Posted on 12/13/2006 4:59:55 AM PST by UltraConservative
According to Mel Gibson, his new movie, "Apocalypto," is a metaphor for the death of American civilization. "The precursors to a civilization that's going under are the same, time and time again," Gibson explained at a film festival in Texas. "What's human sacrifice if not sending guys off to Iraq for no reason?"
Gibson's comparison between Mayan and American civilization is deeply offensive. To elucidate just how offensive the comparison is, I must review the film's portrayal of Mayan society. (Warning: There are spoilers. If you are intent on seeing this movie, read no further.)
"Apocalypto" portrays two societies within Mayan civilization. The first is a hunter-gatherer sort of Rousseau-ian society, wherein noble savages tell colorful stories, cherish their pregnant wives and play practical jokes involving eating raw tapir testicles. The second is the decadent Mayan city, where slave laborers covered in powder cough up blood as they pound rock; where throngs cheer wildly as power-mad priests engage in ritual human sacrifice, pulling still-beating hearts from chest cavities, beheading victims and tossing those heads down towering flights of stairs to a waiting crowd, which then sticks the heads on pikes; where the headless bodies are dumped in Holocaust-like mass graves, to rot in the sun.
The Mayan city society invades the Rousseau-ian hunter-gatherer society, brutally and graphically raping and murdering its way through village after village. Citizens of the hunter-gatherer society are kidnapped and used for ritual sacrifice, or for sport killing.
Gibson's point is this: Mayan civilization in decline had corrupted itself through brutality and barbarity. It sacrificed its own citizens on the altar of fear. The values that made Mayan civilization worth preserving -- the values embodied by the Rousseau-ian society -- were destroyed so that the fears of the population could be assuaged. In doing so, Mayan society made itself ripe for conquer by the Europeans.
Gibson likens Mayan civilization to American civilization. "We're all afraid," Gibson told Entertainment Weekly. "That's something I've been finding out more recently -- how racked by fear we are as a society." We are discarding our values, Gibson implies. We are engaging in Mayan barbarities in Iraq, sending our own citizens off to die on the altar of fear.
"Apocalypto" opens with a quotation from historian Will Durant: "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it destroys itself from within." Durant is correct -- but the film's exposition of Durant is utterly wrong. If American (and Western) civilization falls, it will not be because our fears drove us to "Mayan barbarities," but because, like Gibson, we failed to distinguish good from evil.
Not all civilizations are created equal: Some deserve to fall because they are deeply corrupt from the outset. Mayan civilization, with its human sacrifice and primitivism, was never a beacon of liberty. The Rousseau-ian values Gibson sees were not what distinguished Mayan civilization. The strength of Mayan civilization was based solely on its power -- it was doomed to fail from the moment it encountered a society more powerful militaristically and economically than itself.
Western civilization has values worth protecting -- liberty and equality of opportunity -- and those values give it strength. Those values make us stronger than our enemies, unlike the Mayans. Equating all civilizations, as Gibson does, is what undermines Western values. There is a world of difference between using violence out of superstition and using violence to both ensure domestic security and free others from the oppression of a death cult that ritually beheads its citizens or dumps them in mass graves. It is moral barbarism of the highest order to equate the two, as Gibson does.
Critics have rightly focused on the stunning violence of Gibson's "Apocalypto." The movie is certainly one of the most violent ever filmed -- Gibson's camera lingers lovingly over each wound. But it is the violence Gibson does to morality that should worry us. It is that violence that contributes to the internal destruction of Western civilization. If Western civilization is doomed to failure, it will not be despite Mel Gibson's best efforts, it will be because of them.
Mr. Shapiro is a student at Harvard Law School. He is the author of "Porn Generation: How Social Liberalism Is Corrupting Our Future" (Regnery, a Human Events sister company) and "Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctinate America's Youth" Thomas Nelson).
