RAVENOUS
US/UK, 1999, 100 minutes, Colour.
Robert Carlyle, Guy Pearce, David Arquette, Jeremy Davies, Jeffrey Jones, John Spenser.
Directed by Antonia Bird.
Ravenous is a puzzling film. It is described in the television guides as period black comedy horror. This is a good summing-up of the various ingredients to be found.
Inspired by the disaster in the Donner Pass in 1846-7, the film focuses on a group lost in the High Sierras and their having to eat one another for survival. The film recreates its period setting well, but moves into the horror genre as the realities of the effect of cannibalism are manifest in the central character, played by Robert Carlyle. Various members of an isolated fort are killed off while the call goes out for the authorities to come and rectify the situation. In the meantime, the presentation of the people in the camp as well as the issues of human food are presented with wry and black irony. It is a strange mixture - especially when the screenplay invokes aspects of Indian mythology and the eating of a foe and absorbing his strength along with the overtones of the Christian Eucharist.
Robert Carlyle is sinister in the central role, Guy Pearce straightforward. The film was directed by Antonia Bird who made such films as Mad Love, Priest, Face (the latter two with Robert Carlyle).
1. The impact of the film, audience appreciation - or horror? The blend of the serious and the comic?
2. The High Sierras, the background of the Mexican wars and the glimpse of the battle? The seasons changing in the mountains? The military camp, the caves and the cliffs, the rivers? The musical score?
3. The title and the myths of eating flesh and gaining power, the native American myths, the gospels? The serious interpretation of this kind of cannibalism and its effect? Human hunger and the experience of hunger - and eating for nourishment, healing and strength? The overtones of the zombie stories?
4. The prologue and the Mexican war, the issues of the war, bravery and cowardice, the battle? The pile of the dead and Boyd hiding under the bodies? His being decorated by the American government? Sent on a special mission?
5. Colonel Hart and his welcome to Boyd, the introductions to the various people at the camp, the different characters and their roles in the camp? The style of the camp, camaraderie, music, food, the place of the Indians and the Mexicans?
6. Finding Colquoun, his madness, his unkempt appearance, his strange story of survival in the mountains, the cannibalism? The issue of whether he could be trusted or not? The credibility of the story of the expedition, its detail, the cannibalism?
7. The decision to go to find the expedition, the men chosen to go? The trek through the mountains, the hardships of the journey, finding the cave, finding the bodies and the condition which they were in, the realisation that Boyd had killed the people and eaten them? His denial? His fighting the men, his killing Hart? The pursuit of the other men, going over the cliff, Boyd and his escape?
8. The confrontations, the fights, Private Toffler and his role in the camp, on the expedition, his disbelief, his death? The blond soldier and his being chased? Boyd and his going over the cliff? The blond soldier falling on him? The horror touches and the survival? Boyd's return, his story, disbelief?
9. The commander and the taking over of the camp, the ordinary running, the authorities and their disbelief?
10. Colqhoun arriving but being called Officer Ives? The effect on Boyd, his going mad? Trying to tell people the true story, the fears? The charm of Ives, his seeming in control? The different deaths in the camp? The final cooking, the officer in charge? The Indians going to the fort?
11. Cleaves, his behaviour, his death? The cook? Hart and his reappearance? The reality of the effect of the cannibalism, the healing and quick restoration to health?
12. The commanding officer arriving, his wanting the food, the cooking of the bodies? The black comedy about the food cooking? Boyd and his desperation, his being locked away, trying to give a warning? Hart, Hart's final decision and supporting Boyd?
13. Ives, his restoration to health, his being in charge, his taunting of Boyd, his killing of the other men? The fight with Boyd, the threat of their mutual killing or not? Boyd and his being persuaded to eat?
14. The sketch of the supporting characters, Toffler and his being young, music? Cleaves and his irony, comedy, work around the fort? Hart, in command, a good man, being turned into the zombie? The blond soldier and his death? The Indians?
15. The future for all concerned - and the growth of cannibalism? The point of this kind of experience - and the symbolism of authorities devouring others, getting fat and healthy at the expense of their victims?
