Ravenous (1999 film)

Ravenous is a 1999 horror comedy Western cannibal 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.

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 the real life "The Colorado Cannibal", Alferd Packer, 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, Second Lieutenant John Boyd, who is fighting in the United States Army, finds his courage failing him in battle and plays dead as his unit is massacred. His body, along with the other dead, is put in a cart and hauled behind Mexican lines. A stroke of luck gives Boyd the opportunity to capture the Mexican command post. His heroism earns him a captain's promotion, but when General Slauson learns of the cowardice through which victory was achieved, he posts Boyd into exile at Fort Spencer, a remote military outpost high in the Sierra Nevada commanded by the weary but genial Colonel Hart, and staffed by a motley array of misfits: the pious Private Toffler, the drug-addicted Private Cleaves, the drunken Major Knox and the ferocious Private Reich, in addition to the Native American scout George and his sister Martha.

Shortly after Boyd joins the garrison, a frostbitten stranger named Colqhoun arrives and shares a hellish tale about how his wagon train became lost in the mountain because a Colonel Ives had promised the party a shorter route to the Pacific Ocean. Instead, he led them on an impassable route resulting in the party getting trapped by snow for three months. Wracked by starvation, Colqhoun and his fellow travellers were reduced to cannibalism, while he alleges that Ives resorted to murder. A rescue party is assembled to retrieve any survivors and capture Ives. George warns those who are leaving about 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.

When the soldiers reach Ives' cave, Boyd and Reich investigate. They discover the bloody remains of five skeletons, and realize that it was Colqhoun himself who murdered everyone. Colqhoun quickly overwhelms George, Toffler and Colonel Hart. Boyd and Reich leave a dying Hart behind to run down Colqhoun. Boyd's courage begins to fail him again and Reich is bested by Colqhoun. Boyd escapes the massacre by jumping off a cliff but breaks his leg. He hides in a pit next to the body of Reich whom he eventually eats to stay alive.

When a delirious and severely traumatized Boyd finally limps back to the fort, he finds it has been reinforced by General Slauson and a detachment of cavalry. Cleaves and Martha (who were on a supply mission and had not met Colqhoun) do not believe his wild tale, while the hung-over Knox cannot recall and refuses to back Boyd up. A second expedition to the cave finds no bodies or any trace of Colqhoun. A temporary commander is assigned to the fort but to Boyd's horror, it is Colonel Ives, who Boyd realizes is Colqhoun. The men still refuse to believe Boyd because Colqhoun bears no sign of the wounds inflicted on him during the fight at the cave.

Secretly, Colqhoun tells Boyd that he used to suffer from tuberculosis but when a Native scout told him the Wendigo myth, then he "just had to try" by murdering him and eating his flesh, a process that cured his disease. Colqhoun now plans to use the fort as a base to cannibalize passing travellers because, like the notion of manifest destiny, the migrants had a calling just like himself. Boyd is soon suspected of murder after Cleaves is mysteriously killed. While chained up, he watches helplessly as Knox is murdered by Colqhoun's unexpected ally: Colonel Hart. Colqhoun had saved Hart by feeding him his own men in order to gain his assistance. But like Colqhoun, he is now hopelessly addicted to human flesh. Colqhoun mortally wounds Boyd, forcing him to make a choice: eat or die.

Eventually, Boyd gives in and eats a stew made from Knox. However, rather than join the two men in their conspiracy to convert General Slauson, Boyd convinces Hart to free him so he can kill Colqhoun. Hart does so, but also asks to be killed because he no longer wants to live as a cannibal. Boyd agrees to this. Boyd and Colqhoun fight, inflicting grievous wounds on each other, as their recuperative powers sustain them. Eventually, Boyd forces Colqhoun into a large bear trap that pins them both together. Colqhoun taunts Boyd by telling him that he will eat him if he dies first, but if he dies first Boyd will have to make the same choice Colqhoun made him make before; eat or die. General Slauson returns, and while his aide looks around the dilapidated fort, the general tastes the meat stew left simmering on the fire and enjoys it. Meanwhile Colqhoun continues to taunt Boyd before succumbing to his wounds, leaving Boyd struggling for life. Martha finds the barn with the two men inside and opens the door seeing the deceased Colqhoun and the dying Boyd together. She closes the door with a sad half smile, and walks away. Boyd does not eat Colqhoun and dies.

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

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 Alferd 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.

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."