Some personal opinions on "Wild Hunter"

Gerson 2021-10-19 09:53:51

I got to know Alessandro Gonzalez Inarrido from last year's "Birdman", which was strongly ironic but full of artistic bitterness. This scumbag Mexican director used his natural and profound director style, and he did not hesitate to use all means to achieve his talented personality, conquered countless awards, and also conquered countless fans, including me.

The "Wild Hunter" that pays attention to him began after the Oscars ceremony last year. It is said to be Xiao Lizi's Chong Ou's work, as well as Teacher Tang. The weight of such a work is self-evident. Until a few days ago, I saw the leaked version of the video on the Internet, and I can tell everyone that this movie is an absolute masterpiece, and I have personally listed it as the first of the ten best movies next year. The film is still full of long shots used by the director, showing every scene and detail that is shocking, blood and groans, cruelty and death, different from the "depth" of "Birdman", this film reflects more In addition to the "breadth", under the wide-angle lens, the magnificent scenery of the Rocky Mountains is unobstructed, and the fate of a race is unfolding.

As far as I understand it, there are two themes running through all the clues and contradictions in the movie, revenge and survival.

The first theme is revenge.

Beasts kill people not because they want to eat people, let alone because of their cruel nature. No matter where you come from, whether they are strong or weak, as long as their territory is violated, they will tear the invaders to pieces, because this is barbarism. The rules of the world, if you can't protect your own territory, what awaits you is destruction.

In the 19th century, a larger number of white pioneers poured into the Midwest, the settlement of the Sioux. They cut down forests and hunted wild animals, severely disrupting the local ecological balance and threatening the survival of the Sioux people, so they were rebelled, and battles such as the Dakota War, the Red Cloud War, and the Black Mountain War broke out. With their extraordinary archery skills and familiarity with the local terrain, the Sioux people have also won several great victories, and countless whites have their scalps cut off by them. However, due to the backwardness of weapons and equipment and the continuous influx of whites, their homes were destroyed and the spectacular local bison herds disappeared. The last Sioux tribe had to sign a detention place with the whites in Fort Robinson, Nebraska. After the agreement, they had to move around, and the horseback culture of the American Plains and the mysterious western virgin land quickly disappeared in the long river of history. The story of "Wild Hunter" is an episode in this history.

The protagonist Glass and his companions invaded the territory of the Rees and hunted a large number of animals to obtain fur. So we saw at the beginning that their group was attacked by the Li people, more than half of them were killed and injured, and they had to be evacuated by boat. Later, in order not to be overtaken by the Li people, they abandoned the boat and went ashore. Glass accidentally stepped into the territory of a litter of bears when he was traveling alone. The she-bear, who was keen to protect her cubs, attacked him several times. Saved by the companions who came here, it was obvious that the Li people were equated with bears, and Glass was equated with the invading whites.

However, Glass is different from those white people who do not use any means for their own interests. He will not violate the interests of the Li people. He even fell in love with a Pawnee woman and gave birth to a son, but the good times did not last long, during a white invasion. , The tribe was destroyed, his wife was killed, in order to protect his son he killed a white officer. Speaking of which, the young man who fled with Fitzgerald is the same as Grasse. Both represent the white man with a surviving conscience. Although he is very young, he was deceived by Fitzgerald and lured by his coercion. Abandoned Grasse in the snow and ice, but when he and Fitzgerald passed by a ruined Li tribe, they saw a woman who had survived. Instead of killing her, he left her behind. food.

There are people like Glass, of course, there are people like Fitzgerald, and the latter obviously represents those greedy invaders who burn and looting unscrupulously for profit. For the money, he took the initiative to escort the seriously injured Glass, but on the way he tried to hold Glass to death to save trouble. After being discovered by Glass’s son Hawke, he brutally killed him, and finally deceived another companion to kill Glass. Si stayed in the wilderness. Later, the ending of his being seriously injured by Glass and killed by the Sioux interprets the theme of "revenge". Glass avenges his son, while the Li people avenge countless dead companions and destroyed civilization.

