Movie Review...The Revenant

[Coulter]

Excellent movie! The videography was outstanding and acting was top notch. It made you feel like you were sitting around the campfire right along with the rest of the mountain men.

My biggest complaint...Colter does not die in the way suggested at the beginning of the movie. That kind of ticked me off right from the get go since that is where my screen name comes from. I was reading about John Colter and various other mountain men when I signed up with FnF so many years ago. Anyway, Colter actually goes on to live many more years after escaping the Blackfoot Indians. He actually ended up  getting married and moving to Missouri. Nobody knows for sure how he died, but jaundice is one of most common beliefs.

Other than that...it was a really good movie. I'm sure there were some other parts of the movie that weren't quite fact. But it is just a movie, not a documentary.

Steve

[FOsteology]

Kids and I are headed out the door in a little over an hour to watch it.

[KySongDog]

Awesome movie!  The bear scene was chilling.  But the part I found hard to keep from laughing was the water scene.  He spends WAY too long in 32 degree water to survive, pull himself out totally wet and then build a big fire to dry out.  A little far fetched me thinks.  But overall a great movie. See it on the big screen if you can. 

[Jeb]

Kids and I are headed out the door in a little over an hour to watch it.

Great movie ! Why head out the door, watch it here. www.rainierland.com

[Hawks Feather]

Coulter,

I just received an email from Yellowstone National Park and it seems that the man in the movie was not based on John Coulter, but Hugh Glass.  Both are pretty interesting to read about.

Jerry


Hugh Glass, the Real Man of “The Revenant” Movie

While the grizzly bear has become an iconic symbol of Yellowstone and Glacier national parks, few realize its historic habitat extended from the Dakotas west to California. It may then surprise moviegoers that fur trapper Hugh Glass, played by Leonard DiCaprio in The Revenant, gets brutally mauled by a grizzly bear in South Dakota in 1823.

The epic tale, filmed in British Columbia, Libby, Montana, and Argentina, follows the rugged trapper after his hunting party leaves him behind to die. Crawling miles to civilization, he endures relentless hardship with the aim of exacting vengeance on those who abandoned him.

Behind the scenes, DiCaprio has told media outlets the remote locations and frigid temperatures ⎯ the movie was film only in natural light during winter ⎯ was one of the most difficult films he has done. Those same factors led some crewmembers to walk off the set. Which begs the questions: have we modern-day Americans lost our ability to rough it in the wild? And who was the real Hugh Glass?

The answer to the first question is arguably yes. And the second? Because no direct eyewitness accounts of the bear attack exist, much of Glass’s story â€" like frontiersman before and after him â€" is legend. His story, embellished with tales of pirate and Indian kidnappings, has inspired countless campfire stories, newspaper articles, books and two films in the 183 years since his death.

What most sources agree upon is that Glass was about 40 when he joined the Ashley-Henry fur trapping expedition in the spring of 1823. Five months later, he was attacked by a grizzly bear near the forks of the Grand River in northwestern South Dakota, according to an account in American Cowboy. While Glass tried to fight off the bear, expedition members came to his rescue and killed the bear, but not before the bear left him gravely injured.

Thinking Glass’ death was imminent, two expedition members, Jim Bridger and John Fitzgerald, apparently stayed with Glass to give him a Christian burial, according to HistoryvsHollywood.com. Some accounts say the two were fearful of getting too far behind while others say they feared encroaching Indians. Whatever the reason, the two men took the dying man’s weapons and left him.

But Glass miraculously survived. Stories vary on how far Glass traveled to get to civilization, ranging from 100 to more than 200 miles. But when he reached Fort Henry, he found Bridger but spared his life, according American Cowboy.

Glass worked as a hunter after his death-defying journey. He died in 1833 after Aricara Indians attacked him and his two companions at the mouth of the Yellowstone River. While the river begins near Yellowstone National Park, Glass died hundreds of miles downstream where it empties into the Missouri River.

More here on Glass:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Glass

Coulter:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Colter

[Coulter]

Coulter,

I just received an email from Yellowstone National Park and it seems that the man in the movie was not based on John Coulter, but Hugh Glass.  Both are pretty interesting to read about.

Yep, I realize the movie was made about Hugh Glass. What I was complaining about was the fact that they kill off John Colter in the first ten minutes of the movie. Everybody is asking "Where's Colter?" then he comes hobbling into the camp butt naked (which is also not completely accurate, he actually made it to a fort butt naked upon escaping the Blackfoot pursuers). When he arrives at camp he falls to his knees and is immediately stuck in the back with an arrow...then all hell breaks loose and that's the last of Colter.

The men in camp had no reason to be asking where Colter was to begin with. It's not like he went AWOL or something from the Corp of Discovery or the Glass Camp.

Anyway, I was just miffed by the almost immediate inaccuracy with the movie is all. And yes, there seems to have been plenty more throughout the movie. That one struck me right off since I have read more about Colter than any of the other mountain men of the era (hence my screen name, I just inserted a "U" in there on a whim. That's not my last name or anything). But again, it was a movie, not a documentary. Watch it with that in mind and accept it for what its worth if you want. It is from Hollywood after all. There were plenty of inaccurate depictions in both Jeremiah Johnson and The Mountain Men as well. Yet I still consider them classics and must watches each and every year prior to trapping season.

[Hawks Feather]

Sorry about that.  I misread and thought that you thought the movie was about Colter.  I haven't had time to see it yet, but hope to in the near future.

Jerry

[Coulter]

No problem Jerry...It's a good movie either way. Just more fictitious than what they lead you to believe. Enjoy!

[slagmaker]

Well when it says based on true events ya know they have taken writers privileges and embellished the story.

[Hawks Feather]

Well when it says based on true events ya know they have taken writers privileges and embellished the story.

Thread Hack!  That is what obama and hillary do all the time. 

Jerry

[Frogman]

I enjoyed the movie too.  But it was no "Jeremiah Johnson"??

Jim

[nastygunz]

 I just watched Jeremiah Johnson last night 

[Dale]

I watched it on the Rainierland.com... it was a good movie but it didn't strike me as blockbuster material... and it was watched on a Samsung 55" ultra HD set, so no movie screen, but still large and clear enough that I didn't miss anything of importance... I will watch it again though...   

[bambam]

Awesome movie. Not exactly historically accurate as Coulter said, but still good. I have lots of books in my collection on mountain men and fur trappers. A different breed to be sure, tough as hell, but if the books are true, weren't many tougher than Glass.