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).
We saw The Nativity last w/e and it was excellent - not Hollywood'sh at all. We saw it instead of the Danny DeVito or Mel Gibson movies and do not regret. One of my teens said she actually had tears at the birth of Christ - it was surely the most touching scene in the movie and NOT overdone....very simple but it grabbed your heart. Don't know how else to explain it.
I am dubious if he claims not to have heard about that conference. It was on front page of most newspapers in the last few days. People in the movie biz do get tunnel vision, especially when they are in the thick of a campaign, but still, I'm dubious.
I have a very good friend who is a world-recognized expert on Aztec, Mayan cultures etc. Has written several books on the topic. But so appalled he was by The Passion (no - he's not Jewish) he won't see Mel's movie until it's on cable. I'll be interested in his take on the film.
Many thanks for that summation
That's called "the yips" in a drinker. Mel has missed his calling. He should be playing Dr. House on Fox TV. He has all of the charm and tact of that character. And he wouldn't even have to act. :)
He made me nervous just watching him. Blinking, drinking that maybe Kahlua coffee, and looking around with no smile. I have always enjoyed his work and he was a very handsome young guy. As I said on a later post down the line, he's a wreck. It is a shame he's such a self destructive individual. Probably working out his hate issues would make a happier man.
Can't wait to see the movie.
I just skimmed the article because of the 'spoiler warning'
I liked his role as Col.Hal Moore.
Mel Gibson made the best Vietnam war movie ever made, he and devout catholic Hal Moore became close friends.
Road Warrior, Braveheart, We Were Soldiers, The Passion of the Christ, all are on my top ten list, from the word I've heard so far Apocalypto may join the list.
In the genre you highlight of Mel's films, he's no David Lean. Not even close. If you want to see great action /epic movies with philosophical and/or religious underpinnings, do yourself a favor and rent some David Lean movies. Mel is a mere poseur compared to Lean.
"Mel Gibson made the best Vietnam war movie ever made".....and the most underrated. Not sure how I feel about Mel now, but he has made some great movies.
We've all seen many David Lean movies. Gibson is much better.
We Were Soldiers, isn't just the best Vietnam movie ever made, it is one of the greatest war movies ever made.
The Passion of the Christ is a timeless masterpiece that will endure.
IMHO there was way too much standing up during the firefights, to my thinking, to be the greatest war movie ever.
He's probably snubbing them in retaliation for not getting invited.
I'm suffering from Mel Gibson fatigue as well as Hollyrot's opinions about how we should live our lifes....there is nothing Gibson or Hollyrot have to offer that would alter my life.
The phrase "it beggars belief" is apropos.
Mel Gibson is not some everyday, anonymous Joe. He's a world-famous celebrity who has screwed-up royally by showing his anti-Semitism in a drunken rage, and who has then, in an effort to undo some of that damage and salvage his career (to paraphrase Bill Clinton - to 'maintain his Hollywood viability'), promised to seek counseling, meet with "Jewish leaders" to gain understanding, and "reach out" to the Jewish community for forgiveness, etc. ad nauseum.
That any celebrity who has messed-up that badly and then publicly made those types of promises to "the Jewish community" would not make the minimal effort of keeping himself, or at least having someone on his staff keep him updated with a list of potentially embarrassing talking-points from the headlines of the day related to his "problem" is simply stupid. It puts the lie to all his promises.
The guy is on a whirl wind tour of the country, from early morning shows to late night shows, he may not be keeping up with current events right now.
Please. Which David Lean movies have you seen? Not one Gibson film has a story or screenplay to rival The Bridge On The River Kwai, or Lawrence of Arabia. Not even in the same league.
To be honest, I think the whole American-as-Mayan was an afterthought on Mel's part. I think he believes it, but I don't think it was his main metaphor. That perspective serves his purposes now, though.
With respect, think about what you just wrote. When you're trying to climb your way out of a public relations hole, rehabilitate your career and promote your new movie, as Gibson is, via a whirlwind tour of interviews, you don't necessarily need to keep abreast of everything that's going on in the world, but you'd darn-well better be prepared for questions related to your particular PR "problem". To not do so is just plain foolish.
This isn't rocket science. Here's how it's supposed to work:
INTERVIEWER: "Mel, what do you think about the recent Holocaust Denial Conference held in Iran?"
GIBSON: "When I heard about it I was shocked. I think it's shameful. One of the lessons I tried to convey in my movie 'Apocalypto' is that we need to remember, and learn from the barbaric realities of history."
See? Simple, effective, and it quickly deals with and disposes of the potentially embarrassing issue. Sadly, the fact that Gibson can't bring himself to do these simple things is a telling indicator of deeper problems.
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