Dec 5, 2006 08:34 PM
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Hollywood, 7:09 AM
Thu Mar 18
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As Hollywood Jewry continues to debate the prospects of Mel Gibson's Apocalypto at the box office and the awards season beyond, another ancient culture with a vested stake in the director's vision—Mayan descendants—are themselves torn over the prospect of the movie's release. Would Gibson's brutal interpretation of their civilization at its most violent serve to raise cultural awareness, or would it send the world scurrying, convinced that all relatives of the characters on the screen must also by association be members of a severed-head bowling league? The AP takes a look at yet another little known people on the brink of their own Hollywood coming party:
Some Mayas are excited at the prospect of the first feature film made in their native tongue, Yucatec Maya. But others among the 800,000 surviving Mayans are worried that Gibson's hyper-violent, apocalyptic film could be just the latest misreading of their culture by outsiders.
"There has been a lot of concern among Mayan groups from Mexico, Guatemala and Belize, because we don't know what his treatment or take on this is going to be," said Amadeo Cool May of the Indian defense group "Mayaon," or "We are Maya."
Should the Mayan extras in the film find they were misled—perhaps by being told by the director that they were actually being shot for a "ride experience" at Epcot Center's new Mayan Sacrifice Temple attraction—it's not as if they are entirely without options. They could always retain the services of the same law firm that is suing the makers of the Borat movie on behalf of the residents of Glod, Romania, who feel as misused over their depiction as a bunch of rape-happy mechanics and prosthetic dildo wearers as the Mayans might end up feeling about being portrayed as an army of face-ripping, bare-knuckle heart surgeons.
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