"A great civilization is not conquered from without
until it has destroyed itself within."
--Will Durant

"The Sacred Time is coming."
--Little Demon-Faced Child,
Apocalypto

"And they all lived happily ever after."
--Mother Goose

On my first viewing of Apocalypto I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. This is a film with a split personality, not unlike a certain actor running around in a kilt yelling, "FREEDOM!!!!" The trailer had me worried Gibson, who wears his cross further to the right of the Pope, was going to suggest that the Spanish Conquest was a good thing. All religions have chapters they'd rather tear out. For Catholicism, giving spiritual endorsement to a grab for gold and land, decimating between 50 abd 100 million Natives - not to mention the introduction of the Atlantic Slave Trade - is more a subject of earnest apology than a great big "Attaboy!"

But what if the pre-Columbian peoples had it coming? If you could make the argument that their bloody human sacrifices were the moral equivalent of the Holocaust, wouldn't that make the Spanish invasion force the moral equivalent of the 7th Army, closing the deathcamps.

Apocalypto does, in fact, present a confused and caricatured view of pre-Columbian America. Its hero, Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood) is the son of a chieftain whose peaceful tribe live deep in the rainforest. When a raiding party burns their village, rapes their women, orphans their children and carries the men off to be sacrificed, he and others have to wonder whether there's anything left living for. For Jaguar Paw, there's his pregnant wife and child, hidden from raiding savages by being stuck in what looks like a well.

This is a film with breathtaking cinematography and adrenalin-pumping action. Add to that the Mayan costumes, real Mayan actors and native Mayan language - interpreted through subtitles - and you've got an effective action adventure. This is a hard film to watch at times, because of the violence and gore, not to mention the heart-wrenching examples of "man's inhumanity to man." This is a film that shoots straight for the heart. Even if the history gets muddled, it's a film that speaks the universal language of the human experience. It sucks to be oppressed, let alone slaughtered. To the extent it can remind us of situations like Darfur, it's well worth the price of the ticket.

But if you go, you'll have to squint through renditions of history that are every bit as offensive as The Passion of the Christ - and would probably make more noise if there were a Mayan version of the Jewish Anti-Defamation League. Gibson, it seems, has finally found a group he can malign with impunity. The Mayans of this film are not the Mayans of the History Channel - amazing contributors to astronomy, writing, mathematics, arts and medicine. They're more like the red-skinned savages of an early western. Human sacrifice, which was practiced by all pre-Columbian societies - and reached its climax among the Aztecs - is presented as if it were the French Revolution. Forget all that stuff about highly ritualized, special-occasion, sacrifices involving honored, feted, subjects who were treated like rock stars. The Mayan raiders of this film are just the American equivalent of those Roman soldiers from The Passion of the Christ, or the British army of The Patriot, or the bad guys in Mad Max.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not eager to be the first on my block to defend human sacrifice. The Mayans have, in fact, gotten off a little easy because of well-intended but simplistic comparisons to the Greeks (while the Aztecs were compared to the Romans). Mayan civilization did have a dark side and some murals depicting Mayan barbarism toward their conquered vassals reflect some ugly deeds that even Apocalypto left out - like ripping men's fingernails off their bleeding fingers. But human sacrifice, throughout America, had less to do with cruelty than with honor. Rain, it was felt, was the blood of the gods. To ensure more of it, blood had to be spilt, sometimes the blood of royalty.

It's in its eagerness to paint pre-Columbian peoples as savages that the Gospel According to Mel goes so badly awry. While suggesting that human sacrifice was the reason for Mayan decline, Gibson ignores archaeology, which points to issues such as drought, disease, soil exhaustion and the twin problems of urbanization - pollution and overtaxing of resources. By the time Cortes and company had made their way to the Yucatan Peninsula, Mayan civilizaton had been in decline for more than 500 years. These Mayans, ripe for a fall, look more like portraitures of the Aztecs, used by the Spanish to justify their role as an army of liberation.

In fact, one of the reasons Cortes was able to move in on the Aztecs, before they could realize their predicament, was their confusion over whether this bearded white guy was the returning Quetzalcoatl, a bearded white god who promised to return. Ironically, Quetzalcoatl was the Aztec version of Kulkulcan, the Toltec deity adopted by the Mayans and whose temple becomes a major location in the film. But Kulkulcan was a peaceful god, credited with delivering the ancients their laws and knowledge of astronomy, mathematics, agriculture and fishing. Kulkulcan was a far cry from Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of war. But you wouldn't know it here. Gibson is so bent on rendering these people as savages that he doesn't bother to get his facts straight.

For that reason, I'm giving this film a recommendation, as an actioner. I can't recommend the social commentary that quotes Will Durant as saying:

--"A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within"--

but leaves out the rest of the passage:

"The essential causes of Rome's decline lay in her people, her morals, her class struggle, her failing trade, her bureaucratic despotism, her stifling taxes, her consuming wars."

The best way to enjoy this film is to forget about history and enjoy what you're seeing as a kind of morality tale bathed in blood. Forget about the forced connection between the Mayans and the Conquistadores, who were 500 years too late to affect the Mayans and who conquered The Aztecs of Central Mexico. It's better to see this as a tale of survival. Enjoy the action. Root for the good guy. If you want history, learn to read something other than subtitles.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good Date Movie
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age