The obvious thing which Shapiro hints at but doesn't mention, is what "civilization" on earth today most resembles the Mayan savagery? There is no doubt it is the Islamic World.
"where throngs cheer wildly as power-mad priests engage in ritual human sacrifice, pulling still-beating hearts from chest cavities"
The bodies were taken down to the back of the temple where they were butchered and used for meat. The sharp stone spikes still found on some sites were not to keep people frommsitting there, nor were they a security feature.
Chunks of sacrificed captive meat were hung on those sharp stones. Thing Stone Age meat hook.
Regardless of what kind of stupid comments Mel may have made, I have heard from two trusted sources that it is a very very good movie. Conservative radio personalities and film critic Michael Medved said it was one of the years best and it captivated him from the opening scene. He said he was so captivated he almost forgot he was there to take critic notes on the film. And Seattle area conservative radio host John Carlson said it easily makes it in his list of top 10 best movies he has ever seen. He liked it better than the Passion, and he was a major Passion fan.
Both of these people said the film actually puts the arrival of the Spaniards and their religion at the end of the film in a favorable light, bringing civil order and Christianity to a once brutal and godless society. Yes the Spaniards brought disease and a heavy handed approach to conquer the new World, but thats the subject for other movies.
Im seeing it this weekend.
Ditto...I'm hoping more Christians pay money at the box office to see 'The Nativity Story.'
"But it is the violence Gibson does to morality that should worry us. It is that violence that contributes to the internal destruction of Western civilization."
This is true.
I heard that on Sirius this morning. The original question asking what his reaction to this conference was. That response of his troubled me. You could not know about any such conference going on but one should oppose such things anyway!
So, let me get this straight: Gibson compares modern day America to this culture, while it's the islamic fascists whom we are fighting who are actually carrying out these barbarities today.
Just checking.
Bonnie and Clyde, LoL, make sure you do not ever see "The Wild Bunch" if that one bothered you.
Wow! Who knew Mad Max was such a complete tool! Maybe all the useless, imbecilic actors in Hollywood (and their even more pathetic, fawning entourages) are "racked by fear", but that's because they live in a fantasy land where not getting fresh papayas with their breakfast is a traumatic event.
I'm not "racked with fear", nor is anyone else I know. Actually, the only thing I fear is that idiots like Mel Gibson and those who think like he does (Democrats, liberals, etc.) will be allowed to run the country.
This is an excellent column - thanks for posting it. Confirms my total lack of interest in patronizing hyper-violent movies, especially by a hypocritical, anti-semitic sicko like Gibson.
The "wet brain" (MG) speaks. This is what happens when folks are too much into themselves. I wish the follywood folk would entertain and then just shut up. sigh, the American mind is in a soap opera. Keep up the great thought provoking work all you Freepers. Great minds,,,,
Because he's trying to get an Oscar nod, and if you want an Oscar nod you release no earlier than November and preferably in December.
I had noticed before his uh "incident" that he seemed to have lost his center. He was incoherent and disconnected in a couple of interviews......not jovial at all - more like just plain weird and not someone you would want to spend any time with.
"The obvious thing which Shapiro hints at but doesn't mention, is what "civilization" on earth today most resembles the Mayan savagery? There is no doubt it is the Islamic World."
I have no idea what Gibson intended, but comparison to the savagery of islamofacism is what I saw.
From the warning Jaguar Paw's oblivious tribe was issued by the fleeing tribe to the frenzied, bloodthirsty crowd at the temple, (with wardrobe changes) it could have been a newsclip from today.
I think that's Mel in a nutshell. But he's becoming less and less able to control his rage. Since his father "has never lied to him" imagine the inner conflict and turmoil of growing up with a Jew-hating, Holocaust denying crank as a role model. And by the way, this goes way back to the Lethal Weapon series when, even as an actor for hire he played a rage-filled over-the-edge head case. I think it's fair to say that his greatest acting performance was the dim and meek Tim, in his very early years. All the rest were not much of a stretch.
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