Just saw the trailer for Mel Gibson's Apocalypto....

http://www.apple.com/trailers/touchstone/apocalypto/

Can't say I'm impressed. He seems to be focusing on the bloodiest aspects of the Mayan empire - human sacrifices etc...

What is it with this guy and pain?

While I realize that the Mayans were no angels, they were pretty bloodthirsty, no culture deserves to be wiped off the map, especially the way they were.

Am I just being over sensitive because it's a Mel Gibson film?

Mel wants to make slasher films.

Maybe he can make "Friday the 13th #44".

Sorry.

But he seems to get progressively odder.

I would not put it past him at all.

I think he did a few too many of his own stunts in his earlier movies. That guy just ain't right in the head.

I've seen in a while.

Apocalypto? Sounds like a goddam DC Comics bad guy.

I'm a history enthusiast, and considering the scope of his last two films, he does have an epic sense of moviemaking and I can appreciate that even if in some cases the subject matter isn't my cup of tea.

...or dare I say it, fetishes?

I don't know, the trailer made me feel as though the Mayans deserved what they got. Which is certainly not the case.

Spelling edit.

sheeeze can't we just enjoy the movie for fuck's sake?!?!? does it have to be historically and/or politically correct in order for me to be entertained?

Anthropology is less about preserving the cultures than understanding it. It is values neutral. I don't think this movie is going to do anything to destroy the image of indigenous people. There's a hero in it, too.

personally can't wait to see it myself....

is that he wasn't able to get the rights to Gary Jennings "Aztec."

It's a fairly safe bet he'll be all ham-fisted about the human sacrifice aspect. The use of a term like "Apocalypto" for the title tells us a lot.

I've read it's all done in the "native" tongue, though what that sounded like we'll never know, since the good, pious, godly, upstanding Spaniards destroyed every piece of writing they could lay their flithy, gold-grubbing hands on.

(Yes, I know the Maya died out before Cortes arrived. But all native books were burned. Only a handful survived the flames.)

Oh, and b-t-w, that horseshit about not being conquered from without until they've collapsed from within, or whatever? The Maya weren't conquered from without. Tikal, Palenque, Uxmal, etc. were mysterious ruins to the Mexica when Cortes arrived.

Yup, hamfisted.

many of them descended from the mayan people who speak them today

that broke out in Europe when the plague ravaged the continent...

Much like the muslim fanatics that beat themselves as a sign of faith, Gibson sinks deeper into blood.... A kind of self flagalation...

self-flagellation. Gibson's a real, live bona fide godawful Opus Dei weirdo, just like Fat Tony Scalia.

This creep attends a "church" that rejects the reforms of Vatican II

Given the title, I'm guessing this freak is trying to play the Rapture Card by using the calculations from the Mayan Calendar "Long Count" that comes to a close around December 23, 2012.

"So many Fundie Christians. So few lions."

being in the church... I love the ritual and rich history of the Catholic Church but by allowing reactionary organizations such as Opus Dei to have any say what so ever in church matters makes it impossible for me to ever return to my birth church....

(I'm a recovering Southern Baptist) but I sympathize with your feelings.

Heck, there's an honest-to-Jesus Nazi Pope on the throne of St. Peter, ferheavenssake!

I always take in the live Midnight Mass from the Vatican. This year, I'm wondering if we'll get the added bonus of a production number from "Springtime For Hitler."

And those red shoes!

He is probably dreaming of dancing in the garden house with Rolf singing I am sixteen going on seventeen.....

I see it's a Quicktime trailer and I'm running W98. :cry:

Eh, Mel Gibson is alright. From what I've read of the movie though, it seems to be less than quality.

he's doing it looking like his next film will feature him as Saddam. Oy! That beard! With the skunk stripe in the middle!

The trailer was intriguing, but knowing his heavy-handedness and uber-catholicism, I'm sure the thing will be chock-full of anti-indigenous sentiment.

Gotta remember, by the time they were done, the Spanish Catholics in Meso America set the gold standard for genoicide, met and equalled only by the U.S. and Hitler.

aspects of human existence. I think he has gone off the deep end. I am beginning to fear what he may have in HIS closet. Sorry, he just turned me off long long ago.

I know many have problems with his views, and the Passion, but come on.

and has Thai hookers imported onto every set can't be *all* bad, can he?

You don't know why he gets so much heat? Watch a movie. He gets tortured/martyred in every one. He digs that masochistic stuff. Which, between consenting adults is OK, but, honestly! To build a career on it and think you're doing Christ's work by it?

I wonder what his opinion is going to be.

when you find out.

I can pretty much guess what my anth prof would've said. His comments on digging in the Sahara without a beer were the biggest indictment of Qadaffi I've ever heard. A movie about the failure of Mayan society based upon their religious practices would've made him bay at the moon. Me, too for that matter, since most theories of Mayan failure have to do with a cautionary tale about over-extending consumption in a fragile eco-system.

But, of course, like any miserable, ignorant wingnut, Saddam-beard Mel has found a religious angle.

And to think Dino DeLaurentiis chose to make "Dune" instead of "Aztec" when he had the rights to Gary Jennings gorgeous novel!