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Tintin: The eclipse in "Apocalypto"...?

Tintin Quiz
Member
#1 · Posted: 19 Dec 2006 05:08
From Anthony Lane's review of Mel Gibson's movie "Apocalypto," in the December 18 issue of The New Yorker:

"As the priest raises the knife, Jaguar Paw is spared, thanks to a happy coincidence lifted straight from a Tintin book called "Prisoners of the Sun."
Harrock n roll
Moderator
#2 · Posted: 19 Dec 2006 17:16
Tintin Quiz
"As the priest raises the knife, Jaguar Paw is spared, thanks to a happy coincidence lifted straight from a Tintin book called "Prisoners of the Sun."

I assume that it's referring to the eclipse of the sun? It'll be interesting to compare the scene in the film with the book.

There's a very similar scene in King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard - as an earlier book it might have influenced Prisoners. The heroes in that adventure use an eclipse of the moon and pretend to be sorcerers in order to frighten the Kukuana warriors who hold them captive.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Solomon's_Mines
cigars of the beeper
Member
#3 · Posted: 4 Jan 2007 20:44
I think that Christopher Columbus tricked some natives by predicting an eclipse too.
jockosjungle
Member
#4 · Posted: 6 Jan 2007 16:46
I think they did so also in an Enid Blyton adventure, the trick natives with a Sun eclipse is pretty well known and in all honesty rather hackneyed.

R
Harrock n roll
Moderator
#5 · Posted: 7 Jan 2007 01:49
cigars of the beeper
I think that Christopher Columbus tricked some natives by predicting an eclipse too.

That's true, I'd forgotten about that. In fact, the Colombus story is probably the source for it as a plot device. Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court also uses the same trick, and with a Solar eclipse (like Prisoners) rather than a Lunar one.

According to what I could dig up from the 'net, Colombus is said to have used a Lunar eclipse (when the moon passes into the shadow of the earth) to trick the inhabitants of Jamaica on February 29th, 1504.

Anyone interested can read more about Colombus's eclipse here - The Eclipse That Saved Columbus.
Rocky
Member
#6 · Posted: 14 Jan 2007 01:01
I saw "Apocalypto" today, and to be fair the film uses an eclipse in a different way compared to how Hergé used it.
skut
Member
#7 · Posted: 14 Jan 2007 05:27
All of this eclipse trickery is silly, of course, because both the Incas and the Aztecs were keen astronomers and would have known about eclipses!
Rocky
Member
#8 · Posted: 14 Jan 2007 10:28
the Incas and the Aztecs... would have known about eclipses!

And the Mayans too.

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