Friedrich Nietzsche~
"Eat Me."
Anonymous~
RAVENOUS is film about what can happen in the woods when you are trapped with nowhere to go and nothing to eat. What would you do to survive? 1848 during the Mexican-American War Lieutenant John Boyd froze on the battlefield. While the rest of his unit fought and died he played dead, paralyzed with fear. All of his men were slaughtered. Boyd was buried alive under the corpses of his men, his commanding officer's half shot off head in his face, his blood running down Boyd's throat. Then something changed. Boyd felt a surge of energy. He crawled out from under the dead bodies and single-handedly took the enemy command post.
Boyd is promoted to captain but punished for his cowardice and sent to a remote outpost in the Sierra Nevada mountains, Fort Spencer, an outpost for misfits and misanthropes the military wants to forget about. While there a man wanders down from the mountains half starved and half dead. They clean him up and bandage his wounds. Once awake he tells Boyd and the rest of the soldiers at Fort Spencer a dark tale of a wagon train that got lost in the mountains. Six people trapped in the mountains inside a cave. No food. No supplies. Trapped for three months. The first one to die of starvation was eaten. After that everything changed. Their hunger became insatiable, wanton. The leader of their party, Colonel Ives, killed another. Then another. Eating uncontrollably. The stranger fled leaving Ives alone with the last survivor.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Boyd and the soldiers, bound by honor and duty, head out into the mountains to find the rest of the wagon train survivors. The stranger, Colqhoun, insists on helping them. They find the cave. They find five corpses inside. Suddenly it dawns on them that they walked into a trap. Colqhoun killed everyone. With half the soldiers in the cave Colqhoun takes them by surprise killing them all except Boyd. Boyd escapes into the woods, wounded, and starving. Several days pass but Boyd manages to find his way back to Fort Spencer. He tells the tale but people suspect he's responsible for the deaths. A new colonel arrives to take command of Fort Spencer, a man named Colonel Ives.
Colqhoun returns in the uniform of Colonel Ives. When Boyd tries to tell everyone that Ives is the killer they doubt him further, thinking him mad. One by one the others die around him. Soon all thats left is Boyd and Ives. Boyd finds his courage once again and the bloody showdown between him and Ives begins!
Manifest Destiny, the westward expansion and exploration of the great unknown. Cannibalism and Native American myths. All these coalesce into a frightening and exciting film unlike any other. When I first saw this film, after finishing it, I rewound the rented VHS tape and watched it again. I can't remember the last time I was so captivated by a film that I watched it twice back to back. I hooked up two VCRs together and made a copy for myself (yes, I liked the movie that much). Acting, cinematography, plot, scoring, and directing, all of it is damn near perfect.
The music of the film is engrossing and unique, unlike anything I'd ever heard before. Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn composed the music using only instruments from that time period crafting a primitive frontier score that pulls you into the film even further. I bought the soundtrack. I listened to it at home. I even convinced one of my high school teachers to let the class listen to it in school. I couldn't get enough of it. And I can confidently state that it is on my top 5 favorite film scores.
It is a mission of mine to introduce this film to as many people as possible. Some listened sooner than others. Others it would be years after they heard me rave about it before they finally watched it. I've had friends come up to me more than 10 years later and tell me they finally saw Ravenous and how amazing a film it is. One of my college professors even started showing the film in class as part of a study of American Gothic.
I consider this film a part of the Guy Pearce trilogy of goodness along with L.A. Confidential and Memento. This is some of the best acting he's ever done. This film made me a lifelong fan of his and of Robert Carlyle. Jeffrey Jones and Jeremy Davies too provide great performances and amazing characters. The next best actor in the bunch is Neal McDonough as Private Reich. This was my introduction to actor Neal McDonough and because of this film he is another favorite of mine. All the characters in this film are unique and likable and fleshed out. A credit to the writing, directing, and acting.
I can't rave enough about this film. It is an uniquely visceral experience. A taught thriller that captivates from beginning to end. The moment you hear the first sounds of the score and see the subtly disturbing first scene you'll find your interest piqued. And film doesn't let go, not even after it's finished. I've seen it probably one hundred times and I still find myself wanting to watch it again. I've never seen another film like it. You ask for a hidden gem in the world of cinema, I give you RAVENOUS.
Overall Ranking: 9 out of 10
Nude-O-Meter: 0 out of 10 (man ass does not count as nudity!)
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