Thanks at least in part to the director's notorious off-camera antics, Mel Gibson's Mayan-era jungle adventure tends not to get the attention it really deserves. Far from the dour, depressing spectacle of his earlier film The Passion of the Christ (though it's equally brutal), this is an exhilarating, adrenaline-pumping affair - and while the focus is primarily on the young father Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood) as he battles to get home, the film also boasts some truly awe-inspiring scenes of tough motherhood. When their village is raided, Jaguar Paw's heavily pregnant wife Seven hides out in an underground cave with their young son. As well as keeping hidden from the invading Mayan tribe, Seven must also defend her child against a savage monkey - and then, in the heart-pounding finale, deal with the dual problems of a tropical storm flooding the cave, and the onset of labour. The act of childbirth is one of the most astonishing undertakings any woman can ever go through under any conditions. Seven goes through it alone, standing up on a rock to keep her head above water as the flood rises to neck level, with her infant son sitting on her shoulders. Really, do mothers get any tougher than that?!
