Ravenous

I don't know whether the previous comments on this film show how badly the film was marketed (I never saw any advertising for it) or whether they're a terrible condemnation of just how tunnel-visioned people can be. This is only a horror film in the sense that Macbeth is or The Godfather. It's about the horror of monstrosity, particularly the monstrosity inside ourselves. It's not about cannibalism, nor is it a black comedy. It has those things in it, but they are not it's raison d'etre. It's about the horror of war, conquest, taking things which don't belong to you with the sole justification that that's how you get ahead in life. You have what the other man has literally by consuming it. The hero of this film is branded a coward when really all he's done is preserved himself from the madness going on around him, a fight in which he has no part, just like this one. And yet, I see reviewers here referring to his 'cowardice' as a given. They haven't even got to first base about questioning whether he might not actually be a coward in the first place. It looks like everybody's checked their brains in at the door with this one. I'm glad I never directed this movie, it would be soul-destroying to be this misunderstood. It's a great movie. Savage, brutal,poetic. You watch the whole thing with your mouth hanging open in sheer disbelief. It's a feast for the eyes and ears and has one of the most fey, eerie qualities I've ever seen in a film. It's a masterpiece and I would urge anyone out there who can leave their preconceptions and genre expectations at home to see it. Give yourself a treat - be amazed.

If someone were to ask what Ravenous is all about, the easiest thing to say would be: `It's about cannibalism in a remote Army outpost in the 1800s.' That's exactly right, and that's probably what kept audience members away from Ravenous when it briefly ran in theaters back in 1999. Cannibalism? Who needs to watch that? Indeed.

Yes, there is cannibalism in Ravenous. Quite a lot of it, in fact. The film is steeped in murder, the eating of human flesh, and is flavored with madness. At times the film can be downright difficult to watch, though the compelling nature of the narrative keeps the viewer's eyes locked on the screen for the full ninety-eight minutes.

Ravenous is so much more than a meditation on people eating other people, though it's obvious there was a great deal of confusion about how exactly to present this dish to the public. Its plot is fairly simple for the first half: Mexican War hero (and hidden coward) Lt. Boyd, played by LA Confidential's Guy Pearce, is assigned to an end-of-the-Earth fortress in the western Sierra Nevadas. This fort, populated over the winter by a tiny handful of misfit officers and enlisted men, receives a visitor in the person of a starving man with an awful story of a failed mountain crossing that eclipses the Donner Party's. What happens then is so twisted, but skillfully crafted, that it would be criminal to spoil what transpires.

But Ravenous is not just a horror story. What lies at its heart is an allegory about man's relationship to other men and how society structures itself around the powerful and the powerless. Issues such as the morality of Manifest Destiny and even the ethics of simple meat eating are touched upon. Guy Pearce gives an underplayed performance so low-key that he almost vanishes into the film stock, while co-star Robert Carlyle (most recently in The World is Not Enough) plays opposite him with delightful nuance. The material even brings deeply textured work out of Tim Burton stalwart Jeffrey Jones as the commander of the fort, and scattered around these three are solid supporting actors like Jeremy Davies, who's much better here than he was in Saving Private Ryan, and David Arquette.

If anything works against Ravenous at all, it's the curious inclusion of humor at the outset of the picture. Director Antonia Bird, who also made Priest and Safe, is not known for her lighter side, which makes the appearance of a goofy epigram at the very start of the picture, and the use of some bizarrely inappropriate music during a later sequence, seem more like some producer's half-hearted attempt to blunt the sharp edge of the film's commentary with silliness.

Luckily for the viewer and the film, however, Ravenous is far too powerful a motion picture to be undercut in this fashion. By the time the final reel has passed, any memory of earlier missteps is forgotten as the pace grows more deliberate and the action becomes bloodier and bloodier up until the final moments.

Unjustly neglected on the screen, Ravenous is a film with a great deal to say. It's only too bad that cannibalism was the best way to say it.

'Ravenous' is a highly entertaining and original blend of horror and black comedy. Apparently it had troubled beginnings with the original director being fired and Antonia Bird coming in as a last minute replacement at the behest of co-star Robert Carlyle ('Trainspotting') who had previously worked with her on 'Priest', a more different movie than this you couldn't imagine! Anyway, Bird triumphed and ended up with an excellent movie. David Arquette and Jeremy Davies are two actors I have little time for but they didn't have much on screen time and didn't detract from the great performances by Carlyle and 'Memento's Guy Pearce, who really sold the movie to me. I also really liked the role played by Tim Burton regular Jeffrey Jones. I enjoyed the work of all three actors, the unpredictable script, the inventive direction, and the unusual score by Peter Greenaway regular Michael Nyman and Blur's Damon Albarn, which reminded me at times of cult favourites Penguin Cafe Orchestra. 'Ravenous' isn't the greatest movie I've ever seen but I have enjoyed it all three times I've watched it and that's a lot more than I can say about most movies around these days. It's wicked fun with very clever touches of black comedy, and I highly recommend it.

A genuinely unique little gem that seems quite un-Hollywoody.

A macabrely humorous horror-thriller with an odd mix of English/American/Australian character actors (all talented) who clearly relish their performances in this twisted little tale which is told on an epic canvas.

The film's score is a bizarre but perfect fit - adding another unusual character to the mix. A stroke of bold genius by Michael Nyman (the brilliant composer of "The Piano"). The score has been nominated for several awards.

Hard to imagine 20th Century Fox's reaction when they saw the final film and needed to market it... But there's plenty to enjoy here. 8 out of 10!

Guy Pearce leads Jeffrey Jones, Robert Carlyle, David Arquette and more in a action-filled, horror thriller. Set during the backdrop of the Civil War, it follows Capt. John Boyd (Pearce) who is sent to the icy Nevada wilderness as result of cowardice. The music is awesome, the costumes are wounderfully designed and the elements of horror make this film one to see many times! The art direction is great and the story is what horror fans have been waiting for. Just like how the cover says, a cross between a vampire film and a cannibalism film. Those two put together create one of the most elaborate horror films ever.

I promise you that RAVENOUS will enthrall you until the very final frame. Hell, even the credits are exciting. The violence is pretty extreme (which is good) and the gloomy atmosphere and the icy bitterness of the Nevada Mountains is very good at creating a genuinely chilling mood for this awesome horror thriller! RAVENOUS: 5/5.