An Introduction to Apocalypto

I hate to hate on movies, but there comes a time in everyone’s life where one must watch a historic adaptation.  Most children start with the lovely Disney classic Pocahontas.  I loved Pocahontas.  I wanted to be Pocahontas.  I had Pocahontas pajamas – but I wanted to be the Disney Pocahontas – the less than real Pocahontas, where John Smith was in love with you and your grandmother sometimes took the form of a tree.

When I entered the third grade, history, in my book, was rewritten.  Pocahontas had been a key part of establishing good relationships with old world immigrants, but the rest of the Disney story had been total crap.  John Smith and Pocahontas had never gotten together.  Trees can’t talk.

One may argue that the essence of the story had been preserved, but I thought the singing and dancing had ruined it thus far.  If everything had been hunky dory by the end credits, then why have millions of Native Americans suffered (and still suffer)?

So this is about as far as I’ve gotten on my paper that is supposed to be about the Maya.   Yes, now you might see my problem.  Pocahontas was not living in the post-classic Mayan civilization.  I love Tchaikovsky.