| http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/printfriendly/0,4139,166184,00.html? |
| Hey Indy, that doesn't happen in our country |
| Peruvians upset by film's glaring & insulting mistakes |
| MOST of Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull takes place in Peru, but many Peruvians are seeing red over the movie's many clumsy - and often insulting - mistakes about their country. |
| 31 May 2008 |
| MOST of Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull takes place in Peru, but many Peruvians are seeing red over the movie's many clumsy - and often insulting - mistakes about their country. Viewers in Peru cringed when the famous fictional archaeologist arrives there and announces that he learned to speak Quechua, the language of indigenous people across the Andes, when he was captured by Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa. But Villa and his revolutionaries, who raided the US town of Columbus, New Mexico, in 1916, spoke Spanish, not Quechua, which is spoken by some 10million people in places like Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. 'This is outrageous,' said Mr Hugo Neyra, who heads Peru's National Library. Mr Neyra and others are also angry at seeing Mayan warriors from Central America speaking Quechua in the Peruvian jungle, where hundreds of native languages, but not Quechua, are spoken. The movie also shows quicksand, man-eating ants and enormous Hawaiian waterfalls, all of which do not exist in the Peruvian Amazonia. In what is perhaps the biggest insult, director Steven Spielberg and writer George Lucas place the Mayan pyramid of Chichen Itza, located in Mexico, in the Peruvian jungle. Another mistake: the location of the Nazca lines - which give Jones clues in the movie. Visible only from aircraft, the lines representing stylised animals are etched on a patch of coastal desert some 370km south of Lima - and not next to the Incan capital of Cuzco, smack in the southern Peruvian Andes. The Mayan civilisation thrived in southern Mexico and northern Central America between 250 and 900, while the Quechua-speaking Incas thrived across the Andes from 1200 to 1533. Historian Manuel Burga said that Spielberg and Lucas had been given bad advice. 'Even if it is fiction, there are many incorrect facts,' he said. 'This is going to be damaging to many people who do not know our country because it shows a Peruvian landscape that is not real. 'It is not possible to mistake the Amazon region with the Yucatan jungle in Mexico.' Mr Neyra said that many informed Americans and Europeans will realise that it is 'an aberration' to mix Mayan and Incan archaeology. 'They know that Machu Picchu is in Cuzco and that Chichen Itza is in Mexico,' he said. Historian Teodoro Hampe is scathing in his view of they way Americans view the geography of Latin America: 'For them, Mexico, Guatemala, Bolivia or Peru are all the same.' AFP |
Friday, May 30, 2008
Hey Indy, that doesn't happen in our country
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I haven't watched this show yet, but oh my, how unforgivable.
ReplyDeleteThough it's not historical accurate but overall it's entertaining.
ReplyDeleteI love the previous Indiana Jones movie, but I must say this one is actually quite bad. In fact rather boring. Almost no trace of originality in plot, just about everything is lifted from the previous films and not the best parts either.
ReplyDeleteIn fact I am trying to forget I watched it.
I think it's a pity that the historical and geographical main facts are not taken into account in the movie. I know some kids who travelled to Egypt last February,and they were remembering the beautiful monuments they've seen for true "like in the "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade"" as they said... These movies are a nice way to teach the main facts of history of a country.
ReplyDeleteFrance is one of the countries where the "Indiana Jones" movies have always worked very well. Today, it is N°1. I think I will wait for one or two weeks before to watch it.
The dialogue is stale, the scenes are lacklustre. The CGI ants are just bleh. The chemistry between the actors results in some tepid brownian motion.
ReplyDeleteahah ! Well understood Cookie Monster !
ReplyDeleteSad to say, saw the show and there is really nothing to talk about... one boring yawn?
ReplyDeletedifferent people have different perspective and expectations of each movie, not everybody will agreed to say this movie is the best or the worst.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I even find the movie critics is too bias when they're doing review and anyway I will still go for that movie even of the critics is bad because movie is a very personal choice. You cannot expect everyone to agree with you for the same movie.
well, normally I don't expect full 100 per cent historical accuracy in movies or TV dramas because to me movie and TV drama are purely entertainment purposes.
ReplyDeleteIf I want 100 per cent historical accuracy I would expect it to happen in documentary or historical or geographical books.
This is getting slightly ridiculous, if parisians or new yorkers, were to rant everytime our cities are misrepresented in foreign shows, the world would go deaf (not because we shout louder, be because we're featured in more films). But yeah, let Harrison Ford apologize to the people of Peru, for his insensitive conduct...
ReplyDeleteSeriously this is entertainement, supposed to be fun, not accurate. Sometimes, I wonder how whiny globalisation and the Internet seems to make people these days.
It seems like everytime people complaining abt the accuracy of the movie--the scriptwriter is left out to apologise. Why don't people target at these people instead they go and blame the director and the actor or actress ?
ReplyDeleteI think you are letting CHF get to you... stop going there! :-D
ReplyDeleteHaha, very good point...Even though it is unfair to caricature CHF over something which is much more global... (seriously, I can point you to worse places, there are forums devoted to whining...)
ReplyDeleteI do not think that we can compare the representation of Peru and Mejico in the movie creation with the representation of cities like Paris and New York... No, I think it is honourable and understandable to defend the truth in the historical and geographical facts of these countries which are infinitely richer than the one of the United States and which deserves -in my opinion- much more consideration. American people are often well known as fools in history and geography, it could have been a good way for them to prove the contrary...
ReplyDeleteWhy doesn't this surprise me?
ReplyDeleteI think attention should be paid when natives complain rightly of misrepresentation.
ReplyDeleteEven as we speak, there were strong protests from Chileans during the filming of the next James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace.
Francois, do you think you are just jaded that how Paris and the French in general were stereotyped?
As a matter of point of course, the nationalities of film-makers are not the issue when it comes to misrepresentation - even Chinese film-makers distort their own countries history and geography out of sheer ignorance or indifference.
One positive development in recent years though is that natives found ways of voicing their protests which were not available before, pointing out outright factual inaccuracies to the outside world who'd otherwise not known better.
I don't think it's a matter of taking movies too seriously - since major film producers do take care to avoid antagonising people over nationality, race, religion or gender nowadays and sacrifice the element of "entertainment" in the process.
Which of course, explains why it is harder and harder to come up with villains with "real" backgrounds.
Seriously, I saw the show, it was kind of boring... but the concern about misrepresentation... guess the Peruvians had not seen the TV serials from Hong Kong/Taiwan/China/Korea and whatever... the unbelieveable things that are happening there.. Should the Chinese in China taking issues with it? Actually most would have watched it and have a good laugh immediately after. They know what is real and what is false... this excessive strength of emotions here makes me wonder if some Peruvians are taking the show too seriously?
ReplyDeleteI really don't understand the problem... especially if it is meant to be entertainment... I guess some people will take poetic licence and jazz up the show. If we are going to sue everyone who does that, then, all the literature might be facing the cut.
I think the perception is that it is not artistic license but sheer laziness and incompetence that led to the mistakes.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt the Chinese would be just as upset if it was portrayed an American claimed he learned to speak Cantonese after a stint as a captive in Hokkaido.
Or it was shown that the Great Wall was visible in the horizon immediately after driving out of Tianjin.
Wonder whether the movie would be nice ? anyway I watch James Bond movie for the high tech weapons , the last James Bond movie is good.
ReplyDelete