Apocalypto

This is a very violent (category 18) film directed by Mel Gibson.  I remember seeing a trailer for it at some other film, and thinking it looked interesting.  I also seem to remember it didn’t win over the critics.  Anyway, I was in hmv  buying a copy of Uncle Ben – I mean, Star Wars – when I saw a copy of Apocalypto going for £3.  So I bought it.
   I confess I enjoyed it.  It’s something of a cross between Last of the Mohicans, Saw (which I have not seen, I hasten to add, but I get the gist of what it’s like), with a dash of The English Patient thrown in.  Basically it tells the story of a peaceful group of Aztecs (or maybe Mayans, hard to tell), being attacked and captured by a warrior group of Aztecs.  During the attack one of the goodies drops his pregnant wife and little boy down a big hole for safety.  He then gets captured along with everyone else who is still alive, and dragged off to a big city in the throes of religious ecstasy.  Human sacrifice is the name of the day, and they’re going on 24/7; except when our hero is about to be carved up, an eclipse happens and the high priest, to maintain face, says that’s because the sun god has temporarily had enough victims.  Temporary reprieve.  Warriors take the captives to the back of the city and tell them to make a run for it, but shoot or javelin them down before they can reach the jungle.  Our hero, severely wounded, makes it, killing the son of the chief warrior in the process.  Cue chase through the forest and our hero managing by luck and skill to whittle down the number of enemies chasing him.  Yes, strains of Predator, now I think about it.  The film cuts to the trials and tribulations of wife & boy throughout, especially near the end when it starts to rain, the hole starts to fill, and she manages to give birth while almost drowning.  Such is the brutal nature of the film that you don’t know whether she & family are going to make it.  But they do.  Our hero saves them and they all go off into the jungle to make “a new beginning”.
   It is gorily simple, and as I say, I enjoyed it.  Perhaps another reason I enjoyed it is because it contains not a word of English – all the characters speak Aztec or whatever, and there are subtitles throughout.  Just the thing for the hard of hearing like me!
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