“I can watch this movie a million times without getting bored,” someone else says.
A fourth viewer comments: “This should be in the conversation as one of the best horror and action movies of the 2000s.”
“A must-watch movie. Don’t miss this,” raves another.
The historical action-adventure, produced and directed by Mel Gibson, is set in the 16th-century Mayan civilization.
Its description reads: “Jaguar Paw, a young man, is captured by rulers of the Mayan kingdom. When they decide to sacrifice him, he makes a plan to escape death.”
The drama has scored an audience score of 79% on Rotten Tomatoes and a rating of 7.8/10 on IMDb.
David Keyes from Cinemaphile wrote: “It isn’t simply an effective movie, but an immensely powerful one: a benchmark and a foresight seemingly all rolled into one.”
“Pathologically brilliant. It is bizarre, stomach-turningly violent, and frequently inspired,” said Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian.
Although Apocalypto was lauded by critics and fans alike, the drama was controversial.
Many scholars consider it historically inaccurate, particularly concerning the depiction of mass human sacrifice.
Zachary Hruby, a Maya expert at the University of California, Riverside, told National Geographic: “The Aztecs are known to have sacrificed large numbers of people, though according to the archaeological record, we are unsure of how many would be sacrificed at one time.
“There are no data to support that the Maya carried out sacrifice on such a large scale.”
Ricardo Cajas, Guatemala’s presidential commissioner on racism, said the film set back the understanding of Mayan people by 50 years.
He told the Associated Press (per The Guardian): “It’s a case of Western civilization imposing its view about other civilizations.”
Despite Apocalypto‘s brush with controversy, it didn’t affect the film’s success.
The movie was a box office hit and won numerous awards, including the COFCA Award for Best Cinematography.
Watch the trailer for the historical drama here…
