If you, like me, love exciting and well-done historical epics, look no further than Mel Gibson's fantastic Mayan adventure film. I saw this movie for the first time about a year after its theatrical release, and I seem to remember it receiving mediocre reviews at the time it was released. I don't know where the bad press came from, as this amazing film had me on my seat's edge from start to finish.<br /><br />The movie opens in a Yucatan jungle in the 16th century, where a tribe of Mayans tries to live a peaceful life. The village is attacked by warriors from a more advanced, city-dwelling Mayan tribe, and people are butchered and slaves are taken. One of the captives, a young man named Jaguar Paw, manages to lower his pregnant wife and young son into a crevasse to hide them from the pillagers, but when they are left with no means of escape, Jaguar Paw realizes he must survive and return to save them. What follows is a heart-pounding chase through the jungle as Jaguar Paw races to save his family and his civilization from extinction through civil strife.<br /><br />The film is spectacularly made, with excellent production design and make up that truly places the viewer into the Mayan world. The actors, drawn from real Mayans, were utterly convincing in their roles, aided greatly by Gibson's decision to have all the dialog spoken in the Mayan tongue. For those who are turned off by foreign language films, don't worry. It's not a dialog-intensive movie, so you won't strain your eyes with the subtitles.<br /><br />What I really liked about this film (and what I think caused it to get some bad press) was how it pulled no punches in its depiction of life in the Mayan world. In our politically correct society, it is often our tendency to depict the societies of indigenous New World peoples as utopian ways of life that were brutally shattered by the evil, conquering Europeans. This film does not glamorize tribal life, but attempts to portray it with a good mixture of pleasant serenity and brutal violence. You don't have to be an expert in Mayan culture to know that tribes were constantly fighting, killing, and enslaving one another, because that's how all society has been since the birth of mankind. And it's certainly not racist to portray something truthfully, the way it most likely happened.<br /><br />Another thing - please don't let Mel Gibson's recent obnoxious behavior deter you from watching this film. Whatever your feelings about Gibson, the man can certainly direct a good movie, and this one is no exception. I just hope he directs another epic very soon.