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Apocalypto
The film Apocalypto is described by its makers, Mel Gibson and Farhad Safinia, as reflecting the time at the end of the Mayan civilization. The final scene in the movie depicts the arrival of Spanish conquistadores. The movie was controversial for its depictions of Mayan civilization. The criticism spanned two major themes. The first was historical accuracy and the second was balance in its depiction of Mayan culture. In particular, critics were concerned that movie would be viewed by many people unfamiliar with Mayan culture who may otherwise absorb incorrect ideas about the real nature of Mayan culture. On both of these dimensions, one can argue that the movie does a disservice to history. The alternate argument is that Apocalypto is not a documentary, an thus there should not be an expectation of historical accuracy any more than one might critique Hamlet's portrayal of medieval Danish society or Johnny Depp's depiction of pirates in the colonial Caribbean.
Whether Apocalypto does disservice to history depends on how much license...
Thus, it is reasonable to dismiss relatively minor points of accuracy as trivial -- Gibson is no more obligated to 100% historical accuracy than Shakespeare or any other fiction creator. A critique about the accuracy of Apocalypto's pyramids for the time period (Hansen, 2007) is not likely to disservice to anybody's view of history. Issues occur when the artistic license afforded the creators of the work results in inaccuracies that go beyond the superficial. One complaint is that there is a lack of balance in the way that the Maya were portrayed. The movie's depictions of the Maya included human sacrifice, mass sacrifice and other brutal violence that were more characteristic of Aztec culture. The creators argue that the Maya would have been aware of such practices, and were by no means a pacifist society (Hansen, 2007), the depictions of sadism in Apocalypto are not representative of Mayan society, even at its decline (Booth, 2006).
Such inaccurate depictions of the culture represent a disservice to history. First, the mixing of different Mesoamerican cultural attributes lends viewers the idea that the differences between these groups is irrelevant. At best, this encourages laziness; at worst, it feeds into impressions that indigenous cultures are irrelevant and insignificant. It is acceptable to ignore the distinctions between them because they are ultimately barbaric and their decline confirms their inconsequential nature.…
References
Arden, T. (2008) Is Apocalypto pornography? Archaelogy Magazine. Retrieved November 17, 2013 from http://archive.archaeology.org/online/reviews/apocalypto.html
Booth, W. (2006). Culture shocker. Washington Post. Retrieved November 17, 2013 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/08/AR2006120801815_pf.html
Hansen, R. (2007). Conversation: Mel Gibson's Maya. Global Heritage Fund. Retrieved November 17, 2013 from http://web.archive.org/web/20071102063514/http://www.globalheritagefund.org/apocalypto.html
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