Mel Gibson's Apocalypto an American parable

[Rigorous Intuition]

I saw the comment a few days ago suggesting this. Looks to be true:<br><br>HOLLYWOOD - Film star and director Mel Gibson has launched a scathing attack on President George W. Bush, comparing his leadership to the barbaric rulers of the Mayan civilization in his new film Apocalypto.<br><br>The epic, due for release later this year, captures the decline of the Maya kingdom and the slaughter of thousands of inhabitants as human sacrifices in a bid to save the nation from collapsing.<br><br>Gibson reveals he used present-day American politics as an inspiration, claiming the government callously plays on the nation's insecurities to maintain power.<br><br>He tells British film magazine Hotdog, "The fear-mongering we depict in the film reminds me of President Bush and his guys."<br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.hollywood.com/news/detail/id/3500331">www.hollywood.com/</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> <p></p><i></i>

[dugoboy]

wow. <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :eek --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/eek.gif ALT=":eek"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <p></p><i></i>

[Rigorous Intuition]

The teaser can be viewed <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://apocalypto.movies.go.com/">here</a><!--EZCODE LINK END-->.<br><br>"A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within." <p></p><i></i>

[manxkat]

Hard to imagine Mel Gibson having such a political change of heart. Perhaps it isn't so much a change of heart as it is a realization that Bush isn't a conservative at all. I expect Gibson is still a homophobe though. I'd love to be proven wrong.<br> <p></p><i></i>

[thoughtographer]

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Hard to imagine Mel Gibson having such a political change of heart. Perhaps it isn't so much a change of heart as it is a realization that Bush isn't a conservative at all. I expect Gibson is still a homophobe though. I'd love to be proven wrong.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br>He's just hopping on whatever bandwagon will drum up more ticket sales -- the prick. Only an asshole who made a gigantic, speculative, epic farce based on a myth written by a blind guy would stoop so low. For the people who love Mel Gibson, what is portrayed in this film will become the "truth", brought to them by Disney. Blind Mel, The Shitty Minstrel. <p><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>"A crooked stick will cast a crooked shadow."</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=thoughtographer>thoughtographer</A> at: 5/12/06 1:24 pm<br></i>

[Pirx]

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>"A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within."<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>By curious coincidence I read this thread, and then came across my spouses freshly delivered June issue of Harpers, with a cover blurb for an essay by Kevin Baker titles "Stabbed In The Back! The past and future of a right-wing myth"<br>Baker writes-<br>Every state must have its enemies. Great powers must have especially monsterous foes. Above all, these foes must arrive from within, for national pride does not admit that a great nation can be defeated by any outside force. That is why, though it's orgins are elsewhere, the stab in the back has become the sustaining myth of modern American nationalism. Since the end of World War II it has been the device by which the American right wing has both revitalized itself and repeatedly avoided responsibility for its own worst blunders. Indeed, the right has distilled its tale of betrayal into a formula:<br>Advocate some momentarily popular but reckless policy. Deny culpability when that policy is exposed as disastrous. Blame the disaster on internal enemies who hate America. Repeat, always making sure to increase the number of internal enemies.<br>As the US staggers past the third anniversary of its misadventures in Iraq, the dagger is already poised, the myth is already being perpetuated.<br><br>Googled up this <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://thegreenknight.blogspot.com/2006/05/dolchstosslegende.html">blog</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> with more on Bakers piece. <p></p><i></i>

[mother]

Gibson has not been in support of any Bonesmen nor the cabal running things in the US. Besides, he's way more clever than Charlie Sheen. Apocalypto will probably be ambitious and somewhat flawed. The reference to the occult elite's need for sacrifice is accurate in my opinion. (Katrina genocide, for a small example) Fear-mongering as a way of life, every single day big, dark impending doom and the temptation to despair. Instead of being angry at Gibson, be grateful that he's speaking up about bush, for pete' sake! <p></p><i></i>

[thoughtographer]

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Gibson has not been in support of any Bonesmen nor the cabal running things in the US. Besides, he's way more clever than Charlie Sheen. Apocalypto will probably be ambitious and somewhat flawed. The reference to the occult elite's need for sacrifice is accurate in my opinion. (Katrina genocide, for a small example) Fear-mongering as a way of life, every single day big, dark impending doom and the temptation to despair. Instead of being angry at Gibson, be grateful that he's speaking up about bush, for pete' sake!<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br>You presume that "Bonesmen" and whoever else you think is part of the "cabal running things in the US" are the only ones doing grievous harm to the global mindscape. I'm not deny that Bush and his cronies/masters are destroying actual life out there in the meatspace, not to mention what they're doing to the minds of the public -- I'm just saying that in the case of someone like Gibson: give 'em an inch...<br><br>This is the same hotheaded fuckwad who made a "controversial", modern day, cinematic passion play which stoked the fires of the already blazing inferno that is "christian" zealotry worldwide -- with a heap of propaganda further conflating Zionism with Judaism at large, to boot; feeding bigotry's drooling, gaping maw more than ever. Yeah, this guy really should be talking down to people about "fear-mongering" and how it leads to societal decay.<br><br>He's way more clever than Charlie Sheen? Wow. What an endorsement. Mel Gibson is a spokesman for himself, first and foremost. -- he deserves no gratitude, and certainly no more of my money or approval. He's only "speaking up about bush" because a comment like that will guarantee him more publicity, for Christ's sake! <p><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>"A crooked stick will cast a crooked shadow."</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=thoughtographer>thoughtographer</A> at: 5/12/06 4:29 pm<br></i>

