Ravenous (1999 Film)

''Ravenous'' is a 1999 horror film starring Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle, Jeffrey Jones and David Arquette. The film, which is set in 1840s California, was directed by Antonia Bird and filmed in Europe. It was not a box office success and failed to recoup much of its $12 million budget. However, despite initial reception being mixed when released, it has since garnered a reputation as a cult film. The film is an international co-production between United Kingdom, United States and Mexico.

''Ravenous'' had a troubled production history. Issues over budget and shooting schedules were still ongoing when filming was about to start in Slovakia. After the original director Milcho Manchevski was fired three weeks into production, he was replaced by Bird at the suggestion of actor Robert Carlyle. Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn composed the film's score, which generated a significant amount of interest for its quirky and inventive use of loops, instruments and musical structure.

Screenwriter Ted Griffin wrote a script that combined elements from the Donner Party and that of Alfred Packer, the real-life "Colorado Cannibal" who survived by eating five companions after becoming snowbound in the San Juan Mountains in the 1870s. However, the film's plot also serves as an overt criticism of manifest destiny through its use of cannibalism. By turning the act into an insatiable hunger, the voracious need to eat human flesh is equated to the all-consuming pursuit of power and wealth that was inherent to the expansionist attitudes of those seeking to settle the American frontier in the 19th century. The film would be the last theatrical release to feature John Spencer.

Plot

During the Mexican–American War (1846–1848), Second Lieutenant Boyd, who is fighting in the United States Army, finds his courage fail him in battle so he plays dead as his unit is massacred. His body, along with the other dead are put in a cart and hauled back to the Mexican headquarters. En route, blood drips into Boyd's mouth. In a moment of bravery, Boyd seizes the chance to capture the HQ. His heroism earns him a Captain's promotion. After learning of the cowardice through which victory was achieved, General Slauson posts Boyd into exile at Fort Spencer, a remote military outpost high in the Sierra Nevadas.

Shortly after Boyd joins the seven-man garrison at Fort Spencer, a stranger named Colqhoun arrives and describes how his wagon train became lost in the mountains. Colonel Ives had promised the party a shorter route to the Pacific Ocean but instead had led them on a more circuitous route resulting in the party getting trapped by snow. People were reduced to cannibalism to avoid starvation. A rescue party is assembled to search for survivors. Before leaving, they are warned by their Native American scout, George, of the Wendigo myth: anyone who consumes the flesh of their enemies takes their strength but becomes a demon cursed by an insatiable hunger for more human flesh.

After reaching the cave in which the party had taken refuge, the soldiers realize that Colqhoun and Ives are one and the same. He had killed and eaten his five companions and was now set on trapping and killing the soldiers as well. Colqhoun kills and eats them one by one, including Colonel Hart, the fort's commanding officer.

Boyd escapes Colqhoun by jumping off a cliff but breaks his leg in the process. He hides in a pit next to the body of a fellow soldier. Eventually he eats some of the man's flesh to stay alive. Delirious and traumatized, he eventually manages to limp back into the fort, ; none of the remaining soldiers (who did not meet Colqhoun) believe his wild tale. A second expedition finds no bodies or any trace of Colqhoun. A temporary commander is assigned to the fort and turns out to be Colqhoun, now cleaned up and calling himself Ives. Boyd's fellow soldiers refuse to believe that Ives is the killer, especially after he bears no sign of the wounds inflicted on him during the fight at the cave.

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" by murdering him, eating his flesh and in the process curing his illness. He now plans to use the fort as a base to do the same to other passing travellers.

Boyd is suspected of murder after Private Cleaves mysteriously dies chained up; he watches helplessly as Major Knox is murdered by an unexpected ally of Ives: Hart, back from the dead after the massacre.

Ives saved Hart by feeding him his own comrades, and now Hart is addicted, like Colqhoun, to human flesh. Ives wounds Boyd and forces him to make a choice: eat or die. Eventually Boyd gives in and eats a stew made out of the last officer killed and his wound heals. But rather than join the two men in their conspiracy to convert Slauson who is due to arrive at the fort shortly, Boyd convinces Hart to free him so he can kill Ives. Hart complies but asks that he be killed because he no longer wants to live as a cannibal.

