Will you watch Mel Gibson's Apocalypto?

I just wonder what everyone thinks about this. Has Mr. Gibson's stupidity caused you to not want to see it? I know I would have a hard time dragging myself to it. Every time I think about Mel Gibson now, I think about the South Park episode with him in it.

I love the Maya civilization. I think it is one of the coolest civs ever behind the Anasazi. I will see it regardless of what he said.

I know he thinks our society is decaying and that a lot of that sentiment will go into the movie. That's why it's set during the fall of the Maya. Still though, I think it should be a good experience.

What is the meaning of your post, Sir?

Vampire was just being me LOL

You know how many people used to practice forms of human sacrifice? (I think that's what you're getting at...) Quite a few.

I mean, it used to be common practice for druids in the Celtic civilization as well and I think a lot of people here would identify with them. You show me the best civization in the world and I'll show you one who kills, invades, sacrifices or enslaves.

Celtic was just a little different. These guys played games for life or death. But they did predict the future 2012 end of the world scared yet

I'm not worried about the end of the world. I'm not so attached to this world that I get afraid of losing it. I used to be afraid of death, but not so much anymore. Just of dying in a really painful way.

No sense in worrying about something that probably won't happen or that we can't do anything about. Death is inevitable.

Civilisation as we know it will end, but thats it.

nt

Rotten the ice, sit cream for a hail mettle nettle settles for love.

I don't need to boycott a movie to prove to everyone that I'm not anti-Semitic. I rarely see movies in the theater though, so it might be that I see it on DVD if at all.

will find your support of the movie - financially - to be disloyal? To me, you're insulting your friends. Mel went on a vicious tirade. I mean, he was spouting hate like a Nazi. Did you hear what he said? And you'd support a guy like that with you cash?
You've got plenty of other choices for your entertainment dollar. Why not chose something that doesn't trash your friends. I believe they would be hurt if they knew you put your need for entertainment above your feelings for them. Particularly when we have so much to choose from - why choose the bigot?

When it comes on PPV or HBO. It looks interesting. I love mythology anyway so I like to see how Hollywood interprets other cultures and their stories. For instance, I think they should have put the gods in fully in "Troy" like in the original. Keeping the gods out watered it down.

:shrug:

:shrug:

I mean he does think they are responsible for all the wars in the world, so I suppose if there is a war in the movie, he'll have to pin it on Jews.

:eyes:

Which probably means that if in the future I know someone who owns the DVD I will watch it.

It has the potential to be a really good money, but I have a difficult time sending Mel Gibson my hard earned money.

I know there are exciting things going on with the Maya NOW that will have an impact on the entire world, and so I'll watch those films.

www.mayanmajix.com

There are a couple of free videos there to download and distribute that explain what I'm talking about, plus several papers and articles on the subject.

And now what I know about him, never!

Can't afford to see movies in theaters; and right now, thinking about sitting in the dark that long gives me an panic attack.

If I wanted to see madness and mayhem, I would rent a Werner Herzog movie... maybe "Agirre, Wrath of God," in German, if possible.

The fuss about his Passion-deal ---no way I wasn't going to see it to know what to think. (My call back then, that it was a torture/snuff flick.)

While I tended to see, than not to see, some of his movies (Hamlet, Braveheart, Patriot, the WW I one), it took Passion and some commentary by others to notice that the common thread in his movies of choice is incredible violence. I didn't see most of his action movies except for the first Mad Max. The movies he CONTROLS are violence incarnate.

so I will be seeing it and leave it at that. Thanks!

The plot of the movie revolves around some guy who escapes a mass human sacrifice. Problem is, the Mayans never engaged in mass human sacrifice, it was the Aztecs who were into that.

I read an article awhile back that quotes an interview with Gibson where he was confronted by the interviewer with the fact that he was distorting the known archaelogical record about Mayan practices. Gibson waved it off, basically saying that the mass human sacrifice thing made for a better plotline and that he wasn't making a documentary.

Well fuck that and fuck Mel Gibson. The indigenous people of this hemisphere have been slimed enough by Hollywood ever since movies came into being. Now millions of uneducated movie-goers are going to come away from the film thinking they know something about the ancient Mayans, when all they have really been fed is Gibson's bullshit.

It pisses me off no end.

sw

Many historians said Braveheart was incredibly inaccurate. Also so was the passion of the Christ. There is no way in hell Jesus looked like Jim Caviezel. But now after his rant, I realize why he made Jesus a white male.

