Apocalypto ($29.99, 4 stars) Everything you’ve heard about the violence in Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto is true, and then some. That doesn’t diminish the power of this extremely well-made and ambitious story of life among the Mayans in the moments before their world would change. Even before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors, theirs was a civilization in decline. Decadence and superstition had triumphed over religion and science. Slave-hunters from the temple city sweep for able-bodied men and women in isolated villages. The captives are driven like animals to the capital—which might as well be Caligula’s Rome—for an orgy of human sacrifice. One, Jaguar Paw, escapes. The ensuing chase is as exhausting as it is exciting. Gibson, of course, is no stranger to graphic depictions of violence. But unlike purveyors of genre gore-fests, Gibson uses violence to remind viewers of the true brutality directed at ground-level combatants, beasts of prey, helpless slaves and such boat-rockers as Jesus Christ.
The extras include a deleted scene and the featurette “Mayan Becoming Mayan: Making Apocalypto.” –Gary Dretzka