[Tonchi]

You wanna know about human sacrifices? I can discuss human sacrifices in MesoAmerican cultures for hours and what it all comes down to in the end is these five words: They thought it was necessary. For the end of the 52-year calendar cycle, an Aztec emperor in the 15th century recorded 36,000 sacrifices at the twin-pyramid Templo Mayor in Mexico City. It had to be done in assembly line coordination -plunk and pluck then off the altar and down the stairs as the next body was slung into position - modern historians calculate it must have gone on 24/7 for nearly a year. The gods must have been very pleased, since they did not send the Spaniards during the reign of this ruler. Anybody here who thinks the Tonchi's Manson Bathroom was interesting might like to discuss the Pre-Colombian Peruvian sacrifices with me, where the honoree/victim was first fed a concoction which was a strong anticoagulant so that he would literally bleed for hours, while priests came and went with goblets to be filled up for the ceremony.

No, the issue of making the human sacrifices the centerpiece of the movie being some sort of metaphor for decadence and corruption of government is the REAL historical inaccuracy, if it even exists in Mel's agenda. The facts of the time were that even the highest Maya ruler was himself OFTEN sacrificed, as well as the heads of royal families and other figureheads. If you think the suicide assassins of the Muslim world are brainwashed, they don't hold a candle to the Pre-Colombian civilizations.