Cast: Rudy Youngblood & Dalia Hernandez
Director: Mel Gibson
Rating:
Enetertainment Quotient: 60%
Genre: Action / Adventure
Runtime: 139 min
MPAA rating:R for sequences of graphic violence and disturbing images.

Synopsis:

The story of this film belongs way back to 1500 AD. Jaguar’s Paw (Rudy Youngblood) and all his villagers get abducted by a merchant and taken as slaves to Mayan city. Jaguar’s Paw hides his pregnant wife and son in a deep burrow before taking hostage. The story of the film is about how he escapes from the Mayan city and rescues his wife and son.

What I liked in the film?

There is some mystic aura surrounding the film as it belongs to the days of ancient civilization. Watching this film is like entering into a totally different world and witness how those people lived. The screenplay of the film is very good. You would not find any dull moment though movie lasts for 2 hours. Performance by the debutant actor Rudy Youngblood is awesome. Dalia possesses Indian looks and her make-up adds more to it.

What I did not like in the film?

Just like any commercial film, this film too has protagonist running for days continuously, to escape from merchant, even while suffering from severe wounds.

The scenes I liked in the film?

1. . The director started the film with a wild boar hunting episode using certain context and he uses the same technique in the end to kill the villain. This is pretty clever way of doing the screenplay.
2. The scene in which protagonist places himself between two jaguars.
3. The killing technique of poisoning sticks.
4. Killing the bad guys by throwing a bag of honeybees at them.
5. The scene in which bloods oozes out like a fountain as victim mutter to convey something.

A popular/familiar theme:: The following points elucidate some popular schemes of story telling -

1. Movie opens with a killing technique and ends with the same.
2. Protagonist hides his family in the beginning of the film and saves at the end.
3. A small girl foretells the future to the baddies. And all those predictions come true.

Tailpiece:
I was literally tired by the time I started watching DVD of this film. The film is so engrossing that I stayed late night and completed this 2 hour flick at a stretch. I don’t care about Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitic statements and the complaints about excessive violence. I thoroughly enjoyed the film.