Themes: Home From the War, Cannibals, Haunted By the Past
Main Cast: Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle, Jeremy Davies, Jeffrey Jones, John Spencer
Release Year: 1999
Country: US
Run Time: 100 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
In 1847, many Americans made the journey across our continent in search of gold. Many failed to complete the journey or see their dreams come to light. Capt. John Boyd (Guy Pearce) found his way here thanks to an act of cowardice during the Mexican-American War; he has been banished to a desolate military outpost in California's Sierra Nevada mountains. Upon his arrival, he is greeted by a rag-tag group of soldiers manning the fort: Hart (Jeffrey Jones), the despondent commanding officer; Toffler (Jeremy Davies), the company chaplain; Knox (Stephen Spinella), the drunken doctor; Reich (Neal McDonough), the only real soldier of the group; and Cleaves (David Arquette), the heavily medicated camp cook. One day, Colqhoun (Robert Carlyle) stumbles into their camp. The half-starved Scotsman had been traveling with a group of settlers until they were snowbound. Unable to move forward, they took refuge in a cave, where once they ran out of food, they were forced to resort to cannibalism. Colqhoun barely escaped the madness -- or did he? Boyd and the soldiers hear of the old Indian legend of the Wendigo, which states a man who tastes the flesh of another steals that man's strength, spirit and essence. His hunger, however, will become an unstoppable craving. Like a vampire, the more he eats, the more he wants, and the stronger he will become, with death the only escape from the madness. The soldiers are soon drawn into the frenzy and Boyd is soon left with the choice of eating or being eaten. ~ Ron Wells, All Movie Guide
Review
Surviving as a cult film after being written off by most audiences, the bizarre plot of Ravenous is a twist for British director Antonia Bird, whose filmography focuses primarily on realism. Yet straight from the trailer's satirical tag line "you are who you eat," this dark comedy is steeped in irreverence. But can cannibalism really be made funny? Bird tries with lines like, "It's lonely being a cannibal; it's tough making friends," but for the most part it's what one might guess, given the topic: strange, graphic and disturbing, full of roasted carcasses and fleshy stew. The cast is a kick to watch: Guy Pearce's morally righteous Captain Boyd is fascinating given his desperate dilemma and Robert Carlyle's Colqhoun eerily transforms himself from a convincing, spooked victim to a menacing and unrelenting predator. The performances, plus a vampirish vibe due to its isolated setting, totemic symbolism, and ghoulish-giggle background sounds, add up to an interesting near-miss of a film that too uncomfortably blends farce, satire, and horror. Ravenous is close to being a genuine cult find but may ultimately leave all but potential serial killers hungry for the gem of a movie it might have been. ~ Lisa Kropiewnicki, All Movie Guide
Michael Nyman - Conductor, Sheena Napier - Costume Designer, Jiri Ostry - First Assistant Director, Antonia Bird - Director, Neil Farrell - Editor, Tim Van Rellim - Executive Producer, Michael Nyman - Composer (Music Score), Damon Albarn - Composer (Music Score), Bryce Perrin - Production Designer, Anthony Richmond - Cinematographer, Adam Fields - Producer, David Heyman - Producer, Mark Holding - Sound/Sound Designer, Ted Griffin - Screenwriter, Arthur Wooster - Second Unit Director Of Photography, Ervin Sanders - Second Unit Director Of Photography
Representative Albums: "Phoenix," "No Retreat and No Surrender," "Mass Mental Cruelty"
Biography
The politically inclined industrial outfit Ravenous has been delivering its brash take on present society since their inception in 1996. That same year, they released their debut Mass Mental Cruelty on the German label Off Beat and the Lemmings EP followed a year later. It was also during this time that Ravenous parted ways with the fledgling Off Beat and signed with the U.S. label Jarret Records in 1998, the label which released the band's sophomore effort No Retreat and No Surrender on Zoth Ommog. Metropolis Records distributed Ravenous' "Silverray" single in mid-2000. ~ MacKenzie Wilson, All Music Guide
In an opening prologue during the Mexican-American War (1846 – 1848), a United States Army officer, Lieutenant Boyd, freezes in battle while his unit is massacred. Playing dead, he manages to infiltrate the Mexican headquarters and, after a moment of bravery, captures them. He is promoted to Captain for his heroism, but his Commanding Officer realizes he is a coward and transfers him to the remote Fort Spencer in the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
After Boyd joins the seven other inhabitants of Fort Spencer, a stranger named Colqhoun arrives and describes his wagon train becoming lost in the Sierra Nevadas and being reduced to cannibalism to avoid starvation. The party's guide, a Colonel Ives, had promised the party a shorter route to the Pacific Ocean but instead led them on a more circuitous route, and was then the one to lead their turn to cannibalism. The soldiers stationed at the fort see it as their duty to investigate and search for survivors, so assemble a rescue party. Before they leave they are warned by their Native Americanscout, George, of the Wendigomyth; a story that a man consuming the flesh of his enemies takes their strength but becomes a demon cursed by a hunger for human flesh.
