Apocolypto

Where have all the films written and created by Mel Gibson gone. Do you ever remember the epic film written about a British saga Braveheart? Yeah, that was Mel Gibson too. Dang. Well, you're in for a treat if you ever watch this one, it's done by the same star man, good old Mel.

A lot of my curiosity of the world came from his films. First, Braveheart. I hadn't even heard the story of William Wallace until I watched the film. I later found out it's not quite true to fact, but it's a cracking film nonetheless. It sparked my curiosity about British history, and more importantly Scottish history, which we weren't really taught in school. I don't know why, maybe because it was a religious school and it was more important to them that we learned about the Romans.

Anyway, Apocolypto was a ficticious film set in a vibrant and rich Mayan landscape. We start off the story with several village dwellers. We see how their village is essentially a family, a communal gathering of sorts. We see how out-in-the-stix communities used to run their lives hundreds of years ago, whilst at the same time being a bit of a fantasy.

We're taken through a wild hunt at the very beginning, where the men go off hunting a wild boar (or at least I think it's a boar), and armed with sticks and netting, we watch how they go about catching their food for the day. Obviously this is to set the mood and the initial characters of the story; that it's a neighbourhood and family.

Not long after the opening scene we see aggressors sneak in on the family as they were not paying attention. Why? Well, we don't actually know, but it becomes known later. Here's another snippet from that scene as the family is being captured:

It's a lot more brutal than this in the film but as you know, places like YouTube think we need protecting from ourselves, so in this open video there's almost no graphic violence and blood, but enjoy the intensity nonetheless.

Most of them are killed, and only a few are taken away as hostage. Such a waste of life really, and I'm unsure how true to life this is, but sad if true though, I must admit.

That aside the hostages are taken back to what is known as the city. Or what looks like a city. What I do understand about Mayan culture is that they cleared a lot of forests to pave way for their lands, and as their lands and people grew more their rain source dried up (they cut away trees). So they began to engage in ritual sacrifice to the gods.

And thus, this is what the prisoners are taken for. Ritual sacrifice. The main star of the show watched his family get murdered, in front of him, one by one. I couldn't imagine how truly awful that would be. And people were way closer than they are now. They not only loved each other but relied on each other.

Anyway, just as we see the main guy about to get his heart taken out of his body and his head chopped off the sun goes in and he is somehow given a pass. Apparently the Mayans believe their god has seen enough sacrifice for the day.

So they are let go, but not really. They are to survive a barrage of arrows, but one escapes. And the hunt begins.

A really good film, and a must watch. I definitely highly recommend it!