Movie Poster

My father hunted this forest with me and before me. Jaguar Paw, my son, he hunts this forest with me. He will hunt it with his son after I am gone.

# Review

The story follows Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood), a young man captured by a declining Mayan kingdom as a human sacrifice. Jaguar Paw must escape his captors and find his family.

What immediately struck out was how gruesome and dark the world that Gibson has constructed is; the environment is filled with imagery of decay and savagery. Many of the scenes looked like macabre paintings. The plot is simple so one can focus on the details within the film. This is good as the pacing is very fast and creates a sense of urgency and stress.

The only character that has somewhat of a character development is Youngblood’s Jaguar Paw, and to Youngblood’s credit, despite the lack of dialogue he does an excellent job portraying Jaguar Paw. My favourite aspect of the film, however, is its use of colour; the shots of the mines and the human sacrifices were excellent uses of colour contrast and the overall moody imagery creates a desolate atmosphere throughout the film.

The film is by no means historically accurate and there are some glaring errors in the timeline of the film. There haven't been many blockbusters made based on Mayan civilization so I felt that more effort should have been put into researching actual Mayan history and culture.

# Conclusion

A historically-inaccurate film about Mayan civilization.

# Overall rating: 7.3

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