At the same time, we can’t ignore Glass’s son Hawke. He is the crystallization of whites and Pawnees, but he was eventually killed by Fitzgerald. I think what the director wants to express here is probably that the whites and the Indians are in harmony. Opportunity to get along, but the greedy invaders ruined it all. They wore the masks of civilization to destroy the primitive barbarism, but when the natural trees fell one after another, the primitive dead bones were covered with fallen flags, and the broken bells swayed in the ruins of civilization, leaving only lonely humans and their passing fantasies.

The second theme is survival.

At the beginning of the movie, we can see a picture of the Glass family of three together, accompanied by a woman's narration:

"As long as you can still grab a breath ,you fight.keep breathing"

throughout the film, every time This narration will sound when Glass is close to death, calling him, please try to live.

After being abandoned by Fitzgerald, the seriously injured Glass crawled out of the grave. Because his throat was cut by a she-bear, he couldn't drink water. In order to bond the wound, he sprayed gunpowder on the wound and set it on fire. In order to survive, they eat live fish and animal meat and internal organs directly. In order to avoid being chased by the Li people find him surviving in the rapids. After falling off the cliff, he emptied the internal organs of the horse that was killed beside him, and then hid naked in his stomach to keep warm. After dying several times like this, he came back alive and finally succeeded in revenge after a battle.

In a sense, this sentence is also addressed to the Li people. I still remember the Pawnee man who had saved Grasse. In order to survive, he had to go further south to find the tribe there, but he was finally hanged on a tree by a passing Frenchman. Isn’t this the case for the Indians? In their short history, they have been migrating for survival and fighting for survival, but they still eat the weak.

The two themes have been explained. Next, let me talk about the three images that appear in the movie.

Birds flying out of the chest. After the Pawnee wife of Grasse was killed, we could see a bird flying out of her chest. Judging from this lens, it seemed that she just wanted to show that she was free, but soon we started from another In the lens, we saw a white sleeping man with the remains of the bird on the ground, and we realized that it was not that simple. That bird actually symbolizes the hope of a new life. The son of Grasse, the daughter of the chief, and the cub of the mother bear were eventually killed and humiliated by the white people. Of course, the white people paid the price of blood.

Flames falling from the sky. Fans who have watched "Birdman" will know that this image is "Icarus". In myths and legends, the person who flies to the sun with waxy wings, and the person who eventually falls, represents the pursuit of the scorching ideal without hesitation. . However, unlike "Birdman", after the flames fell, Glass saw a pack of wolves besieging a lonely buffalo, and then met the Pawnee who saved his life in a flame. The fall here symbolizes the disappearance of Indian civilization and horseback culture.

Symbol on the kettle. After abandoning the ship and ashore, the young man carved a spiral logo on the kettle, and Fitzgerald was angry at the two, representing the origin of the conflict (revenge), and also foreshadowing that Glass will be Fitzgerald abandoned it. After Hawke was killed, the jug was thrown on Glass by the boy. Glass lost the jug and was picked up by someone. He was eventually rescued and given to Fitzgerald. The escape provided information and achieved the "revenge" of Grass and the Li people. In the movie, this kettle plays a foreshadowing role, which is very obvious, representing the origin of revenge and the end of revenge.

(End)

Congratulations to Xiao Lizi for winning the 88th Oscar for Best Actor with this film! Popular hope.

View more about The Revenant reviews

Extended Reading
  • Eloisa 2022-04-24 07:01:02

    (Forgot to comment again) This is a film that made the entire crew suffer. In the ice and snow, the pursuit of natural light and real shooting, but if you just look at the play, this film is not as good as Inarido's previous works.

  • Aidan 2022-03-23 09:01:14

    I was gnawed by a bear, my throat broke a big hole and water leaked out when drinking water, hollowed out the horse's entrails and lived in the horse's belly... It was too cruel, and it made people sweat. Several dreams and empty scenes are beautiful... It is said that in the real event, the protagonist did not go for revenge after surviving with great pains. This choice is actually more dramatic, but if it is made into a movie, it will look fake. So I often feel that fiction is more in line with the logic of narration than the truth.

The Revenant quotes

  • Andrew Henry: What happened?

    John Fitzgerald: We did what we had to do. He was buried right.

  • Hugh Glass: He's afraid. He knows how far I came to find him.