'Apocalypto': Bloody, violent, and not what you might call accurate

Well, I must confess right up front that I haven't seen Mel Gibson's new movie 'Apocalypto' yet; my location in Iowa has precluded a visit to a press screening, and it isn't coming to my town any time soon. But I spoke to Mayanist Elin Danien at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, who had this to say:

'Apocalypto' is a throwback to the serial movies of my youth, an action movie which could be subtitled "Run, Jaguar Paw, Run!" While the film is spectacularly photographed, the costumes and behaviors are a mishmash of the gorier aspects of Mesoamerican culture, certainly not particularly Maya, but Maya-Aztec-Toltec-Huastec-whatever. The language appears to be Yucatec (although I'm not an expert), and the film was shot in Veracruz rather than the Yucatan, so the scenery, while beautiful, is not Maya. It's a beautifully photographed, gory and mindless film, and if you're looking for an intelligent movie with accurate history this ain't the movie.

See Dr. Danien's complete online review He Didn't Do it Maya Way in the Philadelphia Daily News. And also, here is a selection of other movie reviews out today:

• 'Apocalypto': Praise for Gibson Film, Quandary for Oscar Voters, Sharon Waxman in the NYT comments on the largely good reviews in spite of Mel Gibson's currently tarnished image
• Movie review: 'Apocalypto', Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune didn't like it very much, and described it as a "History as gore, plus a few hearthside family interludes"
• Review: 'Apocalypto', Steve Rhodes in rec.arts.movies.review, gave it four stars (er, asterisks) and commented that it looks "like Mad Max mixed with a Jim Jones cult"
• Gibson film angers Mayan groups, BBC News/Entertainment, on reactions to the trailer which was shown in Guatemala last week
• Critical Consensus: 'Apocalypto' is Bloody Good, 70% good on the Tomatometer from RottenTomatoes
• 'Apocalypto' now, Tom Long in the Detroit Daily News says "Breathless and brutal, 'Apocalypto' is a blood-pumping good time if your idea of fun is rape, decapitation, human sacrifice, torture and testicle jokes."
• Is 'Apocalypto' Pornography?, from Traci Ardren in Archaeology magazine, who adds "It is surely no surprise that 'Apolcalypto' has very little to do with Maya culture and instead is Gibson's comment on the excesses he perceives in modern Western society."
• An R Rating? This Bloody Mess Deserved an NC-17, Rebecca Murray at About.Movies gave it one out of five stars and a Grade of F. She writes "'Apocalypto' is an exploitative, over-the-top, and nauseatingly pointless display of bloodshed devoid of any real story."

The Apocalypto official website from Touchstone pictures has the trailer and movie times.