Is the Mayan culture accurately depicted in Mel Gibson's new movie Apocalypto?

Question

Has Mel conflated Aztec and Mayan ritual features (i.e. ripping hearts from a living human sacrifice?) in the interests of drama? I know the plot of Apocalypto is fictionalized, but I'd like to know whether the milieu, at least, is based on reality.

Answer 1

The movie is an amalgam of Aztec, Classic and Post-Classic Maya, and modern mataphor. Culturally, not much is accurate as presented.

Problems...as they relate to the Maya directly
1) Scenes depicted are from Classic Maya (400s-800s) period when the movie is set about 300 years AFTER the Post Classic (900-1200s) period -- the Classic Maya have the tall, thin buildings centered around a main temple -- Tikal, Tulum (the Post Classic had wider shorter buildings -- Palenque, Chichen Itza)
2) The Maya had abandoned large cities over 300 years prior to the arrival of the Spanish
3) The language spoken is by no means an ancient dialect or a dead language (Yucatec Maya - there are over 25 diff. Mayan dialetics still spoken today in Latin America)
4) The Maya were amazing astronomers and mathematicians...the eclipse would never have been reacted to as depicted in the movie
5) There is no way that one village would have been isolated from another village as portrayed in the movie (when Jaguar Paw asks another captive where the captives came from). The Maya (early and late) were very interconnected with smaller towns paying tribute to larger towns for hundreds of years.
6) The escalation of widespread violence and warring only ocurred in the Maya civilization following Aztec influence in the late Post-Classic period upon the Maya. Prior to that, it was ceremonially related and not as prevalant as portrayed in the movie. At the time of the Spanish arrival, few, if any sacrifices were held in the manner portrayed, and religion had becomes more private and family/community-oriented.
7) Classic Maya about 400s-800s, Post-Classic 900-1200 AD. Movie: 1519 +/- few years
The Post Classic Maya and afterwards were marked by increased warring, but were also accompanied by a decrease in the import of religion...so all of the temple scene was innacurate not only in the eclipse portrayal, but also in the prominant position of religion and human sacrifice that did not occur at the time period being portrayed in the movie.
8) It just perpetuates European stereotypes of the MesoAmerican pre-Columbian cultures as backwards, violent, and on the verge of collapse, whereas they were as advanced, if not more, than the Spanish civilization at the time of the conquest, and were adapting like any other culture to population growth over time.
9) Vast majority of the actors are not Maya - don't look Maya (valued sloped foreheads, some filed teeth, crossed-eyes, short, darkly tanned skin)

Redeeming qualities?
1) The story was engaging
2) Maybe more people will do their own REAL research into the topic
3) Special effects were very realistic
4) There existed an ancient civilization called the Maya...that's about all that Mel got right

Please do not perpetuate myths and stereotypes by "hypothesizing" on the backwardness or "inferiorness" of an ancient culture, when the Maya were on par with or more advanced than the Spanish of the same time period.

Answer 2

Mel Gibson Aztec Movie

Answer 3

I'm sure its half and half. Just like in Braveheart, some of it was in the interests of drama, but some of it was true. Definitely don't expect to consider it a documentary, and if it was no one would want to go see it, has to be a little dramatic. The rituals you talk about I do believe occured at the Mayan ziggerat temples by the high priest as an offering to the Gods. Other than the plot I'd expect Gibson did his homework on the culture and the majority of it is true.

Answer 4

Well for one, the Mayan large city-states Tikal, Copan, Palenque, Chichen Itza were abandoned hundreds of years before the Spanish Arrived in 1521. Mayas Known for their calender being the most precise in the world at the time, their mathmatics, observatories for the stars and planets and discovery of the number "0"....None of this was shown in the moive. The Maya decline came around the 9th century AD possibly due to palgue, lack of clean water, crops failing and attacks from the northern Tribes who were fierce warriors.

The northern tribes such as the Toltecs , and later the "Mexicas" (aka the Aztecs) came in from the north and built their empire around the 13th century. With the capital of Tenochtitlan being the Mexica Metropolis.

If your interested, read the book Broken Spears.....Its the account of the conquest of Mexico from the AZTEC point of view from their codex. Its interesting because it talks about the massacre Spain committed at Chollula, how they raided the treasure house of Teucalco, attacked the the main Aztec temple during the fiesta of Toxcatl and left the Aztec celebrants dismembered with their "entrails hanging out" during the celebration. It was a very bloody time for all participants during the conquest....

Answer 5

They did rip people's hearts out, but it was done ritually, for a higher purpose of feeding the gods.
Since the movie isn't out yet, it's hard to defend whether it's "real" or not. Ask again after this weekend, when people have actually SEEN the movie, not just the previews.

Answer 6

Hell no, go study a bit mel, that was a movie for the masses.

They are depicted too primitive, they were much more advanced society.

Answer 7

I think it is his intent to make it realistic and as real as he could. The Mayans were extremely barbaric by todays standards. I think that part of his movie is probably not exaggerated though obviously I haven't seen it yet, but am eagerly awaiting it. I love ancient civilizations and even though it is certainly fiction, I suspect it will be very entertaining.

Answer 8

There are carving of human sacrifice occurring in the ruins of Maya. How much it occurred is a guess. We have to guess about a lot of stuff from any ancient civilization.

Answer 9

Well of course there was SOME human sacrifice, but how much, I don't know. But it's not like he's overdoing it, because a lot of cultures use to practice human sacrifice.

Answer 10

Nothing in Mel Gibson's films are real. He is just playing with the audience's emotion