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MAYA NON GRATA AN APOCALYPTO COMMENTARY

I. TABLE OF CONTENTS

II. PRODUCT INFORMATION

III. SYNOPSIS

IV. CONTACT / AUTHOR BIO

V. INTERVIEW RESOURCES

VI. PRESS RELEASE

VII. “An Imaginary City" / EXCERPT FROM MAYA NON GRATA

II. PRODUCT INFORMATION

Maya Non Grata: An Apocalypto Commentary

By Martin Kessler

Release date: 11/30/20

Available as a Pink Smoke Patreon exclusive

138 pages

Film criticism

III. SYNOPSIS / Maya Non Grata

Martin Kessler’s commentary considers Mel Gibson’s controversial film Apocalypto in the context of its idiosyncratic approach to period drama, depicting a civilization just before the moment of collapse. While the film is a popular punching bag for critics and reviewers who take pleasure in savaging its “obvious” mistakes, Kessler takes a more inquisitive approach to Apocalypto's peculiar relationship to the spotty historical record concerning the post-Classic Maya. It's an erratic film that subjugates detailed research under the narrative conveniences of Hollywood storytelling and the whims of a repugnant auteur at the height of his filmmaking power.

Maya Non Grata attempts to unravel the elusive historical truth within a deeply strange film: a Hollywood action flick set just during the arrival of the European conquerors to the Yucatan peninsula, a vanity project by a disreputable actor-turned-filmmaker filmed in a language spoken by some of the remaining descendants of the Maya. The book explores the director & screenwriter’s decision to focus on the post-Classic Maya rather than the dominant Aztec civilization as well as the film’s mishmash of highly researched details, unexplained background minutiae, idiosyncratic historicism and disregard for accuracy. The book draws out the tension between effective filmmaking, authorial eccentricity, and an incomplete historical record for a time period and culture rarely presented onscreen.

At heart, Apocalypto is a film both fairly and unfairly maligned: a film criticized under conventional wisdoms that are not as solid as they first appear; but at the same time, a film that plays fast and loose with traditional iconography and verifiable history in order to suit its aesthetic and narrative needs. It's a film that leaves much of its most well-researched details unexplained (and mysterious to the average viewer), lightly conflates post-classic Maya and Aztec culture as a thematic concept, and uses archaic religious beliefs for a thinly-veiled critique of modern Catholicism.

Kessler explores how frequently the film employs a “there’s no reason that couldn’t have happened” approach to historical accuracy in order to push back against period dramas’ tendency to ring hollow by getting caught up in a depiction of humanity and culture that sticks only to rigidly agreed upon facts. The film ultimately illustrates the contrast between the highly intimate and deeply human process of creating art versus the generic qualities of a historical record beset with massive gaps, constant revisions, and a limited amount of “small picture” details.

Complicating matters is Gibson himself, a filmmaker who there is no reason to give the benefit of the doubt as far as racism, sexism, or even cultish anti-Papal beliefs are concerned. The film’s commitment to turning centuries old post-classic Maya culture into the kind of gripping Hollywood-style entertainment with which Gibson is associated adds another layer of complexity to interpreting the film’s meaning and value. Maya Non Grata uses Apocalypto as a jumping off point for elucidating the ironies behind “living history,” “historical accuracy,” and “artistic license.”

Maya Non Grata seeks a place alongside Geoff Dyer’s Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room, Leonard Koren’s Wabi-sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers and Thom Andersen’s film Los Angeles Plays Itself as thoughtfully unpredictable meditations on the collision of history, historicism and art.

IV: CONTACT INFO / AUTHOR BIO

Martin Kessler

Martin Kessler is a graduate of York University. He has directed numerous short films; his film Not Worth Mentioning was included in a 2011 Toronto International Film Festival showcase. He has been involved with bat conservation efforts and is a producer for the Flixwise podcast as well as its spin-off Flixwise: CANADA. He currently resides in Ontario, Canada.

The Pink Smoke

  • John Cribbs for press inquires/advance copies
  • email: solongyoubastard@gmail.com
  • website: THE PINK SMOKE
  • social media: TWITTER

V. INTERVIEW RESOURCES

"It’s a strange film.

Within the context of 'ok, what kind of film would you make if you were going to make a film about the Maya?' and working through all those possibilities, it’s still a strange film. I think if there were another dozen big Hollywood projects about the Maya, we’d still say, 'Yeah, Apocalypto’s really weird.'"

Why Apocalypto?

"I have very conflicted and conflicting feelings about it. I’m sure some people are going to say 'you wrote a 130 page plus book about Apocalypto, you must love the film' and that’s not really the case… I feel like there are a lot of misconceptions that are woven into the film but there are also misconceptions about the film itself - in some ways it’s a misunderstood film. So I try to walk that tightrope, between the misconceptions about the film and the film's misconceptions of Mesoamerican history."

Did you have a hesitancy to cover a Mel Gibson film in the current climate?

