Dir. Alejandro G. Inarritu
This is going to be another human moment post. The moment takes place at around the midpoint of The Revenant, where our protagonist, Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) is at a low, a place which he inhabits for the majority of the film. To keep it as spoiler free as possible, he meets a Native American, Hikuc (Arthur Redcloud) who is at first cautious of Glass, but who shares some bison meat with him regardless, and after hearing Glass' motivations, aids him in his injured state. The two ride together, this being the first companionship Glass has had in around 40 minutes of screentime.
We get this beautiful scene where the two, who can actually understand each other, a change to most films dealing with Native Americans, nonetheless share a moment of bonding that doesn't require words. Hikuc sticks his tongue out, catching snowdrops on his tongue, chuckling as he does it. Glass mimics him, enjoying the moment. It's about the most joy he's had in the entire film. The two laugh.
A snowstorm kicks up and Glass collapses, unable to go on due to his injuries. In another moment of supreme kindness in the harsh Frontier, Hikuc cuts down some firewood, lights a small campfire, and creates a wooden shelter for Glass. This is the second of three moments in the film where Glass is enwrapped, in comparative safety, before re-emerging, his injuries healing more and more each time. The first is his 'burial', where he is one with the land. This is the second, where objects of the land, trees, shelter him. The third, the inside of a dead horse, is him within a dead living creature. Each time he emerges re-born, and the final is a clear allegory of re-birth; a new man, with a singular purpose, born from the dead.
Glass awakes this second time with Hikuc gone. He has left behind some provisions, and has done well by Glass in creating the shelter. An unspoken bond ties the two together, in an act of human kindness. Spoilers here, apologies. Glass later comes across Hikuc's corpse, hanging from a tree. He has a sign in French around his neck, and even to a non-French speaker, the meaning is clear - he was murdered due to his being a 'savage'. It's all the more powerful because we know that Hikuc was one of the most human of humans Glass had encountered in the film.
It's all the more depressing as we realize that he was killed by the same group of Frenchmen who we saw earlier in the film, led by Toussaint Charbonneau (Fabrise Adde). The Frenchman, despite some coercing, honoured their agreement with the chieftain Elk Dog (Duane Howard), and respected his quest to save his daughter Powaqa (Melaw Nakeehk'o). This, it turns out, was a bold-faced lie. They were the kidnappers of Powaqa, and we see Toussaint rape Powaqa, who is freed by Glass. It adds a sense of moral corruption and grey area in a film that has, for the most part, been fairly morally clear.
The entire sequence has a lot going on, but what I want to focus on is the fact that Hikuc as a character fulfills his goal here, showing that even the most (at least to our eyes) morally good of people and groups can act in what appears to be counter-intuitive ways. The rape of Powaqa is a little on the nose, but it hammers home the message that the Native Americans were being ruined by the invading white men, of all creeds and colours. We see that in far subtler ways with Hikuc, and indeed the backstory of Glass and his motivations are very much tied to the ruining of the Native Americans. Their portrayal as inhuman attackers in the introductory scene, and for the most part of the film, is clearly more a way of conveying how the attacked perceive them, rather than being a condemnation, thank Inarritu!
As the film goes on the morals become hazier, and the Native Americans are present in the cumulative moment of revenge. I love The Revenant's discussion and exploration of the Native Americans, despite them not being the focus of the film itself. They are however integral to the Frontier, and it is fitting that their mythology and presence is felt at key moment of the film - most prominently the beginning, the middle, and end.
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