“The lion and the leopard hunted savagely among the huge herds of game. And men, lacking the will to understand other men, became like beasts. And their way of life was his.”

With these words starts this survival movie starred and directed by Cornel Wilde, which I would be extremely surprised if Mel Gibson wasn’t inspired by it for the making of Apocalypto (2006). Besides the change of setting, from colonized Africa in the former to indigenous America in the latter, its plot is basically the same: a single man must literally run for his life while being hunted by the tribe that capture him.

This nearly silent movie (there is barely a bit of dialogue throughout it) has an incredible powerful start when an expedition on the hunt of ivory, guided by Wilde, gets captured by a tribe and the various members get tortured and executed in many various ways. Wilde’s character is let loose in the vast South African veldt and then… the “game of the chase” begins!

The structure of the film is fantastic. It excels in intertwining the actual story with sort of wildlife documentary segments that mash perfectly together with the feel of the story and the characters in each moment.

All that is accompanied by great action scenes. For example, there is a spear and machete fight that doesn’t have anything to envy to any strictly choreographed fight scene in any contemporary movie.

There is a moment where the picture starts to fell a bit to the dangerous territory of getting a bit too repetitive but then it suddenly gives you an unexpected twist, which allows for a brief change of mood and break that is very much appreciated (even though it could have been a bit longer), before getting back to the true matter at stake (aka The Chase).

So, if you like thrilling, fast-paced, action-packed films and especially if you enjoyed Apocalypto, this is the movie for you!