"I never much agreed with God's will."
Man in the Wilderness (1971) fictionalizes the life of Hugh Glass, frontiersman, bear-fighter and adoptive Indian. His life's inspired many fictional works, including 2015's The Revenant. Richard C. Sarafian's take is long on atmospheric violence, short on drama.Zachary Bass (Richard Harris) narrowly survives a bear mauling in 1820s Dakota. Bass is buried alive by Captain Henry (John Huston), leader of his trapper colleagues, who press on towards the Platte River, shadowed by hostile Indians. Slowly recovering, Bass makes his way across country, trekking through the woods, foraging for food and befriending Pawnee Indians. His paths inevitably intersect with Henry's, Bass weighing revenge or forgiveness.
Man in the Wilderness is one of those '70s Euro Westerns, filmed in Spain with a British cast. Sarafian employs the grimness and episodic structure common to that era's oaters, punctuating Bass's travails with tedious flashbacks of him scolded by teachers and pining for his wife (Prunella Winsome). These efforts at character development feel forced and unnecessary. The movie frequently segues to Henry's team, whose travails aren't half so interesting as Bass's cross country trek, however arresting the image of their horse-drawn riverboat.
For bleakness is Man in the Wilderness's signal feature. Gerry Fisher's camerawork captures a pristine America riven by violence, manmade and natural. Sarafian places the bear attack upfront, with Bass maimed and clawed in graphic detail. Beside muddy, bloody Indian battles, Bass fights wolves over bison entrails and traps pumas in snares. (Unsurprisingly for a '70s film, Man is brutal on animals.) In this however, the movie's more interesting than entertaining, showing Bass's resourcefulness but cold to his plight.
Richard Harris plays to his strengths, an intensely physical role recalling A Man Called Horse. Harris goes long stretches without dialogue, adjusting himself to a nomad's lifestyle with commendable aplomb. John Huston makes an avuncular villain; British character actors Percy Herbert and Norman Rossington are among his party. Henry Wilcoxcon and James Doohan also feature.
Man in the Wilderness has its moments but doesn't quite work. As a mountain man Western it's a poor second to Jeremiah Johnson, similarly episodic but possessing a firmer dramatic core. Let's see how The Revenant compares.
