by Scott Selliers

Created on: January 19, 2007   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

As the movie began, I could not help but to go over in my mind all of the celebri-gossip surrounding Mad Max as of late, and even though I never read those kind of publications or view those kind of shows, I was troubled to think of how much I could bring to mind about him: his previous directorial efforts and their related themes, his recent attention grabbing behavior (a P.R. move, I am sure), and his "Troubled Artistic Type" persona. As these thoughts swirled and blended with the serene opening sequence of the movie, I couldn't help but appreciate this film, immediately, as an artistic statement. A statement I believe was being made tongue-in-cheek about our "modern" overly aware civilization and it's self-developed and falsely believed-in monopoly on everything civil. And so began a philosophical afternoon...

As the first scene developed, I found myself intimately associated with the characters, above the cultural and linguistic differences. I am thankful this film was made in the Mayan language, and I feel for those of us who can't enjoy films with English-printed subtitles, as I find them to enhance my experience. Maybe reading the words allows me to experience the dialog in two levels simultaneously, both visually through the actors, and more subtly through my mental evaluation of the text. Outside of the film, I wish sometimes I could understand my non-Anglo neighbors here in Texas with the same enjoyment, not that I don't find pleasure in my associations with them. Over the past six years, I have made meaningful relationships with many people with a very limited shared language pool, and in many ways, I feel closer to them for the experience.

As the more sinister aspects of the film unfolded, I was now not only linking them to our current socio-political environment, but I felt I was blurring the two. It was impossible for me to see this as just a story, as it's nature as a moral tale was dominating. The atrocities being committed between human beings and the fact that the oppressors shared the same culture of the oppressed spoke volumes. We live in a time when war is waged on a "them", which is convenient for the "us" to clean their consciences. The film's opening quote begins to play heavily, which is a precedent to be repeated with increasing weight throughout the remainder of the film.

As the film progressed into a more visually complex palette, the current cultural environment comes to the forefront. In my opinion, the story's climax occurs,

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