Apocalypto (2006)

Let's be honest, almost all of the 1 star reviews are because of how the Mayan's are depicted and stem from a lack of historical knoweldge.
There seems to be the misconception that the Mayans were peaceful and didn't sacrifice humans... which reminds me of when my wife and I went to visit her family in Guatemala where the high point was really watching the American tourists swim in pools of water that probably had the bodies of thousands of sacrificial victims at the bottom... mostly 14 year-old boys.
Yeah, no way I would get in that water, but then I know what's beneath it.
Apocaypto is kind of about that... but it doesn't really convey the fact that, like the rest of Central and South America the sacrifice was to prevent the end of the world... and this kind of makes it about drought (which hit about the time they made contact with the west)
And it really doesn't convey the culture very well... but it does seem to zero in on the point that it wasn't their own people they were sacrificing, it was the people removed from the cities, the people that fell under the Mayan Empire, but weren't exactly a part of it...
... which is what the Aztecs did too.
But, who cares, in the end it's a brutal fight for survival, and it's an entertaining one.

I don't know if there is a better example of dedication in filmmaking out there than there is in _Apocalypto_. Brilliant, if overrated.
_Final rating:★★★ - I personally recommend you give it a go._