"Absolutely. I’m still hesitant! Obviously there are a lot of issues with him as a human being. It’s basically a fact that he’s a racist and I try to treat that as a fact in examining this film. But some of the interpretations of how the film is racist knowing Gibson’s history, those interpretations are not necessarily correct. It’s a tricky thing to talk about (of course) but I felt I had to if I wanted to get to all the stuff that I thought was interesting about the film."

How does the film sort out the differences between Aztec, Maya, post-classic Maya, etc. cultures?

"You read reviews, even by historians, where they write things like 'Well, that’s not a Maya thing that’s more of an Aztec thing.' But what does that really mean, 'more of.' Is it true in some cases for the post-classic Maya but not typical? If that’s the case, is what Apocalypto depicts not historically inaccurate but rather pulling a lot of idiosyncratic sources together in order to fit Mel Gibson’s vision? It’s rarely the kind of flaws that you can point to and say, 'That is incorrect, that’s an objective, verifiable historical mistake.' A lot of the criticism is wishy-washy - more along the lines of 'that’s a weird way to show a Maya village, why is Gibson showing it like that?'"

"A lot of the issues with Apocalypto come from the infrequency with which the Maya and Aztec cultures are depicted in cinema; to what extent do you expect the rare depiction to be generic and represent as broad an idea of the culture as possible?"

What does the title Apocalypto even mean?

"I’ve often wondered this myself. It’s obviously referring to an apocalypse, which is what you’re seeing on the horizon at the end of the movie with the arrival of the European ships - the apocalyptic nature of the Spanish conquest… But it is not a Maya word. It’s a Greek word that translates to 'to unveil' or 'reveal.' The ending is a revelation, in the apocalyptic sense, there’s another dimension, another reality that’s about to come crashing into this world and destroy it."

VI. PRESS RELEASE

When errors aren’t errors & the truth is not verifiable.

A commentary on historical accuracy & narrative truth in Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto.

New York, NEW YORK 11/30/20 — On November 30th, 2020 Martin Kessler’s book length commentary on Mel Gibson’s controversial film Apocalypto will be released via a Pink Smoke Patreon exclusive, available to community members at every tier. After the initial Patreon-exclusive release, on December 20, 2020 a full e-book release will follow.

PATREON SUBSCRIPTION LINK

"I feel like while there are a lot of misconceptions that are woven into the film but there are also misconceptions about the film itself - in some ways it’s a misunderstood film. So I try to walk that tightrope, between the misconceptions about the film and the film's misconceptions of Maya history."

Martin Kessler’s book attempts to unravel the elusive truth in the context of a deeply strange film: a Hollywood action flick set during the arrival of the European conquerors to the Yucatan peninsula, a vanity project by a vile actor-turned-filmmaker filmed in a language only spoken by some of the remaining descendants of the Maya. The book explores the director & screenwriter’s decision to focus on the post-Classic Maya rather than the dominant Aztec civilization as well as the film’s mishmash of highly researched details, unexplained background minutiae, idiosyncratic historicism and disregard for accuracy. The book draws out the tension between effective filmmaking, authorial eccentricity, and a spotty historical record within a time period and culture rarely presented onscreen.

Author Martin Kessler is a graduate of York University. He has directed numerous short films; his film Not Worth Mentioning was included in a 2011 Toronto International Film Festival showcase. He has been involved with bat conservation efforts and is a producer for the Flixwise podcast as well as its spin-off Flixwise: CANADA. He currently resides in Ontario, Canada.

Mr. Kessler is available for interviews & promotional events - as an experienced podcaster with a dedicated following and strong media presence, he’s an optimal guest for any show, podcast or live interview program.

VII. "An Imaginary City" / EXTENDED EXCERPT FROM MAYA NON GRATA

The city lives and breathes. Really it’s a triumph, fleshing out such a sprawling vision. If I’m being honest, the whole entrance into the city sequence is my favourite part of the film. I get an almost overwhelming wave of emotion from the totality of it all. It’s just such a potent impression of life in a Mesoamerican metropolis.

The details are wonderfully rich, though that isn’t to say it’s an entirely specific or accurate reflection of history. Firstly, this city never existed... It’s not meant to be any particular Maya city, but rather an amalgam of several Maya cities including the post-classic city Chichen Itza, the classic city Tikal, and the pre-classic city El Mirador. This blend yields some conspicuous details that would be at home in the classical period, but are anachronistic to the film’s specific epoch. The most glaring are the city's pyramids. A populated city with a skyline similar to the one you see in the film probably hadn’t existed for hundreds of years prior to when this is set. In the audio commentary Gibson himself admits that it was a deliberate choice to reference classical pyramids (with modified post-classic influenced summits) rather than the more squat but period appropriate Maya architecture (though you can see at least one specifically post-classic style building under construction when they first enter the city), for the sake of visual composition. You could probably argue that the post-classic pyramids and temples could still be visually interesting on screen, but I suspect that the real reason was probably that the temptation to visually portray a Maya city as it’s so often imagined, at the civilization’s apex, was just too much for Gibson to resist.

