Apocalypto

Directed by Mel Gibson, Apocalypto is an action, adventure and thriller film of a Mayan civilisation as it draws to its end. We follow the story of Jaguar Paw as he and his tribesmen are taken captive and almost sacrificed until he escapes, and has to return to save his pregnant wife and son from dying in a hole where they first hid from the warriors who burned down his village and killed his father. The film is spoken entirely in Maya language.

The main character whose story we follow throughout the majority of the film is Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood) who is the son of Flint Sky (Morris Yellowbirdhead), the leader of the hunters. We see that Jaguar Paw becomes afraid when passing refugees approach the hunting tribe and later Flint Sky's last words are "My son... don't be afraid". Jaguar Paw recalls these words several times throughout the story, especially when being chased by the Mayan city warriors. He tells them "I am Jaguar Paw. This is my forest. And I am not afraid" before jumping down a waterfall to evade being captured again. This is an especially brave thing to do since a member of his hunting tribe was pushed off a cliff into the waters when they were first held captive. The power of his father’s last words are enough for him to risk his life in order to get back to his own son. Zero Wolf (Raoul Trujillo) is the leader of the warriors who invaded the village. At first we think he may have some mercy when he tells one of his men he wants Jaguar Paw alive and tells one of the warriors off for pushing a hostage off a cliff, but as the story progresses he becomes more and more violent. His son Cut Rock (Ricardo Diaz Mendoza) is murdered by Jaguar Paw as he attempts to kill him and that sends Zero Wolf into a frenzy of wanting to get revenge on Jaguar Paw. He even kills one of his own men for suggesting that rather than jumping after Jaguar Paw into the waterfall, they climb around it. He is also risking his own life for his son, which suggests that the characters (Jaguar Paw and Zero Wolf) aren't so different.  All of the actors gave wonderful performances and were convincing Mayan citizens.

I thoroughly enjoyed the film, I thought that the use of subtitles meant that you really had to concentrate for the film to make sense so you tend not to miss anything vital to the story and everything made sense towards the end. I enjoyed the use of foreshadowing and there are several examples of this throughout the film, I think the most obvious one is Jaguar Paw's name. Towards the end of the film we see him hiding in the forest to get away from the warriors chasing him, he plunges into a swamp of mud making his entire body a dark brown/almost black colour representing how he is becoming the black Jaguar. We also see how a black jaguar kills one of the warriors, warning us of how Jaguar Paw will murder the all the others. He turns animalistic and even runs on all fours at one point although my favourite use of foreshadowing was how the trap the hunters used at the very start of the film to kill a tapir is the same trap he uses to kill Zero Wolf at the end. I also loved the ongoing theme of fear that retains throughout the entirety of the film, or more appropriately the theme of not being afraid, we see how brave Jaguar Paw is being. Another thing that made the film of such good standards was the CGI. Although it came in small amounts, it was good quality and looked very real. My favourite example of CGI used in the film was of a huge tree falling into the path on which the warriors and captives were walking.

It is very hard to find problems with this film, as the story line is full of literature devices (foreshadowing, symbolism, etc), which brings us a clever and compelling adventure thriller film. Despite this I do have a problem with aspects of how they presented Mayan civilisation. In the film the villagers are unaware of any big city from which the warriors are from and are surprised when they arrive there, but this is unethical. In those times it was very unlikely that the villages and cities were not involved with one another and it was rare that you would be more than 12 miles away from a large Mayan civilisation. Another mistake is how the villagers were captured in the first place, there is no evidence that suggests warriors harvested these people for sacrificial reasons although I believe that the writers and director added this into the film themselves in order for there to be a quality story.

In conclusion, this is a quality film that I would definitely recommend. It holds brilliant aspects of thriller, action and adventure that are all clearly portrayed with the help of the wonderful performances given by the actors and the cleverly written and directed script. It’s a fantastic portrayal of Mayan culture and just all around entertaining. Overall, I would give this film 13/14 baktun’s.

Wait, is that the 13^th baktun? Run!!!