Entry tags:
ravenous
I finally watched Ravenous last night , and oh my GOD, what a deliciously twisted and fucked-up movie that was! I'm definitely adding it to the "must own" list, because...damn.
(There are spoilers below, including spoilers for the ending. The movie is over ten years old at this point and I learned some of the information below just by reading the back of the DVD box, so...yeah)
I wasn't expecting it to be as smart as it was, I guess. I'm pretty sure it's considered a cult classic at this point, so I had a vague idea of what to expect re: gore and black humor and whatnot, and I had fairly high expectations of the acting given some of the names involved, but I definitely wasn't expecting this dark little historical horror film to compare cannibalism to Manifest Destiny and the westward expansion of the United States, nor was I expecting such a comparison to work so fucking well. And it's so blatant, that's what I can't get over! The film all but says outright that the United States is a wendigo. It takes and takes and never gives, it grows strong by glutting itself on the blood of men, it's always hungry...and its hunger is savage. I mean. This is set up from the very first scene, where shots of Boyd in the Mexican-American war are intercut with shots of soldiers gorging themselves on bloody steaks. COME ON, NOW.
Most of the time, Really Obvious Symbolism annoys the shit out of me, because it's like the director isn't sure the audience will get it and so they beat them over the head with it, but I thought it worked beautifully in Ravenous. The tight focus on Boyd and Ives/Coulquhoun definitely helped -- broaden the scope too much, and the movie suddenly becomes About America in a really obvious and annoying way. Instead, they were able to make the story about America through these characters, both of whom have their own wants and desires and fears and needs and arcs. The entire movie felt kind of like an extraordinarily fucked-up love story (seriously, the whole second half is basically Ives trying to seduce Boyd, although to what degree the film leaves up to the viewer), and so the ending felt perfect to me given what we'd seen of Boyd's character thus far. Just as in the beginning of the film, Boyd exhibits bravery in cowardice -- he knows he's not strong enough to fight his desires, and so he's not going to try. Instead, he takes himself out and then takes Ives with him, and in this final act -- and in his final refusal to eat Ives when they're locked together in the beartrap -- he finally finds redemption.
(There's something delightfully subversive about that, actually. The film made a point of talking about transubstantiation several times before, and Ives even uses the argument that this symbolic act of religious cannibalism justifies what he's doing and what he's become. For the film to link Catholicism and wendigo myths is subversive enough, but I LOVE that it goes one step further and allows Boyd to find redemption in his rejection of cannibalism even though he and the audience both know human flesh and blood would heal him and save his life. SO AWESOME.)
Haha, oh god, how pretentious do I sound right now? *facepalm* Seriously, though, how did it take me this long to see this? This movie is so far up my alley that it should be arrested for trespassing and loitering.
(There are spoilers below, including spoilers for the ending. The movie is over ten years old at this point and I learned some of the information below just by reading the back of the DVD box, so...yeah)
I wasn't expecting it to be as smart as it was, I guess. I'm pretty sure it's considered a cult classic at this point, so I had a vague idea of what to expect re: gore and black humor and whatnot, and I had fairly high expectations of the acting given some of the names involved, but I definitely wasn't expecting this dark little historical horror film to compare cannibalism to Manifest Destiny and the westward expansion of the United States, nor was I expecting such a comparison to work so fucking well. And it's so blatant, that's what I can't get over! The film all but says outright that the United States is a wendigo. It takes and takes and never gives, it grows strong by glutting itself on the blood of men, it's always hungry...and its hunger is savage. I mean. This is set up from the very first scene, where shots of Boyd in the Mexican-American war are intercut with shots of soldiers gorging themselves on bloody steaks. COME ON, NOW.
Most of the time, Really Obvious Symbolism annoys the shit out of me, because it's like the director isn't sure the audience will get it and so they beat them over the head with it, but I thought it worked beautifully in Ravenous. The tight focus on Boyd and Ives/Coulquhoun definitely helped -- broaden the scope too much, and the movie suddenly becomes About America in a really obvious and annoying way. Instead, they were able to make the story about America through these characters, both of whom have their own wants and desires and fears and needs and arcs. The entire movie felt kind of like an extraordinarily fucked-up love story (seriously, the whole second half is basically Ives trying to seduce Boyd, although to what degree the film leaves up to the viewer), and so the ending felt perfect to me given what we'd seen of Boyd's character thus far. Just as in the beginning of the film, Boyd exhibits bravery in cowardice -- he knows he's not strong enough to fight his desires, and so he's not going to try. Instead, he takes himself out and then takes Ives with him, and in this final act -- and in his final refusal to eat Ives when they're locked together in the beartrap -- he finally finds redemption.
(There's something delightfully subversive about that, actually. The film made a point of talking about transubstantiation several times before, and Ives even uses the argument that this symbolic act of religious cannibalism justifies what he's doing and what he's become. For the film to link Catholicism and wendigo myths is subversive enough, but I LOVE that it goes one step further and allows Boyd to find redemption in his rejection of cannibalism even though he and the audience both know human flesh and blood would heal him and save his life. SO AWESOME.)
Haha, oh god, how pretentious do I sound right now? *facepalm* Seriously, though, how did it take me this long to see this? This movie is so far up my alley that it should be arrested for trespassing and loitering.