tattooing was all researched, the inlaid jade teeth are in there, the ear spools are in there. There is a little doohickey that comes down from the ear through the nose into the septum — that was entirely their artistic innovation."[45]

In addition, Hansen states that the "scenes of people running around with elaborate body paint and bones pierced through their noses"[46] had also some artistic licence on Gibson's part. In response to how violent the Mayas were in the film, Hansen commented:

"We know warfare was going on. The Postclassic center of Tulum is a walled city; these sites had to be in defensive positions. There was tremendous Aztec influence by this time. The Aztecs were clearly ruthless in their conquest and pursuit of sacrificial victims, a practice that spilled over into some of the Maya areas."[47]

Other areas where the film has been criticized for some inaccuracy and liberties taken include the scene where Jaguar Paw and the rest of captives are used as target practice. Archaeologist Jim Brady of Cal State L.A has responded that he has not heard of any evidence of the Mayas staging such a scene, while Hansen states:

"The process of using these individuals as target practice is a real possibility. I couldn't say it did happen, but I couldn't say it didn't either. [Gibson] wanted to have some reason to have the guys go after Rudy Youngblood, to go after the hero ... . That was entirely Mel's scenario — but it's highly reasonable."[11]

Apocalypto writer and producer Farhad Safinia did extensive research in conjunction with the making of the film, using several sources including the Popol Vuh[48]. In the audio commentary of the film's first DVD release, Safinia states that the myth in the old shaman's story (played by Espiridion Acosta Cache who is an actual modern day Maya storyteller[49]) told at night to the people of the village had been taken from a Mesoamerican tale retranslated into Yucatec Maya with Safinia's own additions.

The Eclipse

File:Apocalypto city rulers.jpg
Maya city rulers look up to the approaching solar eclipse.

The solar eclipse is portrayed as occurring in few seconds, with the moon moving rapidly to obstruct the sun, then remaining motionless for some time, before moving away quickly. In reality, while totality may be brief, eclipses take place over several hours, with the moon moving at a constant pace throughout. In the film, the eclipse is followed by a full moon on what appears to be the evening of the same day, an astronomical impossibility: solar eclipses only occur during the new moon. Edgar Martin del Campo of SUNY Albany has pointed out that the Maya had an understanding of astronomy and would not have been in awe of an eclipse as they are depicted in the movie.[24] However, while Maya astronomers and priests knew about eclipses and how to predict their occurrences, lay people may not have had access to the same information. In the movie, the reactions of the priests may suggest that they were fully expecting the eclipse and had scheduled the ritual sacrificial ceremony to coincide with it.

The eclipse scene of the film is reminiscent of an episode during Christopher Columbus' fourth voyage; Columbus impressed local Arawaks in what is now Jamaica by predicting a lunar eclipse. Literary derivatives of this event, usually employing the more dramatic solar eclipse, have become something of a cliché, appearing in Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and in an episode of The Adventures of Tintin called Prisoners of the Sun, adapted to the screen as Tintin and the Temple of the Sun. This same plot device was recognized as an inaccurate cliché as early as 1952 by Guatemalan author Augusto Monterroso, who used an ironic reversal of this plot in his story The Eclipse, [12] in which a friar who tries to use this gambit is sacrificed as the priest calmly reads "one by one, the unending dates in which there would be solar and lunar eclipses, which the Maya astronomers had predicted and noted in their codices without the invaluable help of Aristotle."

Awards

Apocalypto has been nominated for numerous awards as well as winning three. Gibson was also awarded the Latino Business Association's Chairman's Visionary Award for his work on Apocalypto on November 2, 2006 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, California. At the ceremony, Gibson had said that the film was a "badge of honor for the Latino community."[50] Gibson also stated that Apocalypto would help dismiss the notion that "history only began with Europeans”[51].

Won

Nominated

Box office

Budgeted at $40 million, Apocalypto enjoyed a $15 million opening weekend, topping the Leonardo DiCaprio vehicle Blood Diamond and Nancy Meyers' The Holiday. The following weekend, it dropped 46.6% to land in sixth place. It dipped another 50% over the four-day Christmas frame and fell out of the top 10 altogether. As of March 21, 2007, the film has grossed $118,833,004 worldwide.

In the United Kingdom the film set a new record for the highest opening weekend take by a foreign language film. It took £1.3m compared to the previous record holder, Hero, which took £1.05m in 2004. Gibson's The Passion of the Christ only took £229,426.[52]

Trivia

File:MelGibsonApocalyptoFrame.png
  • Although Mel Gibson does not star in the film, he does have a one-frame cameo about 1 minute, 46 seconds or about 2/3 into the first teaser trailer. His appearance is just before the screaming monkey is shown. [13] [14]
  • The leader of the warband Zero Wolf yells "I am walking here!" when a tree almost falls on his group who are making their way to the Temple. This is a parody of Dustin Hoffman's famous line in Midnight Cowboy, which was an ad lib by Hoffman.
  • The poster for Apocalypto does not depict the central character Jaguar Paw. It depicts the Holcane warrior Middle Eye (played by Gerardo Taracena).[53]
  • When the captives are first brought into the city, the procession passes a dwarf riding in a backpack device on the back of a much taller man. This appears to be a nod to a very similar small-on-big combination used in the film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, which starred Gibson.
  • In early 2007 filmmaker Mel Gibson was sued by Mexican filmmaker Juan Catlett who claims that Gibson used scenes from his 1991 film 'Return to Aztlan' and that the films shared similar plotlines.[54]


