I dont expect any big movies to be historically accurate so i never look at
a movie that way, and i dont think it doesn't always need to be when a
little change make a movie more fun to see
BUT then i recently read that a large number of the American public's
historical knowledge comes from the movies... it seems that a large number
of people think that King Arthur once ruled England and that Russel Crowe
was a gladiator that once lived in ancient Rome...
I dont know what is more disturbing, the fact that movies are historically
inaccurate or the fact that some people actually think that what they see in
movies IS accurate.
I don know much about the Maya's, i quess i should go and see this movie and
learn all about it.
From: Kirby McDaniel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: Kirby McDaniel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: [MOPO] Mel Gibson is apparently pathetic
Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2006 23:10:53 -0600
I managed to avoid PASSION OF THE CHRIST and I don't think I'll need to
see this piece of junk either. Mad Mel.
Here's a piece from THE TENNESEAN about Vanderbilt University
archaeologist Arthur Demarest who knows a little bit
more about the Maya than Gibson does. What is amusing is that Gibson
concocts all this stuff while posing as a moralist.
Give me a B R E A K .
K.
By MICHAELA JACKSON
Staff Writer
Nashville theatergoers are flocking to see Mel Gibson's latest movie,
Apocalypto, but Vanderbilt archaeologist Arthur Demarest came away
unimpressed after seeing the movie Saturday night.
In fact, he was downright indignant.
"I'm sorry that I brought you to this," said Demarest, who assigned two of
his Vanderbilt classes, one on the collapse of civilizations and one on
the Maya, to screen the movie as part of their class work.
"It had nothing to do with the Maya. Nothing."
Demarest is a renowned expert on the Maya civilization, having published
three books on the subject. He also contributes to publications such as
National Geographic. He is based out of Guatemala and said he spends more
time there than Nashville. He works with modern-day Maya on developmental
projects.
Demarest expressed frustration at many aspects of the movie, including
what he expressed as egregious errors regarding issues such as the Maya's
jewelry, the size of their temple and the description of human sacrifice.
"Why did they go to all that trouble to get even the littlest details
wrong?" he said.
"I figured the thing would be politically incorrect, but because they had
archaeological advising that the technical details would be right."
Professor says film racist
Demarest also cried foul because, in his opinion, the entire Maya nation
is stereotyped in a way that constitutes racism.
The movie focuses on a man who is captured by the Maya to be offered as a
human sacrifice but escapes.
"Some are saying it's good and some are saying it's bad. What if you made
this kind of movie about any other culture?" he said. "It was amazingly
racist.
"The Maya leaders are going to go nuts. I don't know how they can do this.
It's just because it's not a known ethnicity."
He took issue with the fact that, in his mind, the movie presents an
overly simplified situation that sets up civilization as evil and
unfettered life in the jungle as pure.
"But you learned from this that civilization is bad, and all that learning
stuff is bad, so I hope that you've learned from this to wander off from
Vanderbilt, not even finish your exams and go off into the woods and hunt
pigs sadistically," he told his students.
Demarest's students shared his disdain for the historical treatment of the
Maya people, but some of them were able to appreciate the movie as just
that, a movie.
"I enjoyed it as a cinematic work, absolutely," said junior Terence
Christian.
"(Gibson's) a master storyteller." But, he added, the film is historically
inaccurate and should not be the basis for understanding the Maya
civilization.
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