This critic doesn't know very much about the extinction of the Mayan civilization in Guatemala nor how much director, co-writer Mel Gibson knows about it either. Either way, it doesn’t much matter. Some self appointed critics on internet blogs have attacked Gibson as being racist for implying in his film Apocalypto that the Mayans were the instigators of their own extinction. Something which, they claim, was the byproduct of the Spanish Inquisition.
Fact or Fiction?
This critic has no answers on who, what, or why the Mayan civilization became extinct, but whoever it was it doesn't seem to matter much in deciding if Gibson is a racist or not. This is, after all, a film review, not a history lesson and, historically accurate or not, Gibson has fashioned a smart, brave, beautiful chase picture around his story.
Whether or not the director believes his film tells an accurate account of what happened to these people is his own business, but as the film stands, it creates a message which is greater than history itself; a universal truth that is certainly devoid of racism.
The Fall of the Mayan Empire
The film centers on a small tribe of natives who live in a peaceful jungle village. They hunt, they fish, and they journey through the jungle harming no one. After encountering another group in the jungle who request to pass through after their village has been ravaged, Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood) is haunted by dreams of his own village’s imminent destruction.
Sure enough, he awakens the next morning to find his village being attacked by savage warriors. Outnumbered and defeated, the warriors tie up the men and women who have not been killed and lead them on a journey into civilization and to a sequence which is so extravagant, so colourful, and so beautiful that it comes close to the visual genius of Fellini’s best works.
Upon arriving in civilization, the women are sold off and the men taken to the top of a large pyramid in which they are sacrificed, one by one to the Native’s god, in order to atone for their sins and cast out the plague which has fallen upon their land.
Bent on Self Destruction
Apocalypto opens with a quote that states, “A great civilization can not be conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.” It's reminiscent of the tagline from Oliver Stone’s 1986 film Platoon about the director’s experience in Vietnam, which states, “The first casualty of war is innocence.” Both of these statements, in one way or another, suggest the same thing, as do the films that they come from: that humanity will destroy itself before nature ever gets the chance to.
Apocalypto may be about an ancient civilization which no longer exists but it’s morals easily step into present times and could have just as easily been about Vietnam, Iraq, the Civil War, WWII; or how about American manifest destiny in which civilization entered into the Southern wilderness in order to tame it and take it over?
This subject matter has permeated the subtext of many of Hollywood’s most favorite Westerns. The moral of the story seems to be that the struggle for power leaves us open and vulnerable; easily conquerable. Racism doesn’t factor into the equation.
A Marxist Parable
This comes down to a Marxist archetype, which dictates that society must be separated into different sects and that, as long as these sects exist there will be conflict between them.
The Mayan’s are no exception, as they sacrifice the peaceful jungle people to the gods. The question is, after all of the lower classes have been sacrificed, what happens then? Do the population continue to destroy each other in a struggle for power, a struggle to be the last man standing, at which point power is irrelevent because civilization has been completely destroyed and there is no hope of repopulating?
Thus, whether or not it was the Europeans or the Mayans who exacted their own downfall, allowing them to be easily eradicated from the outside, the message is the same: people will always possess the desire to destroy each other in the name of power.
In order for civilization to prosper it must, in a way, work backwards. Jaguar Paw gives a speech late in the film which mirrors a speech his father gives him, “This is my jungle. I am a hunter; I hunt it with my children, who will one day hunt it with their children.” Generations may change, but the emotional connection of people through the passing of past rituals is what keeps civilization alive.
Verdict
Continuing with the plot. After miraculously escaping death, Jaguar Paw begins to journey back to his jungle while being pursued by bloodthirsty warriors, in order to rescue his wife and child from a hole in which he hid them in at the beginning of the film to avoid being slaughtered.
The third act of the film is essentially an exotic chase film, no different in aesthetic than say, The Fugitive, but is among the greatest chases ever filmed.
Alas the chase diverts from the philosophy and keeps the film one step shy of greatness, as Gibson places jaguars, snakes, waterfalls, and quicksand in his hero’s path and forgets about the struggle within a crumbling civilization.
Nevertheless, the chase scenes are masterfully, sometimes impossibly filmed; they are beautiful, exciting, scary, incredibly violent, and showcase the styling of a great filmmaker in complete control of his craft
