Ravenous (1999)

• Year: 1999
• Released: 19 Mar 1999
• Country: United Kingdom, Mexico, United States, Czech Republic
• Adwords: 1 win & 6 nominations
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0129332/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/Ravenous
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/ravenous
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English, Italian, Spanish, Washoe
• MPA Rating: R
• Genre: Adventure, Horror, Western
• Runtime: 101 min
• Writer: Ted Griffin
• Director: Antonia Bird
• Cast: Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle, David Arquette
• Keywords: woman director, murder, survival, soldier, chase,

	6.9/10
	46/100
	49% – Critics
	78% – Audience

Ravenous Storyline

Despite being promoted to US Army Captain for his acts of heroism during the Mexican-American War, John Boyd, in the approach to winter 1847, is nonetheless reassigned by his commanding officer, General Slauson, from San Miguel to the remote outpost of Fort Spencer located on the western side of the Sierra Nevadas, it which is primarily used as a way station for those traversing the mountains. It operates on a skeleton crew during the off season, this season having a ragtag crew of five army personnel led by Colonel Hart, plus two local indigenous persons who “come with the fort”, adult siblings George and Martha. Shortly after Boyd’s arrival at Fort Spencer, a barely alive man, F.W. Colqhoun, stumbles into their environs. After they are able to nurse him back to some health, Colqhoun tells a story of his party surviving on cannibalism on those that died of malnutrition, turning to the party leader, a U.S. Army Colonel Ives, ending up having an insatiable appetite for human flesh leading to him killing other members of the party. As such, Colqhoun escaped from Ives, leaving only one other survivor of their party, a Mrs. MacCready, alone with Ives. Following Colqhoun’s directions, Colonel Hart leads a small team to the cave where Colqhoun left Ives to rescue Mrs. MacCready, if she is still alive, and bring Colonel Ives to justice for his heinous acts. This mission begins what ends up being the cat and mouse game between Ives and specifically Boyd. The progress of the game and its outcome are largely affected by Boyd’s own demons – which arose from the war and were the reason he was reassigned – Ives having a short term goal which has a more sustainable long term outcome, if there is any truth to the indigenous legend, told by George, that those that eat the flesh of their enemies absorb both the strength and spirit of the consumed, and the balance between Boyd and Ives’ individual instinct for survival versus their moral strength.

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Ravenous Movie Reviews

Director Antonia Bird Has Crafted a Grippingly Intense+Bizarrely Original Film! Defies Pigeonholing or Labeling!

From PASTO, COLOMBIA-Via: L. A. CA; CALI, COLOMBIA+ORLANDO, FL The Only TONY KISS CASTILLO on FaceBook!—————————

A Cult-Classic Masterpiece! Director Antonia Bird, has me totally convinced of her boundless talent! She has crafted a grippingly intense and bizarrely original film, that defies any attempt at pigeonholing or labeling! It is, at times, amusing, often deftly ironic, chillingly irreverent, with moments of intentional political INcorrectness, and ever so subtly feminist at its core.

Juxtapositioning, with flawless style and sobering effectiveness, diverse elements of Horror, Period Western, Action-Adventure, Psychodrama, Suspense and the Supernatural, against a backdrop of some of the most breathtakingly dazzling outdoor scenery imaginable(Shot near Durango, Mexico), and set to a perversely inspired musical score that highlights the full potential of music to shape the ambiance of a film and provide the psychological equivalent of running your fingernails across a blackboard!

Ms. Bird has managed to coax truly riveting performances from each member of a superb cast! Guy Pearce(L. A. Confidential), starring as Captain Boyd, provides us with an uncannily haunting portrait of a tormented pacifist soldier, in the throws of a fierce struggle for his own soul!

Robert Carlyle(Trainspotting) was icily convincing as a fanatically focused, but utterly deranged cannibal in uniform. Jeffrey Jones, in an oddly empathetic change of pace role, played mild-mannered Colonel Hart, plagued by an interminable list of human frailties. Thusly, he is easily subverted by the sinister Ives(Carlyle). Despite all of the aforementioned accolades, I feel I must offer a word of caution: Ravenous is undoubtedly NOT suited to everyone’s taste!

Though it has scarcely a few moments of starkly violent or macabre footage, these moments seem so devastatingly repulsive, that they don’t go away easily. Consequently, I’d hesitate to throw out the Welcome Mat on this One! If you don’t particularly care for the extremely bizarre, you might just want to stay clear of RAVENOUS.

9********* …….. ENJOY! / DISFRUTELA!

Any comments, questions or observations, in English o en Español, are most welcome!

Feeling hungry, anyone?

When “Ravenous” first came out, a lot of people thought that it was really gross. But when you think about it, the movie actually has a pretty interesting story. During the Mexican-American War, Capt. John Boyd (Guy Pearce) gets transferred to Ft. Spencer, where he meets Col. Ives (Robert Carlyle). The only thing is, Ives has some very (with a capital V) strange eating habits. And he intends to show Boyd at any cost.

I guess that the movie was mainly pretty good because it showed how a person can get driven to cannibalism in desperate situations. As a vegetarian, I’m not sure whether or not I would, but the movie sure made a good point about it. Pretty impressive.

Interesting, but all over the place tonally

RAVENOUS is a historical comedy horror set on the American frontier in the 19th century. It’s a world of extreme cold, snow, hardship and cannibalism, as those trapped in remote outposts are driven to feast on the flesh of one another in order to survive. It’s an interesting film for sure, but also one that’s all over the place tonally.

I understand that the film’s original director quit for whatever reason, so Robert Carlyle suggested Antonia Bird for the role. Bird and Carlyle had previously worked together on the excellent low budget British crime film FACE, so the choice seemed a good one, but I’m not sure that Bird was quite right for this material. Although RAVENOUS is extremely gory, it’s never in the least bit horrific, while the attempts at black comedy aren’t all that successful.

Instead what we have is an action-focused story of survival, loaded with gore effects and general nastiness. RAVENOUS is worth watching thanks to the sterling efforts of a great little cast, headlined by Guy Pearce back when he was just starting out in Hollywood. Robert Carlyle makes for a great psychotic bad guy as always, and the casting director has done a good job for interesting character actors: the creepy Jeffrey Jones, Neal McDonough, and Jeremy Davies. The less said about David Arquette the better, though.