Hollywood Murders Aztecs
A number of movies that rewrite the history of the Americas are in the works, with their focus being on the prehispanic civilizations of Mexico. Antonio Banderas, star of Zorro and now Take the Lead, will play the infamous Hernan Cortes in Conquistador. The independent film directed by Brazilian filmaker Andrucha Waddington (Me You Them, House of Sand) and written by Nicholas Kazan (Reversal of Fortune,) tells the "story of the expedition that sailed west from Cuba in 1519 in hopes of expanding the Spanish Empire. Cortes and his band of soldiers came upon what is now Mexico and swiftly brought about the destruction of the Aztec empire led by Moctezuma." This swashbuckling film now in production at Hollywood Gang Prods., has a budget of over $40 million - but most likely the money won’t help the producers get the story right.
When the Spanish conquistadors first saw the island city of Tenochtitlán (now the capital - Mexico City), they couldn’t believe their eyes. It was the largest city on earth at the time, and it’s huge gleaming temple pyramids looked out over a metropolis that was sectioned by an intricate system of canals and roads. Tenochtitlán rivaled Venice, Italy, for its beauty - and it certainly made Seville, the home city of the conquistadors, look small and insignificant. The Aztec capital had immense gardens, schools, libraries, and marketplaces. It was a place rich in architectural wonders, ritual celebrations, and magnificent wealth. The Spanish could not accept that "savages" would have been so graced by God, and seeing all the works of the Aztecs as simply the work of the devil, set out to totally destroy Tenochtitlán. They smashed every pagan idol, burned and toppled every building, sent the people into slavery (those not decimated by European diseases,) and built their "New Spain" from the ruins of the mighty Aztec city. The meeting of the two sophisticated cultures and the bloody clash between the antagonists gave birth to Mexico.
In fact, the people never called themselves "Aztecs," they instead referred to themselves as Mexika (Meh-shee-kah or "The people of Mexi," a legendary warrior-priest from ancient times.) Mexika creation stories tell us the people originally came from Aztlan (The place of the white heron - what many believe to be the greater southwest of the present United States.) The word Aztec was eventually derived from the name, Aztlan. But it’s doubtful any of this will be told in the Banderas/Waddington/Kazan version of the conquest of the Mexika.
Meanwhile, Mel Gibson, fresh from the success of his bloody Passion of the Christ, will direct and produce his own version of pre-Hispanic history, Apocalypto. The film is supposedly based on the Maya civilization that existed in 1000 BC, but since Gibson wrote the script for the film, and Disney will be distributing it, some have questioned the authenticity of Gibson’s version of history. Shooting is now underway and the film is scheduled for release in the summer of 2006.
The name of the film gives some insight into the perspective of Gibson’s production. Apocalypto is a Greek word meaning "unveiling," that a Maya word or concept was not chosen hints at a yet another Eurocentric view of the ancient Maya. Moreover, Gibson is offering a vision of the Maya that he wishes the audience to accept as fact - a vision that is hotly contested by scholars, anthropologists, and archeologists. These experts differ over the extent to which human sacrifice was practiced by the ancient Maya - and only in the last few decades has it come to light that the Maya may have engaged in the practice to any significant degree. However, Gibson’s film portrays corrupt Maya monarchs who use fear to control the masses in an attempt to hang on to power; commanding the people to build more temples and sacrifice more people else the gods destroy the world. This is not a viewpoint or theory supported by scientific research, but one made of whole cloth by Mr. Gibson. His Apocalypto has no religious message to it - so it is said - but that seems doubtful considering Gibson’s Passion of the Christ.
Not to be left out of the rush to re-write history, Ron Howard will be directing The Serpent and the Eagle for Paramount Pictures. Advance publicity for the movie states it is a "Tale of Spanish Conqueror Cortez who attacked the Aztec nation and plundered its riches with the help of an Aztec princess-turned-slave." There’s no start or release date set for this film, but you can expect to see it in movie houses by 2007. Also currently in pre-production is Aztec. With a script by writers Jeff Schaffer and Ted Humphrey, and production by The Montecito Picture Company, the advance publicity for this film states; "Set in 1519 at the height of the Aztec civilization, the project revolves around a slave named Tez who plays a brutal ball game called Ullamalitzli, in which the loser is sacrificed. Tez and his team must play the game and try to stay alive long enough to orchestrate a plan to escape the capital city of Tenochtitlan with a fortune in gold."
What is immediately obvious to any student of history is that the sacred ball game of Ullamalitzli was not a sport per se - and it certainly was not played by slaves. The Montecito Picture Company would have you believe that Ullamalitzli was some ancient form of Rollerball. Ullamalitzli was played by the nobility and the ritualized game had deeply religious connotations. The hundreds of magnificent stone ball courts constructed across ancient Mexico illustrate how important the ritual was to prehispanic peoples. Two opposing teams would attempt to bounce a rubber ball through stone rings inset in the walls of the court, with the ball representing the sun. The entire game was a ritualized battle between the forces of light and darkness, and to an agricultural people that is no small matter.
The game was also associated with fertility and the earth’s productivity, as the captain of the loosing team was sacrificed - his blood fertilizing the earth and giving strength to the Sun God. It was considered an honor, not a punishment, to be sacrificed to the Sun so that the world would continue. Another factual error contained in the script would be the desire of the slaves to escape "Tenochtitlan with a fortune in gold." The Mexika referred to gold as "the excrement of the gods," and it was just a medium of exchange, no more valuable than other objects of trade and barter. What the Aztecs truly cherished and considered priceless were turquoise and feathers - but a movie about escaped slaves making off with with a fortune in feathers doesn’t sound like a box office hit, so history must be rewritten Hollywood style.
It is said that Cortés once told the Aztecs that the conquistadors "suffered from a disease of the heart which is only cured by gold." Apparently Hollywood film studios and distributors suffer the same ailment. One can only hope that the above mentioned movies will never see the light of day, and if they are released, will be greeted by a storm of protest. The glorious civilizations constructed by the indigenous people of Mexico, from the magnificent splendor of Teotihuacan to the extraordinary empire of the Aztecs, is certainly cinematic material, and it all deserves to be made into a major motion picture. But justice and history both demand the tale be told by indigenous people, and not by those who conquered them.
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