Historical Accuracy of Apocalypto by Mel Gibson

¶ … Apocalypto" (2006), Produced and Directed by Mel Gibson

In this motion picture, Mel Gibson provides a reasonably historically accurate representation of the Mayan civilization, including their manner of dress, customs, rituals and values. From the outset, it is clear that Gibson was committed to recreating what life must have been like for these early Mesoamericans who were confronted with danger at every turn and who remained firmly in the food chain. With enemies all around them and jungle creatures wanting to eat them, it is little wonder that the Mayan people were highly superstitious, and Gibson draws on this attribute to illustrate how their beliefs translate into action through bloody human sacrifices intended to propitiate the sun god and other deities that controlled every aspect of their lives.

Although their codices were largely destroyed by the Spanish, sufficient written records remain to suggest that Gibson was making a serious attempt to remain faithful to the extant historical evidence. Indeed, viewers are left with the impression that somehow Gibson managed to find a lost civilization and film it just for this movie. Moreover, even though there is no way of knowing what these people were really like in their day-to-day lives, Gibson's depiction of Jaguar Paw, a prisoner taken captive by the Mayans specifically for sacrifice, provides what must be a reasonable interpretation of a real Mayan warrior who is also a family man.

When he is taken captive, Jaguar Paw is dragged out of his jungle home into a Mayan city that is replete with the trappings of fading power, and his bewilderment is clearly evident, which is highly consistent with the reactions of anyone taken from a primitive environment into a major urban setting under these circumstances. Likewise, on the way to Maya City, the superstition of the Mayans appears justified when a small girl, unafraid of the fierce warriors, warns them that they are all doomed, a warning that confirms their worst fears about their imminent fate. In this regard, Rehill reports that, "The Mayans are going down as a civilization, and they know it. Those in charge feel they can change this course of events through building more temples and sacrificing more people."[footnoteRef:1] [1: Annie Rehill, The Apocalypse Is Everywhere: A Popular History of America's Favorite Nightmare (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2010), 191.]

Besides encountering the small girl, the prisoners and their captors also pass some historically accurate evidence of what is widely believed to be the primary causes of the Mayans' demise. For instance, according to Rehill, "Along the way we see some of the reasons it's believed Mayan society crashed to its end, drought, starvation, disease, corruption among the rulers, too many wars."[footnoteRef:2] Some indication of Gibson's commitment to historical accuracy can be discerned from his casting. As Rehill points out, "Gibson cast this film using mostly natives who speak a surviving Mesoamerican dialect."[footnoteRef:3] [2: Rehill, The Apocalypse Is Everywhere, 191.] [3: Rehill, The Apocalypse Is Everywhere, 191.]