A man in the wild
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | A man in the wild |
| Original title | Man in the Wilderness |
| Country of production | Great Britain |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1971 |
| length | 105 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Richard C. Sarafian |
| script | Jack De Witt |
| production | Sandy Howard |
| music | Johnny Harris |
| camera | Gerry Fisher |
| cut | Geoffrey Foot |
| occupation | |
| |
A man in the wilderness (original title: Man in the Wilderness ) is a British western from 1971, directed by Richard C. Sarafian with Richard Harris in the lead role. The German premiere was on January 21, 1972.
action
Captain Henry leads a research expedition in the Northwest Territory in 1820 . He tries to get to the Missouri River with his people and the accompanying trappers after the onset of early winter . What they hunted and looted is transported on a ship that is carried overland by numerous mules . One of the accompanying scouts is Zachary Bass, who is badly wounded by a bear on a hunting trip . Henry then leaves him with two people; they are to bury him after his death. However, the two are afraid of the Arikaree Indians in the area and leave Bass to his fate after three days.
Bass survives his injuries and faces the wilderness on his own; living like an animal and cursing his fate as well as Captain Henry. When he comes across the trail of the expedition, he finds some trappers killed by the Indians. He dives deeper and deeper into the wilderness, living more and more naturally in it and with it; A pocket Bible that one of his comrades left behind helps him with this. In flashbacks, Bass remembers his difficult youth, when his father left the family. At school he was abused by his principal . His wife later died giving birth to his son, who is now growing up with his mother-in-law . Bass really wants to see him again.
Meanwhile, Captain Henry has to defend himself with his expedition against the Indians who threaten the snow-covered group. When they arrive at the Missouri, it is too shallow to use the ship. At this point a changed, forgiving bass joins the expedition again.
criticism
The lexicon of international films accused the film of “wavering between character studies and adventure stories”; it was also "too broad and psychologically unconvincing." Howard Thompson of the New York Times found the film a boring one that "unfortunately complicates his Crusoe story with regular flashbacks."
"Man in the Wilderness is one of a series of films from the early 1970s that stripped the Western of its conventions and sought new inspiration in the primal experience of the Western, the cleansing encounter of civilized people with the wilderness," writes Joe Hembus in his Western Lexicon and continues: Bass "only experiences his awareness when he, radically cut off from his previous milieu, begins to become a savage himself."
The film critic Ponkie wrote in the evening newspaper: "A very slow film that focuses only on this vaguely dazzling philosophy of will, almost lovingly leaning towards the 'savages'."
background
After the success of A Man They Called a Horse , this thematically not dissimilar and stylistically comparable film with the same screenwriter and lead actor was funded by producer Howard. The story is based at least in part on that of the trapper Hugh Glass , who was attacked by a grizzly in 1823 and left to die by his comrades, but was able to return to civilization after a journey of several months through the wilderness.
The film was shot in Andalusia .
The film, which was previously approved for ages 16 and over, has now been downgraded.
In 2015, Alejandro González Iñárritu made the film The Revenant with Leonardo DiCaprio based on the same events .
Web links
- Man in the Wilderness in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ A man in the wilderness. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ^ Howard Thompson, New York Times , Nov. 25, 1971
- ^ Joe Hembus : The Western Lexicon. Munich 1995, p. 173
- ↑ quoted from Hembus