See also

Notes

  1. ^ http://www.filmspot.com/movie/361518/apocalypto/news/7697.html
  2. ^ Ibid.
  3. ^ Ibid
  4. ^ http://www.wildaboutmovies.com/movies/ApocalyptoMovieTrailerPosterMelGibson.php
  5. ^ Actors spoke Yucatec Maya language, BProphets-Apoc
  6. ^ http://www.wildaboutmovies.com/movies/ApocalyptoMovieTrailerPosterMelGibson.php
  7. ^ http://www.spydercam.com/info-work.html
  8. ^ http://cinematech.blogspot.com/2006/06/dion-beebe-dean-semler-tom-sigel-and.html
  9. ^ "Gibson takes 'Apocalypto' to Oklahoma". Associated Press. 2006-09-23. Retrieved 2006-09-24.
  10. ^ "Mel campaigns for new movie, against war in Iraq". Reuters. 2006-09-24. Retrieved 2006-09-25.
  11. ^ Michael D. Coe: "The Maya" 7th ed, pg 161. Thames & Hudson, 2005.
  12. ^ E. Michael Jones,"Abortion and Human Sacrifice in the Americas".
  13. ^ "Mel Gibson criticizes Iraq war at film fest - Troubled filmmaker draws parallels to collapsing Mayan civilization". Associated Press. September 25 2006. Retrieved 2006-12-12. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^ http://www.wildaboutmovies.com/movies/ApocalyptoMovieTrailerPosterMelGibson.php
  15. ^ Ibid.
  16. ^ Chultuns are underground cavities with a typically narrow opening, which the Maya either excavated in toto or enlarged from a natural depression, which were used chiefly for water storage, but also for the storage of other goods and even burials.
  17. ^ Ebert & Roeper at the Movies air date 2006-12-10
  18. ^ http://images.michaelmedved.com/images/pdf/apocalypto.doc
  19. ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/apocalypto/
  20. ^ Staff, Reforma (30 January 2007). Reforma, “Califican con 7.6 a Apocalypto”. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  21. ^ Ibid.
  22. ^ "Is "Apocalypto" Pornography?", Archaeology Magazine, 5 December 2006
  23. ^ a b c "Gibson film angers Mayan groups", BBC, 8 December 2006
  24. ^ a b c d e f McGuire, Mark (12 December 2006). "'Apocalypto' a pack of inaccuracies". San Diego Union Tribune. Retrieved 2006-12-12. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  25. ^ http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=7d6ee7c2b24711821e7b3c08516541b7
  26. ^ "Xispas: Chicano culture, art, and politics"
  27. ^ a b "Maya Civilization", MSN Encarta
  28. ^ “La mala noticia es que esta interpretación histórica tiene alguna dosis de realidad […]. Los personajes de Mel Gibson se parecen más a los mayas de los murales de Bonampak que a los que aparecen en los libros de la SEP.” —Reforma, “Nacionalismo de piel delgada”, 4 February 2007
  29. ^ http://www.cinemareview.com/production.asp?prodid=3773 Production Notes: The Heart Of Apacolypto
  30. ^ Michael D. Coe "The MAYA" 7th ed, pg 162-63
  31. ^ http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/american_quarterly/v050/50.1br_toplin.html Telling ghost stories: reflections on history and Hollywood
  32. ^ http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=7d6ee7c2b24711821e7b3c08516541b7 For Some Maya, 'Apocalypto' is a Thrill
  33. ^ http://www.globalheritagefund.org/apocalypto.html
  34. ^ Ibid.
  35. ^ Washington Post, 15 December 2006.
  36. ^ Washington Post, 15 December 2006.
  37. ^ Washington Post, ibid.
  38. ^ Hruby, Zachary (08 December 2006). "Apocalypto: A New Beginning or a Step Backwards". Mesoweb News & Reports. Retrieved 2006-12-12. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  39. ^ http://www.livescience.com/history/human_sacrifice_050123.html
  40. ^ Stuart, David (2003). "La ideología del sacrificio entre los mayas". Arqueología mexicana. XI, 63: 24–29.
  41. ^ Mel Gibson on his movie 'Apocalypto', interview Sunday Times, January 2007
  42. ^ http://www.allgreatquotes.com/mel_gibson_quotes.shtml
  43. ^ http://www.miradorbasin.com/About/hansen.htm
  44. ^ http://www.archaeology.org/0701/etc/conversation.html
  45. ^ ^Ibid.
  46. ^ ^Ibid
  47. ^ ^Ibid.
  48. ^ http://english.pravda.ru/society/showbiz/14-12-2006/85918-Gibson_Apocalypto-0
  49. ^ http://video.movies.go.com/apocalypto/
  50. ^ http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2006-11-02-gibson-latino-honor_x.htm
  51. ^ http://www.todoexito.com/events/view/309
  52. ^ "Mel Gibson's Apocalypto smashes record", The Guardian, January 9, 2007
  53. ^ http://imdb.com/title/tt0472043/faq#.2.1.5
  54. ^ http://defamer.com/hollywood/mel-gibson/

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