I'm sorry, but I can't help but feel like this film is colonialist apologia. I see many people here rate it highly (and many seem to not point out what the film is even about tbh), but tell me I'm wrong, I'd be glad if I am. It all starts with a quote: "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within", which can be interpreted in different ways. One can say that, applied to the story, it means that the native Americans lost because they weren't united. But one can also interpret it as: "since native Americans lost, they weren't a great civilization". I thought, I shouldn't be pessimistic, maybe it is indeed intended to express the former meaning. However, as the film progressed, I started to suspect bad intentions behind it. Mel Gibson has a tendency of portraying pretty much black-and-white worlds in terms of morality. Every character is either good or bad. In Braveheart it was the good Scottish against the evil English. In Passion of Christ it was good Jesus and his followers vs the Jews and the Romans (but mostly the Jews). Here it's the main character with his fellow villagers against literally everybody else (except the Spanish of course). What's alarming is that the villagers, including the protagonist, all act like pretty much modern westerners. It's almost like they don't exist in the realm of gods and spirits (like true pagans should), they don't care that much about continuation of their family (which is exemplified in one guy accusing his mother-in-law of demanding a grandchild), and they're overly romantic and idealistic. Ever since a tribe invades that village, all we see is examples of the locals' savagery. This civilization seems literally filled with characters cartoony levels of evil. On the way to the city we see a sick child and later a sick old man (as if to say, since the sicknesses already existed, it's not a big deal that the Europeans brought more). The child makes a prophecy, that seems to be implied as divine (coming from God), 'cause she is not a priest or anything of that sort. The prophecy basically says that all evil shall be vanquished soon, all evil-doers will suffer. Then they arrive to the Mayan city, where we are shown slavery (as if to say, since slavery already existed, it's okay that the Europeans also did it). And then we are shown the local religious ritual that gets interrupted by a solar eclipse, which is interpreted as a sign from gods (apparently to show how stupid these people's religious views were). During all of that the protagonist and his fellow villagers look at these people with such shock in their eyes, like they are not part of the same civilization, like they don't speak the same fucking language. Then a long chase starts for like half of the film, during which many of the villains die. The good guys win. And then they see the Spanish ships. That prophecy from the little girl from before seems to be about fulfilled. You know, that girl who wasn't a priest or anything, just a regular sick girl. Maybe that was a message from the God? You know, the actual Christian god, not one of these "stupid" ones that these "savages" believed in. Because it prophesized that evil people will suffer, and there you go, great Christian saviours come to punish the evil. It's not like everybody will suffer, no. For the good guys, it's not the end of the world. It's "the new beginning". Yeah, that's what the film says. And the protagonist walks off into the sunset with his family, smiling and shit, in the good ol' Hollywood tradition. I mean, tell me I'm wrong. P.S. Btw, what is the story arc of the protagonist? Like, he goes from being afraid to not being afraid or smth? Well, I mean, he was brave enough to go fight the invaders, but I guess, since his father said he was afraid, then he must've been. I dunno. He's really a dead fucking character, a fucking void. This movie is garbage, regardless of the themes.