The latest Mel Gibson film, Apocalypto, is what i spent the last 3 hours watching and thinking about. The plot of the movie itself seems simple enough: it follows the Mayan tribe's hopeless fate of being destroyed by itself. But I'm sure Mr. Gibson was trying to do more than just present an interpretation of a period in history. An infinite amount of analyzations and interpretations can be drawn from this movie, but here are mine: (before reading, it'd be best to watch the movie since I will be writing this under the assumption that you have) Throughout the movie, much emphasis is placed on bravery, or more specifically, lack of fear. The people of the Mayan tribe constantly remind themselves and others to not be afraid, no matter if they were from the hostile or peaceful group. Fear is a very basic human instinct, and by relinquishing themselves of this completely, they give up what makes them a human being, or even a being. But a certain group took it too far, and while watching the movie, it seems that this ruthless and merciless group was not human. They killed their own people without a hint of empathy, another human trait. What does this show? Charles Darwin's theory of the survival of the fittest, to an certain extent. In this case, it wasn't a matter of the weak dying out, but rather, being killed by the strong, belligerent, and perhaps more numerous. This ties into the other interpretation I drew from this movie, which ended with the arrival of the Spaniards (I assume) on their ships. What happens thereafter is left to the viewer to work out. But most would know that the men on the ships would take control and seize the tribespeople and treat them they same way that the tribe treated itself, in terms of the greed that was destroying the tribe in the first place. But one must wonder how these relatively civilized men would match up against such war-oriented indivuals, who could kill the outsiders on even grounds. Well, it's because the grounds were not even. The outsiders had guns, and with it, control over the life of the tribe. This shows the transformation from survival of the fittest to survival of those who can kill the easiest. Those who have the power to control whether the majority is alive or dead are those will dominate. But in the end, it is fear that won the outsiders their dominance over the Mayans. They were afraid of the thundersticks that could kill them in seconds.

Up to this point, I am beginning to feel a bit lazy to write anymore, but I basically got out the more important, albeit not bery thorough, things I drew from the movie.

One more thing, just for jokes: It could also be that Mel Gibson is trying to warn us, through his pattern of 'what goes around comes around' in the movie, that the most civilized humans are next, for pretty soon the aliens will come down and enslave us all...!!!

Thank you for the thought-provoking and suspenseful movie, Mr. Gibson.