The director of film, “Apocalypto,” Mel Gibson, narrates the story of the decline of the Mayan Empire with a setting in pre-Columbian Central America. In the film, there are villagers that survived a brutal attack but are taken by captors through forests to the Mayan city. Jaguar Paw, one of the main characters, is among the prisoners. He had previously hidden his child and wife from the attackers promising to free himself and return. The film allegedly depicts the typical culture of the Maya people. For instance, the characters are speaking in the accurate Mayan language that resulted in numerous viewers considering the whole movie as authentic. Nonetheless, its authenticity is just seen in the dialect of the film. The main image of the Mayan culture as portrayed by Gibson is that of bloodthirsty and gruesome individuals. The extreme ferocious images of beheading and the grisly confiscation of the hearts that are still beating caused the actual Mayans scrutinize the directing skills of Gibson. Gibson depicts the Mayan individuals as almost psychotic murderers, cutting, and dicing any individual that goes against their rules. As such, “Apocalypto,” appears to abuse the Mayan culture by depicting incorrect information regarding the practices of the Maya people and the reason for their decline.
The film abuses the ritual of Maya regarding rituals such as sacrificing individuals. In the film, men from the Maya culture attack and capture the villagers. The movie shows that the male captives were expected to function as sacrificial rituals while the women worked as slaves. However, there is no proof that the innocent villagers, both women, and men, were captured from the lands and used as sacrifices or slaves. The real evidence shows that the captives were taken during political wars. The film shows that the Maya used human sacrifices as a ritual to avoid drought as showed by the scene where Jaguar Paw and the others were sacrificial elements. However, the form of sacrificial activity is similar to that carried out by an Aztec-related group, called the Mexica that inhabited central Mexico. The Aztecs utilized the column-shaped stones where the captives were spread out, back arched, and permitted the sacrifices to be easily accessed on the heart. Consequently, the sacrifice of humans depicted in the film was unknown in the Maya area. Therefore, the director of the film had lied about the norms and practices of the Maya people, which was not good.

Furthermore, the film shows numerous individuals sacrificed at once. According to archaeological records, the Aztecs were the ones identified to sacrifice a large number of individuals, though it is unclear if they were sacrificed at a time. In addition, there is no proof showing the Maya carrying out large-scale sacrifices. The proof from records shows that sacrifices were personal activities. Even following the death of the captives, the bones were owned by sacrificer. Moreover, the auto-sacrifice is another type of non-lethal sacrifice to the Maya is auto-sacrifice or bloodletting that was performed by the males through puncturing the penis and the women that pulled ropes through the tongue. The blood was utilized in the ancestor worship and additional rituals.

In, “Apocalypto,” Jaguar Paw, who is the main hero, inhabits the idyllic hunting villages that are deep inside the jungle. In addition, there are several Mayan villagers that hang out in the forest, basically hunting the big game with a device that resembles a giant meat tenderizer. The hunters utilize it to hit the tapir until it dies and split the flesh up and eat. The movie tries to show Mayan humor as that similar to frat boys. As observed, one person cons another into eating the testicles of the animal, and they all start laughing. As a response, the person tells the mother-in-law joke. Certainly, Mayan humor cannot be established due to lack of enough evidence, but the humor presented in the movie appears made up. According to evidence, the Maya were agricultural most of the time. They hunted, but they did not eat wild game in huge portions meat in general might was observed as an item of luxury. During this time, it seems that nearly all forests were sustained, trimmed, and owned by someone, and the fact that the movie shows the Maya group as not practicing agriculture is almost impossible.

The film, “Apocalypto,” appears to portray the Mayan culture as evil and sickening. As such, it is an insult to the Maya people today as it insinuates that the Spanish were right to conquer the people. Although it showed surprisingly progressive science, the Maya culture started deteriorating around A.D. 800. Additionally, the Archaeological proof shows a host of factors that might have resulted in the decline, which includes internecine war, disease, losing trade routes, and drought. As such, the movie misinforms the history of the Maya people to the one’s present today. The movie takes the explicit allure to violence that pervades most people might start stereotyping the Maya people based on the events of the film. As such, the Maya people might be segregated. The majority of the Mayan culture people disclosed how the movie dishonestly depicted their ancestors as beastly barbarians. In this context, the Mayans’ savage side, the movie ignored the affluent, educated, cultured part of the Mayan individuals. The archaeological evidence makes the view of the Maya rather hard to sustain and further discredits the movie.