Man in the Wilderness

Man in the Wilderness
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Richard C. Sarafian
Written by	Jack DeWitt
Produced by	Sandy Howard
Starring	Richard Harris John Huston Prunella Ransome Percy Herbert Henry Wilcoxon Norman Rossington Dennis Waterman
Cinematography	Gerry Fisher
Edited by	Geoffrey Foot
Music by	Johnny Harris
Production companies	Limbridge Wilderness Films
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	November 24, 1971 (1971-11-24)
Running time	104 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	Less than $2 million

Man in the Wilderness is a 1971 American revisionist Western film about a scout for a group of mountain men who are traversing the Northwestern United States during the 1820s. The scout is mauled by a bear and left to die by his companions. He survives and recuperates sufficiently to track his former comrades, forcing a confrontation over his abandonment. The story is loosely based on the life of Hugh Glass. It stars Richard Harris as Zachary Bass and John Huston as Captain Henry.

The expedition in the movie is notable for bringing a large boat with it, borne on wheels.

Plot

Zachary Bass is left for dead by his fellow trappers. He undergoes a series of trials and adventures as he slowly heals and equips himself while he tracks the trappers' expedition, intent on retribution for his abandonment, while earning the respect of the American Indians he encounters. When he eventually confronts his fellow trappers and their leader, Captain Henry, he chooses not to enact revenge, but instead to return to his infant son.

Cast

• Richard Harris – Zachary Bass
• John Huston – Captain Henry
• Henry Wilcoxon – Indian Chief
• Prunella Ransome – Grace
• Percy Herbert – Fogarty
• Dennis Waterman – Lowrie
• Norman Rossington – Ferris
• James Doohan – Benoit
• Bryan Marshall – Potts
• Ben Carruthers – Longbow
• John Bindon – Coulter
• Robert Russell – Smith
• Sheila Raynor – Grace's Mother
• Judith Furse – Nurse

Production

Man in the Wilderness is based loosely on the 1818–20 Missouri Expedition and "Capt. Henry" is likely a fictionalized Major Andrew Henry of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. It was based on an original script by Jack De Witt, and bought by producer Sandy Howard. In December 1970 Howard announced that the film would star Richard Harris, who had made A Man Called Horse for Howard. Elliot Silverstein directed Horse but clashed with Harris so Richard Sarafian was bought in to direct this film. Howard said he was "convinced" that Sarafian "is going to be one of the most important directors in America very soon."

Filming took three months from April to June 1971. The film was shot near Covaleda, Province of Soria, Spain, with the terrain looking more like the Adirondack wilderness and less like the Absaroka Range country of the Yellowstone River. Not technically a "Spaghetti Western", Man was filmed in the rugged highlands where David Lean had shot some of the scenes for Doctor Zhivago in 1964.

John Huston joined the production a few days after quitting as director of the film The Last Run due to on-set fights with George C. Scott.

The bear who attacks Harris' character was called Peg. The attack sequence was filmed using a dummy.

"This movie is Genesis to me," said Harris. "It's my apocalypse. It's a very special and very personal statement about a man struggling for personal identity, looking for God and discovering Him in the wilderness, in leaves and trees. It's all the things that the young people, and we, are missing today."

Harris only had nine lines of dialogue.

Themes

Though survival and revenge are the main themes, Christianity and religion play a significant role in the evolution of the main character, who is shown through flashbacks to be at odds with religion and God in general due to his lonely and abusive childhood involving indoctrination into Christianity.

Release

The film was theatrically released in the United States on November 24, 1971, including New York City, New York, and Los Angeles, California.

The film was the first feature to be shown in years at the newly refurbished Princess Theatre (renamed the Klondike Theatre, at the time) in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, on December 25, 1971.

See also

• List of American films of 1971
• Lord Grizzly, a 1954 biographical novel by Frederick Manfred, about the Hugh Glass story
• Survival film, about the film genre, with a list of related films
• The Revenant (2015), also about Hugh Glass
• The Song of Hugh Glass, an epic poem from 1915, part of A Cycle of the West, written by John Neihardt, who is most famous for his book Black Elk Speaks.

External links

• Man in the Wilderness at IMDb
• Man in the Wilderness at the TCM Movie Database
• Man in the Wilderness at AllMovie
• Man in the Wilderness at Rotten Tomatoes