Apocalypto

This is a magnificent film, despite the warranted criticism of the Director's personal life and how the film was stifled and stalled by controversy unjustly so. Too bad because this story is epic and monumental, a clash of cultures, sophisticated but primitive civilization encroaches upon those who live by the reality of the self-sustaining jungle, immersed by the understanding of their nature.

It wasn't so long ago that we existed in a world of distorted ritual and superstition, (we still do) where once we had alchemy we now have chemistry. Where once astrology held sway. Astronomy is now the herald of the day. The symbolism of this movie works on so many levels. How the increasingly impoverished Mayas used the science of the eclipse to eclipse the fact of their own empires demise. Using science and observable fact as a mask for sacrifice and superstition. Themes repellent and relevant for today and a warning to those who steal ritual from nature to use as a means of control and power through shock and awe and fear in this we are all diminished by this spectacle of grandeur.

Then there is the Shaman's apprentice bound to his own domain and the world his culture created gaining power as the run goes on. Jaguar sacrifice, man becomes jaguar, and in his own element the hunt is on. The hunter becomes the hunted. The goal is born out from the will of the individual, the rescue and survival of his family and culture combined to himself, his own identity becomes the retreat into the wilderness as an answer to preservation.

We are all striving to survive in these changing times what matters are the quality of our intentions and the nobility immersed in our deeds.One culture advances and the other retreats, or is it just the other way around? I guess the point is does the purity of 'Eden' reside in its simplicity and the idea of living within your means? No matter how flawed this may be.