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18
January 2007
Mel
Gibson Defends His Epic
In Mexico
Actor-director
Mel
Gibson
has defended his film
Apocalypto against
charges it misrepresents
Mayan
Indians.
Speaking
at a screening in Mexico
City, the 51-year-old
rebuffed claims that his
historical epic depicts
the people as
bloodthirsty and
murderous
savages.
"Those
who criticise the movie
should do their
homework. I did," he
said.
Though
Apocalypto - released in
the UK earlier this
month - has yet to open
in Mexico and Guatemala,
pirate copies are
reportedly available in
both
countries.
Set
in the dying days of the
Mayan civilisation which
dominated Central
America from about 250
to 900 AD, the film
features brutal scenes
of human
sacrifice.
The
release of Apocalypto -
Gibson's first
directorial outing since
2004's The Passion of
the Christ - has been
overshadowed by the
fallout from his racist
outburst during a
drink-driving arrest
last July.
One
British critic has
described the film -
told entirely in the
Yucatec Maya language -
as "the first film to be
promoted with drunken
anti-Semitism".
The
film has been a
box-office success,
however, and received a
Golden Globe nomination
in the foreign language
film
category.
According
to the Associated Press,
it has also been
welcomed by some Mayan
spokesmen.
Bartolome
Alonzo Caamal, a Maya
teacher in Mexico City,
told the agency the film
was "a way to focus on
the importance of Mayan
culture".
However,
he agreed the film
"focused too much on
violent aspects, like
slavery or human
sacrifice".
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