Boyd and Ives wound each other but do not die easily due to their recuperative powers. Finally in an outhouse, Boyd forces Ives into a bear trap and springs it, pinning them both together. Ives expires first. Boyd refuses to save himself by eating Ives' body and dies on top of his adversary.

Martha, George's sister, finds the bodies of both Ives and Boyd, closes the door, and walks away. Slauson eventually arrives. While his aide looks around the dilapidated fort, Slauson tastes the stew that was left simmering on the fire.

Cast

* Guy Pearce as Captain John Boyd
* Robert Carlyle as F.W. Colqhoun / Colonel Ives
* David Arquette as Private Cleaves
* Jeremy Davies as Private Toffler
* Jeffrey Jones as Colonel Hart
* John Spencer as General Slauson
* Stephen Spinella as Major Knox
* Neal McDonough as Private Reich
* Joseph Runningfox (credited as Joseph Running Fox) as George
* Sheila Tousey as Martha
* Bill Brochtrup as Lindus
* Fernando Becerril as Mexican Commander
* Gabriel Berthier as Mexican Commander
* Pedro Altamirano as Mexican Commander
* Damián Delgado as Mexican Grenadier
* Tim Van Rellim as Mr. MacCready
* Miezi Sungu as Jones
* David Heyman as Mr. Janus

Production

Development

The script for ''Ravenous'' was one of three screenplays written by Ted Griffin that he sold to a studio in a week. The script was loosely inspired by the Donner Party, as well as the story of Alfred Packer, an American prospector and former Union Army soldier who murdered a group of traveling companions, ate them and claimed to law enforcement that he did so out of self-defense and survival. In September 1997, Macedonian director Milcho Manchevski was announced to direct the film for Fox 2000.

Filming

The film was shot on location in the Tatra Mountains, Slovakia and Durango, Mexico. One week before production, Manchevski reportedly submitted new storyboards, which would have required an additional two weeks of shooting. Fox 2000 eventually agreed to an additional week, with complaints that Manchevski had refused to attend production meetings with the producers. Manchevski claimed Fox 2000 executive Laura Ziskin micromanaged the production by vetoing his chosen technicians and casting against his wishes.

Shooting was delayed on the first day, as Manchevski and the production were still negotiating over the production budget and shooting schedule. As filming commenced, Manchevski says Ziskin sent him notes on the rushes "every day", complaining about the amount of dirt on the costumes and the number of closeups. Screenwriter Ted Griffin was on hand for "constant rewrites" during the shooting.

Three weeks into filming, Ziskin arrived to the set to dismiss Manchevski, and have him replaced with director Raja Gosnell. Though Manchevski left the production, the cast was said to have been unhappy with Gosnell, and were rumored to have held a mutiny on the set. Robert Carlyle then recommended Antonia Bird, his frequent collaborator and business partner, to take over. Bird had a previous business relationship with Ziskin, and admired the script.

Following ten days of negotiations, Bird arrived in Prague to take over the production. She, too, would criticize the circumstances under which the filming was to take place, describing the allocated studio space as "horrible" and the scheduling of the shoot "manipulative". She also went on to say that her predecessor, Manchevski, should not be blamed for the problematic production.

Post-production

Bird suggested the final theatrical cut had elements introduced without her approval, such as the voiceover narration and explanatory quotes. Bird felt these elements were superfluous, and expressed a desire in recutting the film for the European market.

Themes

The film uses its period setting and the act of cannibalism to critique manifest destiny, colonialism and capitalism. Said Bird: "As a European, observing early Californian history and making a film about that — I kind of believe Europeans were responsible for a lot of stuff that happened here. Robert Carlyle's character represents that. The Europeans practiced genocide. I think the good things about America — we're (Europeans) not responsible for."