[monster]

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>The epic, due for release later this year, captures the decline of the Maya kingdom and the <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>slaughter of thousands of inhabitants as human sacrifices</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> in a bid to save the nation from collapsing.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>In all seriousness, I think this is happening today. Not people being killed through incompetence, but purposely, and <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>as human sacrifices.</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> To what god, I don't know. <br><br>Murder supposedly releases a lot of spiritual energy, and I bet Hitler was doing something like this, on a mass scale. I think he was trying to open a portal, and change history not only in a linear fashion, but with sorcery on a huge scale, pushing the world into some kind of parallel universe. <br><br>I think the same thing is happening today, because of the surreal feeling that the world has taken on since 9/11. There's a general sense of unreality, it's almost dreamlike. Like we've been bewitched, and it's only the consciousness of billions of normal folks combining to create consensus reality, which is the only counterbalance holding the world, as we know it, together. <p></p><i></i>

[mother]

Sheesh, thoughtographer- I don't think I've seen you so outraged before. Sorry if the story of Christ's Passion is so horrible for you. I think Mel should have used a more beautiful actor to play the BVM, and he could have cut down on the flogging a tad. If he's publicly rebuking Bush, what's the big problem with trying to warn people using an allegory? <p></p><i></i>

[Sepka]

If you approach Hollywood movies expecting insightful social commentary instead of entertainment, you're going to be disappointed. Mel Gibson, like the rest, makes his money by putting on the screen whatever it is that people want to see.<br><br>-Sepka the Space Weasel <p></p><i></i>

[Chiaroscuro]

gibson's movies revel in bloody violence. if a script does not have enough he will insist upon more and worse tortures for his character. Think back to any of his movies you have watched. the man has issues to put it mildly. oh and he threatened to kill a reporter's dog when he didn't like what the reporter wrote. <p></p><i></i>

[Qutb]

I agree Chiaroscuro, Gibson is a sick bastard with a fixation on torture. The hype would have it that the Passion was a "realistic" depiction of the suffering Jesus had to endure before he died. Right. If it were realistic, he'd have died from that treatment less than half an hour into the movie. Certainly not been able to walk. But Gibson's Christ the Action Hero sucks it up and proceeds to carry his cross all the way up to Golgata. Ridiculous. <p></p><i></i>

[thoughtographer]

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Sheesh, thoughtographer- I don't think I've seen you so outraged before.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br>You ain't seen nothin'.<br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Sorry if the story of Christ's Passion is so horrible for you.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br>It's MEL'S story that I have a problem with, not Christ's.<br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>I think Mel should have used a more beautiful actor to play the BVM</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->, and he could have cut down on the flogging a tad.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br>Uhhh -- okay? Glad to see your priorities are straight. I like to look at beautiful women and all, but come on.<br><br>Mel's Checklist For Future Movies:<br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>0. LOOSER ALLEGORY FOR EASIER PANDERING TO THE AUDIENCE<br>4. LESS FLOGGING<br>1. <!--EZCODE UNDERLINE START--><span style="text-decoration:underline"><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>MORE HOT CHICKS</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></span><!--EZCODE UNDERLINE END--><br>2. A LITTLE FLOGGING!<br>3. MORE HUMAN SACRIFICE<br>5. MORE END OF THE WORLD<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>If he's publicly rebuking Bush, what's the big problem with trying to warn people using an allegory?<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br>The "big problem" doesn't lie with his ostensible rebuke of Bush, but rather his motivations for doing such: $$$. <p><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>"A crooked stick will cast a crooked shadow."</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--></p><i></i>

[tigre63]

More hot chicks! Very funny Thoughtograper.<br><br>Heres a quick story: When passion was out i went to the movies(not passion of christ) with my wife, and before the movie started this guy started a conversation with me about "the Passion". He asked if i had seen it, I said no I had no intention of seeing it.He made some lame argument about why i should see it, and i told him i still had no intention of seeing it, he then paused and looked at me carefully and said that i had a big nose and he asked me with disdain if i was 'Jewish'. I really was taken aback by this and at first didn't quite know what to say, but I managed to say this: No, actually I am Serbian/Irish and I have been timed at making a molotov cocktail in less than a minute. It's probally best that you don't fuck with me, ok? He moved to thje farthest part of the theatre and that was that.<br><br>To this day I still havn't seen 'The Passion'.<br><br>Mel Gibson= Hutu Radio<br><br> <p></p><i></i>