UCSB’s Maya Expert Anabel Ford Digests Mel Gibson’s New
Flick
By Anabel Ford
On a need-to-know basis as a Maya archaeologist, 
weekend in Santa Barbara of Apocalypto, directed by
Mel Gibson. What I
found was a display of Hollywood action with gratuitous violence,
just what all the reviews had either lauded or warned. The plot
theme was simple: the classic hero, the evil villain, and the
damsel in distress, but with a macabre conjurings set against a
backdrop that purports to be of the Maya world. And here the
imagination is stifled by the European model of life in the
tropical forest, where it is either verdant or devastated, and a
degenerate civilization, where regal women fan themselves while
powerful men abuse others.
Nominated for the Best Motion Picture, Foreign Language by
the International Press Academy Satellite Awards and is
included in the same category for
the Golden Globe Awards, native Yucatecan Mayan speakers can
barely comprehend the dialog and it is doubtful that this film
would carry currency among the monolingual Maya. Dr. Francisco
Rosado-May — the agro-ecologist rector of the new Maya
Intercultural University and descendant of the famed rebel leader
General Francisco May — applauds the good intentions to attempt
dialog 
two actors — the elderly storyteller and the afflicted child — the
language is very stilted, difficult to understand, ungrammatical
and with a thick foreign accent.” I guess that the best motion
picture in a foreign language does not have to resonate among their
speakers. It will be next year when it opens south of the border
anyway.