Though Bird said the film is "more about social misfits than the whole seductive nature of power", she stated, "I would like to think that someone who enjoyed it (''Ravenous'') only as gallows humor would start to think. The metaphor of power and a society where we're encouraged to be competitive is, to me, not a great society." Thus, cannibalism can be seen as a critique of "contemporary America where the way of life seems to be more and more a matter of consume or be consumed". In addition, she said that the cannibalism can be interpreted as an addiction to drugs or a yearning for eternal youth, which manifests in modern-day Western society as the consumption of junk food or the obsession with plastic surgery. "Robert Carlyle's character is the ultimate drug pusher and Guy Pearce's character is the ultimate junkie," said Bird.

Soundtrack

The score was composed by Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn of the band Blur. Instruments used for the score were from the film's historical period and included the violin, guitar, banjo, jaw harp and squeeze box. Nyman and Albarn reworked versions of American patriotic songs and old Methodist hymns (including those of Stephen Foster, known as the "father of American music") to be intentionally out of tune and off-kilter.

Reception

Box office

''Ravenous'' opened on March 19, 1999, in the United States in 1,040 cinemas, accumulating $1,040,727 over its opening weekend. It finished eighteenth for the weekend. The film went on to gross $2,062,405 in North America, far less than its reported $12 million budget.

Critical reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 52% rating based on 66 reviews and an average rating of 6/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "''Ravenous'' tries bringing cannibal horror into an Old West setting, ending up with an uneven blend that will fail to satisfy most fans of either genre".

Roger Ebert rated the film three out of four stars, and stated that it was "the kind of movie where you savor the texture of the filmmaking, even when the story strays into shapeless gore." He noted the film is "more interested in atmosphere than plot", but conceded Bird "shows she's a real filmmaker...and has an instinct for scenes like the one where a visiting general savors the broth of a bubbling stew". Ebert concluded that ''Ravenous'' "is clever in the way it avoids most of the cliches of the vampire movie by using cannibalism, and most of the cliches of the cannibal movie by using vampirism. It serves both dishes with new sauces." Janet Maslin of ''The New York Times'' reviewed the film negatively, and said: "a potentially strong cast makes its way in deadly earnest through material that's often better suited to a Monty Python skit".

Audiences, particularly in the US, were said to be confused about the tone of the film, which combines various genres such as horror, black comedy, satire and film noir. Said Carlyle: "Because the subject matter is so gruesome and the visuals are so distasteful, there are going to be people who are not going to be too happy to watch this one. They've said all along that it's going to be a hard sell. It's a period piece. I think that's why there's humor in the film. I like the fact that it's unusual and that it is hard to place. I think that's a good thing — probably not for the people who are trying to make their money back."

The film has garnered cult status since its release. In a retrospective review in ''Rolling Stone'', David Ehrlich wrote, "''Ravenous'' butchers the fantasy that the United States is a banquet with room for everyone at the table. This is a landscape where 'manifest destiny' becomes a handy euphemism for all sorts of horrors, and a reminder that progress was never possible without savagery; the frontier was the ''Hunger Games'', and it always has been. That may not be breaking news, but the film isn't interested in telling you something that you don't know, only showing it to you in a way so giddy and gruesome that you'll never be able to forget it."

See also

* '' Bone Tomahawk'', a 2015 Western cannibal horror film
* '' Cannibal! The Musical'', a 1996 black comedy musical that also tells the Packer story
* Cannibalism in popular culture

References

External links

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{{Antonia Bird

1999 films
1990s American films
1990s British films
1990s Mexican films
1990s English-language films
20th Century Fox films
American black comedy films
American comedy horror films
British black comedy films
British comedy horror films
Films about cannibalism
Films based on Native American mythology
Films directed by Antonia Bird
Films produced by David Heyman
Films set during snowstorms
Films scored by Michael Nyman
Films set in California
Films set in Mexico
Films set in the 1840s
Films shot in Slovakia
Films shot in the Czech Republic
Films with screenplays by Ted Griffin
Heyday Films films
Mexican–American War films
Mexican black comedy films
Mexican comedy horror films
Mexican horror films
Wendigos in popular culture