CREDIT: NIYAZZ / THINKSTOCK
The United States has been leading the way in recent decades in resolving international issues with bombs and M4 Carbines.

Revenant is a word that means someone who returns from the dead. A number of websites will tell you that the word is French in origin. Besides being chosen as the title for the current movie based on the story of 19th century trapper Hugh Glass, the same word has been used in older stories about people who come back out of their graves. And it has a scary aspect in that the returnees don’t usually come to shower good luck on ordinary mortals like us. They are like zombies, only not as hungry.

In the movie an American frontiersman, portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio, survives a bear attack and surprises the heck out of his entourage by refusing to die. The true story behind the title is also available online. As with many movie narratives inspired or based on a true story, creative liberties are taken.

Glass’ true story, at least as news sites such as the Telegraph are reporting it, lacks some of the colour of the movie. You may be disappointed if you expect his real story to end as dramatically as the film.

Some may also be miffed to discover that the revenant presented in the movie is by no means the most evil revenant available. Di- Caprio’s character has a quite uncomplicated story compared to the stories of some of those other revenants. Consider the following.

The Washington Post commented on a book by history professor, Nancy Caciola of the University of California. In the book, Caciola tells a tale dating from 1196 of “A wicked and choleric man.”

“[He] died suddenly in a fall from his rooftop, after he spied his wife in bed with another man. He, too, wandered at night, attacking all he met and leaving them on the point of death, while a pack of dogs followed after him, howling and whining. The locals, in fear of the revenant’s malice as much of a possible pestilence from the corruption of the air caused by the rotting corpse, began to leave the district in droves. Finally, two brothers dug up the cadaver and burned it to ashes.”

The revenant, in this case, is more wicked and the story is more complicated than the simple, though sensationalized, character and story in the current film.

So, what is the point of this film? Obviously it will make a ton of money for its investors. It won’t hurt the acting careers of those who landed a part in it. For those who can endure the film, it will provide a couple of hours of diversion, which includes a lot of spectacular winter mountain scenery. And students of film will have many discussions about the symbolism in the movie, the camera work, shooting locations and so forth.

But perhaps the film’s main benefit, if that is what we can call it, is that it supports Americans, and perhaps Canadians too who like to think of themselves as super tough. I would go a step further and say that for those with ears to listen and eyes to see, the film tells us that we are all survivors in a savage and dark world.

The movie fits roughly into the genre of Hollywood films that supposedly tell us what kind of people settled the supposedly hostile American West. This film genre includes old style westerns, such as those starring the late John Wayne and the later-to-become President of the United States, Ronald Reagan.

Films that fall into this category communicate that those who tamed the American West were resilient, rugged individualists who had to make up their morals as the harshness of frontier life dictated. They were white males who typically resolved their problems with a gun.

The Americans I have met over the years have been great, creative, generous and optimistic people, but there thrives in the American imagination an image of the nation as exceptional and strong, able to persevere even when the world stands against it. The code it lives by appears simple: help us and we’ll help you; harm us and we’ll do you harm. The mythic image of the lone frontiersman who lives by this simple moral code encourages that national self-image.

But wouldn’t it be better to lay aside that mythic characterization of the American frontiersman? We’ve had a school shooting in this country not too long ago. That is bad enough, but multiple killings appear to be an almost daily thing in the U.S. And that country has been leading the way in recent decades in resolving international issues with bombs and M4 Carbines. Americans as individuals and the country as a whole appear addicted to that style of problem solving.

Unfortunately, The Revenant promotes that addiction. While it will be praised as a great work of art, beware its poisonous effect.

The Revenant illustrates a less monstrous and less complicated version of a revenant, or someone who returns from the dead.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.