Hugh was a 'squaw man'. He was a white man who had lived with the Indians, taken an Indian wife and had a son who was half Indian. Since my grandmother was a full-blooded Cherokee, I find this movie particularly capable of stirring me up.
I didn't go to see this movie at the theater. I had the feeling that it was long and boring, thanks to the reviews. I was pleasantly surprised when it was an excellent show. I love wilderness shows. I love survival shows. I love tales from the old west. (Have written several) I love revenge stories also. This movie had all the above, in spades, as we western writers say.
I was surprised that Leo was so good as a mountain man. Heck, he is just a great actor. Must be tough to be able to pick and choose roles at such a relatively young age. Ha, ha.
Anyway, Hugh Glass takes a job guiding a party of trappers who are trapping fur in a remote place. Of course, it is cold weather (animals grow thicker fur in these climes. There are more animals to trap in the more remote places.) Unfortunately, the party is attacked by a War Party of Indians. Many of the trappers are killed and Hugh recommends that they abandon the boat and strike out for the fort overland. This does not endear him to the resident whiner, John Fitzgerald, played well by Tom Hardy.
John is one of those guys that would crab if you gave him a bar of gold. "It's too heavy." "Why's it yellow?" That sort of thing. Well, as the party is fleeing from the scene of the attack by the hostiles Hugh gets in a scrap with a bear. This is a truly intense fight and well done by the movie folks. It made me think about our confrontation with the mountain lion at the green retreat. Thank God, Carley and I were not harmed but I thought about it when I saw the severe butt-whipping that Hugh took from the bear. They found the ole boy underneath the dead bear. I have seen a bear in the wild here on my property, he left his paw print on my door, but he was a smallish bear.
Clinging to his life, Hugh was in no shape to travel. The company boss paid a couple of the men to stay with the scout until such a time he died or recovered. They all expected him to die. The three guys who stayed with Hugh was his own son (the Indian lad), a decent, young white fellow, and the aforementioned John Fitzgerald. At this point I remembered a passage from Proverbs about a faithful messenger and his value. Something like that. Anyway, how wonderful to have a friend or employee that you can count on to do what he says he will do. Such a person is worth their weight in gold.
Is John Fitzgerald such a man? Not so much. This ole boy gets tired of waiting on Hugh to die and decides to help him along the path to death's dark door. He murders Glass's son before his eyes, then corrupts the third member of the team to lie about events. Then they begin to bury Hugh, alive. A more horrible sin, no matter how 'practical' can scarce be imagined.
One reviewer said that from the bear attack onward was two hours of boredom. I'm not sure what movie he was watching but I loved the whole show. Yes, at 2 hours and 36 minutes, it was longish, but I never became bored. The epic journey, first as a crawling pilgrim across the snow, then later as a slightly recovering hard-case, is the stuff of legends. Glass's woodcraft and skills are a delight to watch, though I have no interest in attending the same school. Scooping the innards out of a dead horse so I could strip down and crawl inside might allow me to sleep warm but might result in mild nausea. One does many things to survive, however.
The Indians are tracking the crawling man, also, so he has to float down a cold river to escape. He carries a vial of gunpowder around his neck. In this manner he is able to start campfires quickly. Then, a little luck is even better than skill in the wilds. He meets a Pawnee (same tribe as his wife). This guy has also lost his wife and child and helps the wounded man along. He puts some odd medical treatment on Mr. Glass, including putting him in an improvised smoke house. Ha, ha. You might say he saved Hugh's bacon.
I liked watching Glass's Injun pard build a shelter in moments by bending saplings over and tying them together. Once a buffalo robe was stretched over the top, there was a warm, dry shelter from the heavy snow. The snow camouflaged the hut from the pursuers.
As you might imagine, the movie is much about Hugh's chase of the wicked Fitzgerald. They have an epic hate for each other and a truly epic fight which was hard to watch. It was superb writing, directing and acting. Treat yourself to this rare beast, a great movie that the Academy likes. I highly recommend this one. I'm CE Wills.
P.S. A revenant is a haunt, like a ghost, which returns from the dead to conduct a little business, like revenge.
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