Throughout the ages human cruelty and evilness has taken on numerous forms and in Apocalypto we are taken back to when killing and hurting was more primitive and in some ways simpler – run or be killed. The story is simple and of one man’s will to stay alive to rescue his wife and children.

At first it starts of relatively peacefully. There is a small group of men in the jungle who are out hunting for food for their village. There is laughter and much joke making. Suddenly the peace is interrupted by the arrival of some natives from another village running to escape some awful terror. This strikes fear into the heart of the central character, Jaguar Paw, the son of the village chief. All settles down again until suddenly the attack on the village comes. It is definitely not a polite attack with a lot of blood, killing, and even raping in evidence. The male survivors are to be taken as a sacrifice, the females as slaves and the kids left to fend for themselves.

Jaguar Paw is captured but before doing so is able to secure the safety of his pregnant wife and child in a pit so deep it eventually becomes her trap. The story then becomes one of his trying to escape to be able to rescue her which he does very narrowly. Firstly by some divine intervention he is able to narrowly escape the ritual sacrifice which involves tearing a man’s heart out, chopping his head off and then throwing head and body down a giant set of steps. He is also then able to escape his capturers which then takes us through a harrowing chase through the jungle.

Its an amazing film with the visuals truly captivating and extremely violent. The key to this type of film is the simplicity – you know who is good and who is bad and therefore you can focus on the vision. Its also surprisingly funny in parts but that probably comes from the subtitle translation more than anything such as when one of Jaguar Paw’s friends states that he’s “f**ked”.

Probably not a film for everyone but it does have to get marks for originality.