BlackNotBlack.com

Mel, Movies and the Maya

When Mel Gibson’s newest epic Apocalypto appears in my local cinema, I probably won’t see it. Not because Mel may be an anti-semite, but because I never go to the movies. There are too many loudmouths in the theaters for me to enjoy a film. Apocalypto is also subtitled, which means

there's certain to be more than the usual amount of expository crosstalk. Basically, I can’t abide talking in movies. How did I get this way? Well, one of my first journalism jobs was as a film reviewer for a smallish regional magazine. Usually, I saw the movies before they opened, with just a few other journalists in attendance. Once you get used to that kind of crowd, it’s tough to rejoin the chatterbox set.

Apocalypto has been advance screened, often to carefully selected Latino audiences, with the aim of creating a grassroots buzz. The method a film company chooses for its screenings is indicative of boardroom sentiment about the end product. Advance screenings usually mean the company feels alright about the movie. Conversely, opening night screenings mean the studio is worried about response and wants to rake in as much money as possible before bad reviews and bad word of mouth kill the run. So despite the controversy around Gibson, his corporate partners—Touchstone and Icon—feel they have a winner on their hands.

This can’t come as a surprise—Gibson has proven himself an adept filmmaker. Still though, when your track record traps you into epic scale moviemaking, a spectacular flop is inevitable. Kevin Costner proved that twice, with the Postman and Waterworld, and now hardly anyone remembers when he owned the crown Gibson currently wears. But even though the megaflop pitfall is well documented, I don’t think Apocalypto will be Mel’s undoing. The full-length trailer looks good, and he also has legions of fans that trust his vision and know he will deliver what they want to see.

But the main reason the film will succeed is because it’s getting good reviews. Not across the board, but a few important magazines, such as Rolling Stone, The Hollywood Reporter, and Variety have endorsed it. They all make clear that the film is so filled with action, and so violent, and so well shot, that it will prove irresistible for moviegoers. I rarely wish I was still a film reviewer, but this is one of those times. I’d be able to see the movie without paying for it, thus getting a chance to opine from the moral high ground of having not contributed a penny to its success.

But I digress. Here’s the problem I’m having with Apocalypto—it exploits for profit some of the most exploited people in the world. Sadly, most Maya lacked even the opportunity to benefit from the actual filming. Apocalypto purports to take place in what is now Guatemala, but was actually shot in Mexico. This makes sense—a major film production in Guatemala would be difficult to manage, rife with infrastructure concerns, and not easily staffed with experienced hands. It would be like filming a Christmas movie at the North Pole. However, the film dramatizes the Mayan downfall and most of their direct descendants live in Guatemala, yoked by a poverty which is in turn exacerbated by profiteers who extol the virtue of Mayan culture even as they rape it.

Perhaps it’s the kneejerk liberal in me, but none of this sits well. Let me paint a picture of life for the Maya in Guatemala, which I observed firsthand during the years I lived there. While their country promotes them to the world as tourist attractions, and planeloads of tourists indeed arrive each year to pump billions of quetzales into the economy, the Maya serve as mere footservants to the tourist industry and profit comparatively little for their efforts. While it is true that tourists buy Mayan crafts, the money locals earn is chump change compared to what tour companies charge for transportation, hotels charge for rooms, and restaurants charge for meals. All these Guatemalan businessowners devour the same pie, but only a few leave elbow room at the table for the Maya. The rest use tired racist excuses to justify their economic apartheid.

So here is my hope for Apocalypto—that it is such a runaway success that the governments of Mexico and Guatemala are pressured into addressing these concerns. Most of the programs designed to help lift the Maya out of poverty have been created by international NGOs or wealthy foreigners like Mel Gibson. That fact is an indictment of the Mexican and Guatemalan millionaire elite, who are doubtless hoping that any interest in empowering their exploitable countrymen—if it occurs at all—turns out to be yet another briefly fashionable American cause.

posted by Egan Ehlers @ 1:42 PM