After years of it being somewhere in the back of my mind and being referred to as “that intense Mel Gibson movie,” I recently watched it again and was struck dumb all over again by how this thing clutches you by the throat and doesn't let go for two and a half hours. It could actually be one of the least talked-about survival horror films I have ever seen, and it is a film I feel is underrated outside of movie-talk communities.
The premise is simple enough to fool readers into thinking it is something easily understood... In a village in Mesoamerica, a young man called Jaguar Paw lives in peace until a raiding party from a nearby more powerful civilization invades his village and decimates his people, using them as slaves and sacrifices. He manages to sneak his pregnant wife and young son down a deep well before he too is captured, and after that, it's a constant, frenetic pursuit; Jaguar Paw must fight to survive the freedom of captivity, and race home before his family runs out of food, water and time.
I was impressed the second time around at how assured and secure the filmmaking is. At no point does Gibson hold your hand... this movie is entirely in Yucatec Maya and subtitled, and the cast is all lesser- or unknown-known actors... and the decision at every turn seems like a good idea. It does commit to dropping you into this world and that's how it works. Don't mistake you for actors in an "ancient civilization" movie, you are watching real people in a real, brutal, breathing world.
The pacing is really a masterclass! The first act has time, allowing the character of Jaguar Paw's village to develop, the warmth and humor in his relationships to develop, the rhythms of the day to develop... it's important that it does because this sudden invasion, brutal, is like a gut-punch and not "the plot starting. After that initial action, the film is pretty much a continuous, extended pursuit scene with little relief. The jungle chase at the end half of the film is still one of the most frantically tension-filled and well choreographed scenes I've ever seen.. all the obstacles, all the close calls, all the desperate scrambles over trees, is all so real, so earned, even if it was for cheap thrills.
It's a film that's about as spoken word-heavy as a 1947 English long-distance train and Rudy Youngblood, the lead, does a lot of the work here; maybe as much as all of it. He's not doing it for show; he's showing the rawness and desperation that he has. It's what you'd expect a show to do when the show isn't like, say, a crowd-pleasing musical or awards winning; it's the reason the film doesn't suck.
I also just have to say how pretty this film is. The cinematography of the jungle is amazing, the recreation of the Mayan city, complete with its massive pyramids and sadistic sacrifice rituals, is staggering in scale, and there's a lived-in feel to each set and costume, so that the entire world feels real.... not some Hollywood version of "ancient civilization. It's worth saying much about Gibson as a man and filmmaker, a lot more, for that matter, but he is indisputably talented at capturing raw, immersive, spectacular images here.
Yes, it's violent. Violent for real and with no hesitation, it may turn off some viewers. But I didn't feel like the brutality was gruesome, in fact, it felt necessary to the stakes of the story, to make you feel exactly how dangerous this world is and how much Jaguar Paw has to overcome to get home.
I was completely exhausted at the end of the story, which I won't ruin it up for you guys, but in a good way. There's very few films that can do this for the whole thing without slowing down, and this is the reason I remembered this movie the whole time as I rewatched it.
The movie is a beautifully crafted thriller about survival that remains one of the most tightly wound movies I've ever seen.
Rating: 90/100