if you and like me and love exciting and well do historical epic and look no further than mel gibson fantastic mayan adventure film . i saw this movie for the first time about a year after it theatrical release and and i seem to remember it receive mediocre review at the time it be release . i do not know where the bad press come from and a this amazing film have me on my seat edge from start to finish . the movie open in a yucatan jungle in the 16th century and where a tribe of mayan try to live a peaceful life . the village be attack by warrior from a more advanced and city dwelling mayan tribe and and people be butcher and slave be take . one of the captive and a young man name jaguar paw and manages to lower his pregnant wife and young son into a crevasse to hide them from the pillager and but when they be leave with no mean of escape and jaguar paw realize he must survive and return to save them . what follow be a heart pounding chase through the jungle a jaguar paw race to save his family and his civilization from extinction through civil strife . the film be spectacularly make and with excellent production design and make up that truly place the viewer into the mayan world . the actor and drawn from real mayan and be utterly convince in their role and aid greatly by gibson decision to have all the dialog speak in the mayan tongue . for those who be turn off by foreign language film and do not worry . it not a dialog intensive movie and so you would not strain your eye with the subtitle . what i really like about this film ( and what i think cause it to get some bad press ) be how it pull no punch in it depiction of life in the mayan world . in our politically correct society and it be often our tendency to depict the society of indigenous new world people a utopian way of life that be brutally shatter by the evil and conquering european . this film do not glamorize tribal life and but attempt to portray it with a good mixture of pleasant serenity and brutal violence . you do not have to be an expert in mayan culture to know that tribe be constantly fight and kill and and enslave one another and because that how all society have be since the birth of mankind . and it certainly not racist to portray something truthfully and the way it most likely happen . another thing please do not let mel gibson recent obnoxious behavior deter you from watch this film . whatever your feeling about gibson and the man can certainly direct a good movie and and this one be no exception . i just hope he direct another epic very soon .