Maya: The Blood of Kings (1995)
Maya: The Blood of Kings (1995) I am bestowing my highest praise on this Time-Life Series film. In fact, for a short “educational” film, it might be my favorite. I truly enjoy watching the reactions of my students, sitting in the dark, as the film hauntingly explores the mysteries of the Mayan culture from the fascinating forest to the religious rituals of bloodletting, torture and human sacrifice.
Sure, my students perk up when they see the spines prick body parts as the creepy music plays, the incense and fires light up the temple and the priests ghastly painted faces. But that is “cool” because it transports you back in time and gives you the feeling and aura of the event and why it would be most impressive in a sacred temple city such as Tikal and impress the masses. Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto depicts the bloody sacrifice in graphic detail but he does not capture the mysteriousness, mass appeal and sacred feeling of it.
The film blends superb footage of ruins, pottery, tombs, cities, documents in telling Mayan history. What is particularly effective is some interviews with archaeologists of today and the past, interpreting Mayan history, clips of Mayan Indians today performing rituals, historic clips and photos of famed archaeologists (Eric Thompson) and wonderful recreations of monumental discoveries—the tomb of Pacal, the murals of Bonampak, the finding of a lost Mayan book (a codex—one of only 5 books in existence after the Spaniards burned them all).
I also appreciated how they explain some of the Mayan accomplishments—their incredible calendar, written language, astrological calculations and the magnificent jungle cities. It is just an introduction and you wish they had probed the various themes in more detail.The film is narrated appealingly by Sam Waterston of the TV show, Law & Order, drawing you into the mysteries of the Mayan world.
The film certainly generated lively discussions and questions among my students about bloodletting, why it is done, and exactly how and where Mayan kings and queens bled themselves!
Kenny Karem, Collegiate School, Louisville, Kentucky, kennykentucky@aol.com
