Ravenous: SPOILERS

Cafe Society
1

Is Robert Carlyle the real Colonel Ives, or did Colqhoun eat Ives then impersonate him? I know that Reich found a bloody uniform in the cave, but it would have been easy to leave his uniform behind as part of the deception.

I hadn’t ever heard of this movie until last year when my Dad insisted we watch it while my brother and I were visiting. It’s really morbid, but I enjoyed the heck out of it. It’s just such a perfect combination of gruesomeness and humor. And the casting! Wow.

As always in my movie appreciation threads, any random discussion is welcome. :slight_smile:

2

**

I’m pretty sure he was just impersonating him.

HE WAS LICKING ME@
Marc

3

Damn I love this movie. :smiley:

I agree with MGibson that Calqhoun was just impersonating the real Ives. When they first find Calqhoun, he’s stumbling around in the snow, so they revive him and he tells his story. Whenever Calqhoun says Col. Ives did something, he’s talking about himself.

Later on, when Boyd confronts Calqhoun after he’s returned to the fort, Calqhoun tells Boyd how he became a cannibal- he came to the American west looking for a cure for his tuberculosis. (Which historically, a lot of people actually did.) His Indian guide told him about the windigo legend- a man eats another man’s flesh and takes that man’s strength. (Actually, there are several versions of the windigo legend among northwestern tribes, but for the sake of discussion, we’ll just say the movie version is accurate.) Calqhoun says that he decided to try it, and the guide was the first person he ate. He was cured. So he decided to continue with his cannabalism.

At this point, the movie kinda glosses over what may have happened next, but my WAG is that Calqhoun decided to take over where his Indian guide left off and volunteer to lead people across the plains and mountains into California- a perfect oppurtunity to engage in his new-found lifestyle, since there would be no witnesses and no survivors.

After the expedition that ended in the cave, Calqhoun probably really did get lost in a snowstorm. Due to his windigo superpowers, he survived, and stumbled on a bunch of humans in the process. Great! Now he can make up any story he wants and lead his hapless prey back to his cave for a big feast.

What sort of confuses me is how he managed to get back to some form of civilization, impersonate Ives well enough to fool several military commanders, and then get himself appointed back to the fort he just left. Of course, if he couldn’t do that, there’d be no movie, but still, it’s a little puzzling.

I really liked this movie for a lot of reasons- it was different, quirky, and it threw in a lot of neat little bits of historical info and folklore. Plus, Robert Carlyle is one of my all-time favorite actors, although in my mind, he will always be Begbie. :slight_smile:

4

**

Well, I figured having eaten all those people, he’d gained enough intelligence to do so. Remember, the whole premise is that you absorbed the person’s soul (or bits of it), and thus, he’d gain some extra knowledge along the way. That, or he collaborated with the other commander that he kept alive in the cave, and the two of them figured out how to do it all.

My friends and I were just talking about this movie last night. It’s definitely one of my favorites. The premise is interesting, it’s pulled off very well, and the cast is just great. And I especially love the ending. Definitely the best cannibal movie I’ve seen (although I still have to see Cannibal! The Musical, but all in due time).

5

You need to see that, but it’s a far different movie than Ravenous. Get the DVD and listen to the drunken commentary. It’s quite an experience.

6

This is actually the part that confused me the least. I figure it this way: There’s a Colonel who was thought dead, and has been replaced already, who suddenly turns up alive and ready for action. There is a Colonel who has just turned up missing (dead, actually, since Boyd saw him killed), who needs to be replaced. All “Ives” really needs to do is prove his health and then volunteer for the new posting.

And yeah after I posted, I watched the movie again. I had forgotten about the TB part. When I heard him explaining it to Boyd, I knew that was the answer to my question, and he really is Colqhoun, simply impersonating Ives.

Great movie. And that soundtrack was fantastic for creating mood. It’s some of the most off music I’ve ever heard, but it fit perfectly.

7

Interesting footnote here…
I was at the video store the other night and a movie caught my eye:

Wendigo.

Anybody seen it? Is it any good? Is it any relation to the Wendigo legend in Ravenous?

8

Random thought? Every time I see that scene near the end where they’re all chowing down on human stew my mouth starts watering.

9

Heh, yeah that stew looks really good. That’s kind of disturbing. :stuck_out_tongue:

10

Yeah, actually, I just saw the Wendigo movie. It’s okay, nothing spectacular, and the “creature” is more hilarious than horrifying, but still, all in all not a bad movie. It has nothing to do with cannibalism or anything like that- it’s more an exploration of the dark side of human nature, and how this has parallels in the spirit world, namely, the windigo.

The story itself is simple, and well-done. If you like slightly creepy indie films, I’d recommend it. But it’s got nothing on Ravenous.