XPost: alt.mexico, alt.movies   
   From: invalid@address.com   
      
   > Jules,   
   >   
   > An inciteful contribution to this discussion.  Your comments about Gibson's   
   > portrayal of Christ's death as a political conspiracy have made me stop and   
   > think again about that story.  While I can see from the scripture that there   
   > were conpiratorial elements in the saga, it was more than just a politically   
   > inspired entrapment.  Satanic forces were at work, and Mel's Passion pic   
   > does highlight that quite well, although in a very twisted sort of way.   
   > When I studied the film, it seemed to me that Mel's somewhat feminised   
   > (angrogynous is a better word) Devil is juxtaposed against Mary, and the   
   > battle for souls is waged between this Devil and the co-redemptorix mother   
   > of God.  It is a very Catholic twist in the Passion narrative, wherein Mary   
   > emerges stronger than Christ.  That is NOT as it should be.   
   >   
   > Mel of course is an arch conspiracy theorist and this sub-text is the dark   
   > side if  his portrayal of Christ's final hours.  Apocolypto is but another   
   > of Mel's attempts to rewrite history and make the Catholic Church look   
   > better than it really is or was or ever will be.  I haven't seen the movie   
   > and will probably not see it until it is on DVD, if then.  But it doesn't   
   > surprise me that Mel has tackled this thorny subject with a clear   
   > objective - to remold the consensus on this pivotal moment in history in an   
   > attempt to justify the crimes of the conquistadors in nearly wiping out a   
   > civilisation.  Mel is a dangerous ideologue and he needs to be watched and   
   > challenged.   
   >   
   > The Philistine   
      
      
   The indigenous peoples of Mexico, Central America and South   
   America were monsters who ate human flesh and drank human blood.   
   They engaged in torture for recreation. Murder was a sport for   
   them. Their corrupt and decadent civilizations were on the point   
   of death when the Spanish came to the New World. The Spanish   
   merely gave them the final shove over the edge -- they would have   
   decayed and died out anyway, even without European help. They were   
   Satanic, and deserved to be wiped from the face of the Earth.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)