"Man In The Wilderness" with Richard Harris was also based on Hugh Glass (although the character's name in that film was "Zach Bass") and IMO was a MUCH better movie.
The DiCaprio one had some REAL bloopers in it. The first was when he killed that bear and the used the hide for a coat immediately and IT HAD BEEN TANNED/SOFTENED! IN this day and age you're lucky if you can get a hide tanned in a few weeks, and they do it with chemicals and not brains/chewing.
The other was the scene with the horse when he goes over the cliff and falls into the trees and walked away unscathed even though the horse was dead. I've had horses fall while I was on them and that was only at ground level or maybe a few feet going over a jump and IT HURTS. In the film he was above the trees!!!! If it was a high enough fall to kill the horse he'd have been dead also.
I agree AM. Western expansion (mountain men, Lewis and Clark, Jim Bridgett, Jed Smith, Kit Carson) all were BAs. Great yarns. I love reading the yarns.
Use to get my father's old Tombstone papers about the old west, remember reading a good factual story on Hugh Glass and Greenwood that ended up at the Alamo, he was a fascinating character.
Do not even know if the Tombstone paper is still being published, but was a very interesting paper.
The book, Blood and Thunder about Kit Carson is a fascinating read also, some real tough gents back then.
You bet they were. In this month's American Hunter they have a piece about mountain men. One of the people they talk about is John Coulter. He was part of the Lewis and Clark expedition and how he made it to 39 years old is an amazing feat in itself!
When I lived in Wyoming I worked for an old rancher who's family was one of the first in the Laramie valley, in fact their horse brand was the FIRST ONE registered in the state of Wyoming. He was pushing 80 when I worked for him and "tough" doesn't even come close to describing him.
It always makes me think about how reliant we are on modern technology when I read about these guys. How many people, even here, wouldn't last too long if the world went dark? Sure, those men didn't know any better, but their resilience was still amazing. I read the book first (Revenant), and while I thought the movie was pretty good, it was still disappointing.
Knowing the real story and having read quite about about Hugh Glass and many others like John Coulter.....I have always been disappointed by the movies. Best one ever was Jeremiah Johnson but it was all Hollywood wrong too.
""The DiCaprio one had some REAL bloopers in it.""
I agree the horse jumping off the cliff wasn't believable. I will admit the final fight scene was brutal. The knife thru the hand made me cringe the first time I saw it.
One of the areas I coyote hunt in SD is where Hugh Glass was attacked. It gives a guy something to sit and think about while your waiting for the Wylie one.
There is a monument on top of a hill for Hugh Glass. Below the hill is a fork in Shadehill Reservoir. That is where he was attacked.
When Revenant came out I was talking to a woman I know about it. She had said it was filmed in the Black Hills. After that I had to look it up. The movie was actually filmed in Alberta.
You want chills up your spine? Go visit the Custer Battlefield at Little Big Horn. When I went there it was not quite 100 years ago that it had happened. You look at the terrain and the unchanged vegetation and it doesn't take much to imagine a war cry.
One summer when I was a student at the University Of Wyoming I worked one summer for them collecting plant and soil samples for an EIS they were doing on the eastern edge of the Red Desert . I spent a month literally in the middle of nowhere doing my job. One time I came across a what they call a "tipi ring". It also had blackened rocks from where the campfire was, and I also found arrowhead chippings. I left it as I found it, as you couldn't help but imagine that the original owners were just over the hill!
+1 Michael, none of it was filmed in SD. He was attacked near present day Lemmon, SD and crawled to Fort Kiowa which was near present day Chamberlain, SD. An over 200 mile trek across the SD prairie.
yes, incredible times. Lewis Wetzel is another man of the times that was an amazing indian fighter but he has a pretty bad rep so I doubt a movie about him will be made.
Bridger was one of the guys to leave Glass behind... From what I read, Glass held no ill will toward Bridger after since he was a young man at the time of only like 19 or so...