The influence of Chichen Itza on the design of the film’s city also stands out. It seems like it would be the most fitting design influence on the film’s city, because it is one of the most famous Maya cities of the post-classic era. However, even though it’s the most period-appropriate of the major cities referenced in the design of Apocalypto’s city, Chichen Itza is such an atypical Maya city that I think it skews what is presented as an archetypical construct. Chichen Itza reflects a particularly strong influence from non-Maya culture imported from central Mexico. It represents a fusion of Toltec and Maya culture. That probably explains a little of the Mexica overlap shown throughout the film, as the Mexica ostensibly tried to model themselves on the Toltec. Even though the city shown in the film is clearly not meant to be Chichen Itza which was a diminished power by the time of the Spanish invasion, I think a lot of the eccentric aspects of Apocalypto’s city can be explained by Chichen Itza being so heavily referenced. I’d say Chichen Itza is one of a kind, though it notably has a conspicuously similar counterpart in a Toltec city called Tula, located about a 1400km drive away, but as far as Maya cities go it was certainly unique. The city on screen may best be described as Mel Gibson’s idea of a composite Maya city, and more on the idiosyncratic side of the spectrum than the generic or typical side.

I do appreciate that the film captures just how densely populated Mesoamerican cities could be. There’s a persistent misconception that the Americas were only sparsely populated at the time of the arrival of Europeans (often used propagandistically to try to justify European colonization), but especially in the urban centres of Mesoamerica, it was totally packed with people. Of course the Mexica capital city Tenochtitlan would have dwarfed anything you’d see in contemporaneous early-16th century Mesoamerican cities...or just about any contemporaneous early-16th century city. Estimates vary, but Tenochtitlan was probably behind only Beijing and possibly Cairo in populousness at that time. Just another reason why Apocalypto probably should have focused on the Mexica rather than the Maya; so that Gibson could have really indulged his desire to create a Cecil B. DeMille-like sense of epic scale.

Some of the captives are to be sold to a slave auctioneer. Zero Wolf asks that his son Cut Rock do the negotiating with the auctioneer, presumably as a bit of practice to one day take over, though Zero Wolf can’t help but helicopter parent by sternly insisting that the auctioneer give a fair price, out of concern hat his son could be taken advantage of. No one wants to buy Blunted’s mother-in-law at auction, so she is simply freed and allowed to go away. She watches helpless as her son-in-law is led away. The captives that aren’t sold to the auctioneer are the strong young men who are taken to be sacrificed. The portioning off of some captives for sacrifice is alluding to a historic Mesoamerican practice that might be considered comparable to tithing. The church needs its cut.

The men who are to be sacrificed are painted blue, which seems like a detail that is purely Mel Gibson, though there’s a conjectured possibility that this was really done. The captives are marched past an ominous mural which seems to foreshadow their imminent fate, with blue-painted figures suffering horrible deaths. The mural in the film is based on a genuine Maya mural found at an archaeological site in San Bartolo, but I think it’s important to clarify that it’s not a mural that depicts practiced ritualistic human sacrifice at all. Rather than human sacrifice, the mural shown on screen is a decontextualized scene from the Maya creation myth, so its use in the film is pretty deceptive.

The captives approach one of the city’s pyramids. The pace of the editing & music build and build. There’s a furor around the captives. A crowd of people cheer and wave their hands in the air.

In the distance, a decapitation can be seen at the top of a pyramid. The severed head bounces down the steps. At the base of the pyramid, mothers adorn their babies with the blood of severed heads, to bless the infants. The captives are marched past severed heads on spikes, and while Mesoamerican societies did exhibit severed heads in public, they were typically much better displayed than what you see in the film; severed heads and skulls would be strung side by side on poles and stacked neatly in rows or columns on racks. These displays were called “tzompantli” in nahuatl. You can see a depiction of a Maya one in the famous ‘Wall of Skulls’ stone relief in Chichen Itza. In 2015 a particularly impressive tzompantli (called ‘Huey Tzompantli') was unearthed in Mexico City, containing at least 650 skulls and featuring circular columns constructed of skulls. Even though it is a Mexica tzompantli, I can’t help but wonder if it were discovered a decade earlier, if Mel Gibson might have decided to do something more visually impressive with the severed heads in Apocalypto.

Priests and priestesses chant and dance in rhythm, hopping up and down. There’s a man with dwarfism being carried about blessing people, which can be connected to numerous depictions of dwarfism in various Mesoamerican cultures’ artwork. It’s believed that in historic Maya society, people with dwarfism were generally exalted as being spiritually attuned, and it’s been interpreted that depictions of people with dwarfism in wealthy attire and in important state professions meant they were afforded a high degree of opportunity or a privileged status in Maya society. There was even a pyramid dedicated to a particular shaman with dwarfism, called the ‘Pyramid of the Magician’ in the ancient city of Uxmal.

We’re seeing a resplendent Maya High Mass. The scene crescendos as the captives are lead up scaffolding to the summit of the pyramid.