Discussion:
Apocalyto, 2 flaws in the story
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curmudgeon
2006-12-14 03:39:35 UTC
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Our hero, Jaguar's Paw, is about to have his heart cut out when a
total eclipse of the sun starts.
One sees the wheels in the priest's head turning as the maddened
crowd starts to panic "Okay, how am I going to save this disaster?"

Voila -- the great God has been appeased by all the sacrifice and
this is a sign! Behold folks, the light will return!

Sure enough it does. Now they have all these freshly painted blue
captives they have no real use for, so the raiding party uses them for
some games, which is how Jaguar Paw escapes.

Extended chase scene follows.

In the night, as Jaguar Paw is trying to think himself out of this
particular mess, the camara pans through the primeval forest and up to a
beautiful full moon through the trees . . .

And not a single movie critic commented.

The second flaw is, The Mayan calendar is the most accurate and
sophisticated calendar ever devised. It incorporates lunar, solar, and
sidereal cycles. Mayan priests knew when eclipses would occur. They
knew where the sun, moon and stars were at any time, and where they
would be on any future date. They used this knowledge to awe the
population. For a Mayan priest to be "surprised" by an eclipse is a
total fabrication.
needles
2006-12-14 08:50:40 UTC
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Aww, come on. You don't seriously think that movie critics have
enough brains to know that a solar eclipse can only occur at the
time of the new moon, did you? That would imply some basic
knowledge of astronomy. There's no way to even hope that they
should know that during a solar eclipse, the moon and sun are on
the same side of the Earth, but during a full moon they are on
opposites sides of the Earth, and that this transition requires a
period of two weeks. I write this out to explain the matter for
those readers of this group who know as little as movie critics.



"Have a nice day"

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