Not on the scale of the Aztecs, to be sure, but the Mayan religion did require blood sacrifice, and there are literally hundreds of glyps and depictions of sacrifices on various temples and buildings. The Mayan might have sacrificed 5-10 enemy soldiers after a war, or two or three of their citizens to various gods on holy days, but that's about it.

The Aztec's really were monsters about it though. While Spanish accounts of 80,000 people being sacrificed simultaneously are certainly exaggerations, we have uncovered sites confirming that some of their larger sacrifices killed hundreds of people before the ceremonies were completed.

Most of the history in Apocalypto is fairly accurate from what I understand. The underlying theme of the movie, of a decadent and militaristic society destroying its environment and itself out of sheer greed, is one that many Americans need to see. The fact that he exaggerated the sacrifice numbers a bit doesn't undermine that theme.

I wouldn't object to an honest portrayal, I just very much dislike exaggeration and distortion of their history for the sake of sensationalism.



But, you see, I'm not sure that this is particularily accurate either. I've been fascinated with the Mayans ever since I was a kid reading National Geographic, and I try to read everything that comes along as archaeologists uncover more clues about the rise and fall of their civilization.

I may not catch everything (I'm sure I don't), but the most recent studies that I've read about point to evidence of a period of prolonged drought as being the major factor in the desertion of the Mayan urban centers -- just as it was a factor in the "disappearance" of the Anasazi in the American Southwest.

The Mayan people themselves did not disappear, they still survive to this day.

I'm always wary of attempts to graft present-day analogies on less than completely understood civilizations of the past, especially when such a grafting depends on distorting the known facts.

sw

There are some pretty solid theories on this, backed up by tons of archaeological evidence.

The drought wasn't exactly natural, but was caused by Mayan destruction of their environment. The thick jungle that exists in Central America now, and which existed when the Mayans were first developing their empire, contained a well shaded understory and thick topsoil which held water after rainshowers and released it slowly. This extended release allowed streams to run year-round even during the dry season.

When the Mayans began clearcutting the jungle for wood, they eliminated the primary protective layer above the forests topsoil. Subsequent rains quickly washed away the topmost layers of this soil, dramatically reducing its ability to hold water. This created a very nasty situation for the Mayans. When it DID rain, most of the water quickly ran into the creeks & rivers and flowed away into the oceans. The water that did manage to get absorbed ended up evaporating quickly since that topsoil was now directly exposed to the sun.

Creeks and streams which had previously flowed year-round now only flowed for a few days after each storm. The rivers fed by those creeks and streams either dried up along with them, or dropped to feeble levels and were choked by the silty mud eroded from the former forest floor. This same phenomena can be seen in Brazil and other areas with massive rainforest clearcuts today. The Maya tried to compensate by digging wells and developing cisterns to hold water, but the rapid runoff eventually began to depress water tables causing even them to dry up.

It appears that lots of things happened at that point. A natural drought made the water conditions worsen. The peasants revolted. Military incursions from outside the empire weakened security. Topsoil erosion undermined crop yields. Everything that could have gone wrong did, and the people fled to the forests.

While we'll never know all of the details, some basic truths have revealed themselves over the past few decades. The Maya destroyed their environment, and with it their economy and society. They allowed a small political elite and religious leadership to dominate their society for their own benefit, even when those leaders were steering them down a path to destruction. By the time the people finally rebelled, it was too late to do anything about it, so they fled to the trees and permitted their civilization to collapse.

Yeah, I'd say there's a lesson or two for us in there somewhere.

I really do appreciate how you've connected it all together. You're correct, the analogy DOES work. (and I misspoke out of relative ignorance)

Peace,
sw

:shrug:

in support of Western point of view. Not to mention all the crappy historical distortion.

I don't really know it's like that, but all his other movies suck, so, no, unless friends really want to go see it, I probably won't. The American Revolution movie was GAWD AWFUL.

What would someone have to do for you to decide not to put more money in his pocket?

...& he's short & ugly, too.

I'm not gay, and I think he looks better than some women.

... a prize of some sort for being first? Maybe a free ticket to "Apocalypso"...?

..You think Mexico and South America will go crazy on 12:12:2012?? 121220121212012...etc. Binary??

Strange Rumblings at the Center of our Galaxy:

Los Angeles, Alta California - October 18, 2005 - (ACN) On March of this year, physics professor and astronomer Scott Hyman of Sweet Briar College made a startling announcement. Dr. Hyman and his colleagues wrote in the science journal Nature that they had detected something very extraordinary at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. While analyzing low frequency radio wave images taken by the Very Large Array telescope at Socorro, New Mexico in 2002, Dr. Hyman and his his fellow researchers detected an intermittent signal that seemed intelligently directed. The signal consisted of five highly energetic radio emissions of equal brightness that lasted 10 minutes each and appeared every 77 minutes over a 7-hour period from September 30 to October 1. The discovery has left Professor Scott Hyman and the entire astronomy community "scratching their heads".

