Man in the Wilderness

Forty four years before The Revenant, Richard Harris starred in Man in the Wilderness, a movie also based on the harrowing survival tale of Hugh Glass.  For some reason, the character is named Zach Bass and all the other fur trappers are likewise renamed.  The story opens in 1820 with the view of a keel boat being hauled through a wooded area by a long line of mules.  Captain Henry (John Huston) stands on the ship with his well-worn top hat and gazes about as if he was at sea.  Meanwhile, Bass and Lowrie are hunting.  Lowrie merely wounded a deer while Bass killed one.  While Lowrie took the one back to the camp, Bass went in search of the wounded deer but found a bear instead.  The bear mauls Bass nearly to death before half a dozen trappers arrive and kill it.  After he is stitched up, Captain Henry asks two men to stay behind and bury him when he dies.  If he isn't dead by morning, "Kill him."  Yikes, that's rather unfriendly.  It is unclear why Bass couldn't just be loaded into the boat rather than left behind.  While waiting, Fogerty and Lowrie spot some Arikara warriors and decide to flee, leaving Bass to his fate.

 

There are a lot of flashbacks to 'explain' Zach Bass, from his mother's death, his difficulty at an orphanage, his wife, his wife's grave, and his son.  It is repeatedly shown that Bass has no use for God, notably because of these prior hardships.  Perhaps the oddest scene was when, while hiding in the brush, Bass watched a squaw give birth.  Clearly, the scene is meant to kindle his paternal instincts and give him cause to return home.  It is also strange that many of the trappers believe Bass is alive and tracking them; from their perspective, this is a horror film.  That was a weak part of the film.  In theory, the trappers are constantly moving, trying to get back to civilization with their keel boat and pelts.  Meanwhile, Bass fishes, hunts, skins and tans hides to create some new clothes, builds a spear from bits salvaged from some slaughtered hunters, and hikes through the wilderness on a crutch.  How did he catch them?  Well, back to that horror film notion, no matter how slow he walks or how fast they run, he must catch them.  When Bass began his recovery and trek after those who abandoned him, he was set on revenge.  When he arrived, all the flashbacks and encounters along the way had mellowed him to where he just walked away after collecting his rifle.  He had found God and forgiveness.

 

The inclusion of a son in both versions of the tale was interesting.  Zach Bass had a toddler son waiting for him back home, a reason to survive and raise him.  Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) had a son who was murdered, providing a reason to survive and avenge him.  Also interesting is that both Harris and DiCaprio were 41 when they played the character, which is about how old the real Hugh Glass was when he met the bear.

 

Man in the Wilderness has a gauzy feel to it.  When Harris is on screen, there is a melancholy score that is nonetheless optimistic.  Sad but upbeat?  Then, switching back to the keel boat, there is a thundering ride to adventure score.  It was awkward and distracting.  Like The Revenant, the movie is only partly accurate to history.  However, since all the names have been changed, that's fine by me; it is a fictional tale based on a true story whereas The Revenant is a true story with fictional rewrites.  However, I like that Harris didn't seek revenge in the end.  Of course, he didn't have a murdered son to avenge but that was an ahistorical rewrite by the filmmakers.  In this aspect, Man in the Wilderness was truer to the real Hugh Glass.  Even so, The Revenant is the better movie.