Directed by: Mel Gibson

When I went to a theater to watch this movie, I was surprised to find that I was the only person who was present to watch a fast paced, adrenaline rushing and graphically brutal movie ever seen and made in recent times.

This film has 3 parts. The first part shows the simple life of an average Mayan. Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood) is a young man who loves his family and loves his simple life. In the beginning, he is seen hunting with his friends and father, they meet group of people from the forest who were claiming that their lands were ravaged and that they seek a new beginning. Jaguar Paw’s father tells the leader of the other group that they may pass through the forest and they go about their business. Jaguar Paw then goes back to his son and pregnant wife, and all is well in the Mayan village. Jaguar Paw then has a dream where the leader of the clan he met in the forest has had his heart cut out and he tells him to run. Jaguar Paw then wakes up to find that his village has been attacked by another group from another part of the forest.

As the evil minded group invade the village and proceed to capture all men and women and burn it to the ground, Jaguar Paw hides his wife and son in a hole in the ground.He gets captured on trying to save his village people. A leader of the hostile group then kills Jaguar Paw’s father. All the men and women are then led away from their village by the hostile clan and their warlords. On their travels, the captured villagers meet slaves and a small, strange girl who warns the hostile people of their unstoppable doom. The captured villagers then arrive at the large Mayan city where the female captives are sold as slaves and the men are painted blue then led up up pyramid where they learn that they will be sacrificed. When they reach the top, two men have their hearts ripped out and are beheaded. Jaguar Paw is about to be sacrificed when, suddenly, a solar eclipse happens and the Mayan priest says that the gods are pleased, and then says the slaves are to be disposed of. The people who captured the men from the village then take them out to the back of the city and decide to play a game. The captives are released in pairs and are told to run the length of a football field to safety, but as they run, the warlords throw spears and rocks and shoot arrows. Jaguar Paw is in the second pair of men, as the first pair were killed. Jaguar Paw is wounded but eventually kills the man who tried to finish him off. He is being chased vigorously by rest of the group.

This is where the movie just goes into another gear. Jaguar Paw uses his skills to kill each man individually(reminds me of Rambo) and at the same time manage to remain invisible to his enemies by making the forest his friend. One by one he takes them all down and in the end the leader of the group gets the same fate as that of the animal in the very first scene. He rescues his wife and sees Spanish explorers and invaders setting foot in his land. They flee and go deep into the forest.

There are some movies where you think the movie can go slow and drag a lot, this is not one of them. Every scene has something of significant importance either in the immediate present or later in the film. Cinematography is top notch. The Use of digital video in some scenes made it look very real and authentic and the to re-create how the civilization was and to depict it on screen would surely have taken a lot of time and research but it was all worth it.

Mel Gibson loves being a director and he took a subject which very few directors would dare to explore in only his second directorial venture. The expectations would have been enormous following the success of The Passion of the Christ.
And in his own unique way he doesn’t disappoint anyone at all.

Popularity: 1% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!