The Revenant Part 1

The revenant, according to dictionary.com, means a person who returns, or a person who returns after death. “The Revenant” is currently in theatres now. It stars Leonardo Dicaprio and Tom Hardy, and it tells the story of Hugh Glass, his mutilation from a bear, and his fight for survival.

Hugh Glass was a real frontiersman. Around 1828 he was with a team, when he stumbled upon a grizzly bear and its two cubs. The grizzly bear brutally attacked and mauled Glass, but Glass was able to kill the bear. However, Glass suffered from severe wounds all over his body, exposed ribs, and many broken bones. The leader of the team that he was with tried to help him, but it was no use; Glass was about to die, as his condition was horrible. The leader left two other men, Fitzgerald and Bridger, to stay with Glass. They were instructed to help him, but to give him a proper burial when he died. Fitzgerald and Glass took Glass’ weapons and left him for dead, claiming that there were Indians nearby about to attack. Glass, however, regained consciousness and fought his way back home. There were no Indians nearby, but he had to fix his broken leg and he had to survive the conditions in the horrible condition that he was in. He ended up crafting a raft, and then floating down a river for about six weeks to tackle the two hundred miles between him and the nearest American base. A Native American helped him along the way, sewing his bear pelt to his back to protect his open flesh in his back, as well as providing Glass with some weapons and supplies. When Glass made it to the base, he found and forgave Bridger due to his youth and that he was lied to and manipulated by Fitzgerald into leaving him. However, Glass searched for Fitzgerald because he had left him for dead. He later found Fitzgerald, but Fitzgerald was enlisted in the U.S. Army, and there was a steep penalty for killing a soldier, so Glass let Fitzgerald go.

The movie “The Revenant” depicts those events, but in a different light. The movie is a very well made movie; however, it is not for the faint of heart. Just a warning, there will be spoilers in this blog post about the movie “The Revenant”, and the movie is also a very intense, brutal, graphic and gory movie, but in my opinion it is a great movie to watch.

The movie starts with the thirty or forty or so team of American frontiersman, which included Glass (depicted by Leonardo Dicaprio), Glass’ son, the leader, Bridger, and Fitzgerald (depicted by Tom Hardy). Indians attack them, as they are looking for the chief’s stolen daughter, Powaqa. Only about ten of the American team survive and they escape by climbing onto their boat to escape via the river. They abandon the boat as that is where the Indians would look for them and they would be as good as dead. They camp out for a while, and it becomes apparent that Fitzgerald is a jerk and really dislikes Glass. One morning, Glass goes for a walk with his gun, hunting for anything to provide food it seems. He hears something, only to discover two cubs. He turns around just as the mother bear, a giant grizzly bear, charges him and starts to maul him. After the grizzly starts to walk away, Glass gets a shot off at it; then Glass and the bear have a long fight, in which Glass’ back is all torn up, his leg gets broken, his neck gets cut, and he gets beat to hell over and over. However, he gets his knife out and manages to kill the grizzly just as the two roll down a hill, in which the grizzly lands on top of Glass. Later, the team arrive and see Glass’ condition. They help him and stich up his neck, as well as try patching him up. However, they cannot carry him back to the base due to the terrain, so his son, Bridger, and Fitzgerald stay with him to find an alternate route and to bury him should he die. However, Fitzgerald, when alone with Glass, attempts to kill Glass to make it easier on himself; Glass’ son sees this, so Fitzgerald kills Glass’ son in front of Glass. Later, he tells Bridger there are Indians nearby and forces Bridger to leave Glass.

The movie, “The Revenant”, continues from there, but this will be continued in another blog post.

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