When they reach the cave where the party had taken refuge they realise that Colqhoun is Ives and has lured them into a trap. He had killed his five companions and sets about killing the soldiers from Fort Spencer one by one, including the commanding officer, Colonel Hart.
Boyd manages to escape the massacre by jumping off a cliff, breaking his leg in the process. He hides in a pit along with the body of a fellow soldier and eventually he eats some of the man's flesh to stay alive. When he finally limps back into the fort he is delirious and severely traumatized; none of the remaining soldiers (who did not meet Colqhoun) believe his wild tale, and a second expedition finds no bodies or any trace of the man. A temporary commander is assigned to the fort and to Boyd's horror it turns out to be Colqhoun, now cleaned up and calling himself Colonel Ives. The others still refuse to believe that Ives is the killer, especially after he bears no sign of the wounds inflicted on him during the massacre. Boyd is suspected of murder after another soldier mysteriously dies and is chained up; he watches helplessly while the last officer is murdered by an unexpected ally of Ives: Colonel Hart, back from the dead after the massacre.
Ives tells Boyd that he used to suffer from Tuberculosis, but when a Native scout told him the Wendigo myth he "just had to try", murdering him, eating his flesh and in the process curing his maladies. Having murdered the expedition he led he now plans to use the fort as a base to do the same to other passing travelers; he compares the location of the fort, with the guaranteed supply of isolated migrants that it entails, with the notion of Manifest Destiny that draws them there.
He saved Hart by feeding him his own comrades (an act that seems to heal all wounds), and now the man is addicted like he is to human meat. Ives wounds Boyd and forces him to make a choice: eat or die. Eventually Boyd gives in and eats a prepared stew made out of the last officer killed, and his wound heals. But rather than join the two men in their conspiracy to convert another superior officer, he convinces Hart to free him so he can kill Ives. Hart does so, but asks Boyd to kill him first as he no longer wants to live as a cannibal. A battle between Boyd and Ives takes place at the climax, with both men wounding each other badly, yet they won't die easily due to their new powers. Finally, Boyd forces Ives onto a large bear trap and springs it, pinning them both together. Ives taunts Boyd by telling him he'll eat him as soon as he dies, but Ives expires first. Boyd refuses to save himself by eating Ives' body and dies on top of his adversary, no longer a coward.
Unfortunately, an arriving officer searching the fort site stumbles on the remains of the human stew Hart and Ives had cooked and, finding the smell appealing, has a taste.
Ravenous opened on March 19, 1999 in the United States in 1,040 theaters, accumulating $1,040,727 over its opening weekend. It finished eighteenth for the weekend. The film went on to gross $2,062,405 domestically, far less than its reported $12 million budget.[1] The British sound-editing crew, working at the Fox studios in Los Angeles, were amongst the first to see the poster for the film, and were so disappointed by it that many of them felt that the film was doomed from that point on.
Critical response
Ravenous received mixed reviews from professional critics, somewhat tending toward the negative. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received 41% overall approval out of 34 reviews, and a 40% from the "Cream of the Crop".[2]Roger Ebert, gave Ravenous a better review, rating it 3 stars out of 4 and stating that it was "the kind of movie where you savor the texture of the filmmaking, even when the story strays into shapeless gore".[3]