What are these strange rumblings at the center of our Galaxy? Modern day astrophysicists and astronomers, with their sophisticated scientific instruments, are not the only humans that have contemplated this very same question. In fact, the ancient Mayas, the superb astronomers and mathematicians that they were, also mused on what may exist at the center of our Galaxy. The Mayas knew exactly where this center was located in the sky and had a glyph representing it named Hunab Ku by Dr. Jose Arguelles of Princeton University, but known to the Mayas as "The Galactic Butterfly". Much more, their entire cosmology and extremely accurate calendars were based on the existence and location of Hunab Ku and they believed that the future of mankind ultimately depends on what occurs there.


More... http://www.aztlan.net/rumblings_center_galaxy.htm

laden with anti-American and anti-Semitic conspiracy views. Don't believe a thing you read there.

for some odd reason I'm feeling all excited about 2012.
but I'm not sure about the fire thing, hope it just a symbolic word. ugh

I watched Braveheart. But I didn't watch the "Passion." After I hear the reviews and learn more of what it's about, then I will decide. I'm not happy with his comments and it does make me more leary about watching his movies. However, people who 'make things' have their 'view' impact how they do it, tell a story, etc. We just don't know on a personal bases what those 'views' are that are influencing them. Before he opened his mouth, no one else knew how he felt. I think it's better that people know, so they know he might telt a story one way or another based upon it.

I have to see it as a professional film critic.

I think Gibson's career may be at an end, but we'll see what the movie's like. He may be a bigot and an idiot, but there's no denying his talent.

Because Mel gets ZERO cents from me.

Don't tell anyone but I have a huge collection of pirated games. Whoops, shouldn't have said that.

Not sure I want to see a biopic. ;)

From what I've heard, it is going to be a fascinating movie. I'll probably give it a go.




Edited: Spelling

it may be a stinker cause it looks like it lays real heavy on CGI, but we'll see

a typical Gibson gore-fest, if it gets decent reviews, and is at least somewhat historically accurate. I've been to some of the Mayan ruins, like Chichen Itza and Tulum, and I think their history is fascinating. So I'd like to see a good movie about them. But if Crazy Mel goes off on some mayhem and torture thing (and I suspect he will), I'll skip it altogether.

It's kind of a shame what's happened to Mel (or what he's done to himself) -- Years ago he did some very good stuff, like "Gallipoli" and "The Year of Living Dangerously." Even the "Mad Max" movies were pretty entertaining. And he was kinda hot, too, in those days. But he's really jumped the tracks in the last 10 years or so, both personally and professionally.

from Netflix. :shrug: Most of his recent films are sado-masochistic gore fests.

Could be interesting. I'm interested in pre-Columbian history, so I'm curious to see how this movie turns out.

he makes me sick

Never plan to. If I want to see violence, I will look at graphic photos of Iraq.

But he's still a douchebag.

I dont support right wing lying bigots, I dont care how much they can entertain me.

that we can easily let the work of the bigots slide painlessly. And I'd feel guilty seeing this movie. I have so many Jewish friends that if I support Mel by seeing his movie, I'd feel very disloyal to people who I care very much about who he insulted.
It's like sitting silently at a dinner party while some asshole repeatedly trashes your best friends. It's not right.

something like Bush being a 'christian' and representing not only christians but all of america, so if you don't like Gorge - you also hate all americans, especially christian americans? hmmm, erm.... ?
let's think about that one and who Mel may have really been trashing.

On the one hand, he gouged out a deep chasm between his work and my viewing preferences with "The Passion." I don't like what I've seen of his public or private persona as he's aged.

On the other hand, I find the Mayan civilization interesting. I'm curious about whether he portrayed it accurately, or if he had any real interest in portraying it accurately. I might see it just for curiosity's sake.

I don't know.

And the way neo-cons use fear to control the population. So I guess that Mel meant the movie as a knock on the Bush administration.

All politics aside, I don't plan to see the movie because it looks too weird for me. That wasn't in your poll so I didn't vote in the poll.

And, just as pointless?

Or, will it be as juvenile as "Braveheart"?

...There is alot of mystery surrounding the Mayans and their scientific knowledge as well as their mathmatics development. Some very odd and monuments, paintings and stone carvings. I had a link to some of those photos..Here is one that I had to google for.

http://members.shaw.ca/mjfinley/vondaniken.html