I was stoked to see this, I have known the premise of this story for some time and as someone who grew up in the west as an outdoorsman I have been fascinated by the incredible life of Pioneers/ Trappers of the west.
Then I watched the movie.
To say it did these amazing men a disservice is a understatement. It Underscored the importance of Jim Bridger who would be a influence in the settling of the west, especially Montana, making he and other trappers look like bumbling scared morons, they were not. Most were Bi Lingual at least, as they had to negotiate with multiple tribes. Bridger like many trappers would go on to marry a Squaw, very common and helped with negotiating as well as even surviving in what could be a very hostile place. Jim was very influential in the history of the west, he was first credited with finding the Great Salt lake, and of course Founded Fort Bridger his Pioneering provided a future for others to follow.
It took the story of Glass himself, which little is actually known, blew it into something completely different and IMO destroyed it all following the classic "White men are Evil" hyperbole, then picking the usual bad guy our hero had to hunt down, and using the classic stick to support a corpse while the good guy waited in ambush. The actual story was mainly about not just being left to die, but having his rifle, which was sacred to Mountain Men, taken from him, Hugh wanted it back. Upon walking into a fort where Jim Bridger was, he was called "The Revenent" which in french implies back from the dead.
The nature and survival scenes were just as stomach churning for anyone who knows much of the wild. Gutting of the horse was absolutely ridiculously stupid, you do not gut an animal like that, the guts alone can way half the weight of an animal, crawling inside? Why, pine bows make a wonderful bed and cover. Not to mention if you had crawled inside an animal to survive and left your clothes outside, they would have been stiff with ice.
Leo learned to shoot a musket in this film, I guess this is a big deal, not exactly rocket science, however somewhere along the way nobody told those making the movie, nor the crowd watching it, they were single shot weapons, and incapable of the classic double shot leo managed time and time again to pull off.
Further the story itself happened in October, there were Maggots in his back so we know it was not anywhere near freezing, at least during the day for this to happen. Lets not forget it was not in the Rockies, but rather in the plains of South Dakota. I could live with these being wrong, the rest I could not.
I could go on, however I would encourage you to read up on the Amazing exploits of the old west pioneers.
As always, Hollywood seems detached from our history, and heritage.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/James_Bridger.aspx
http://www.britannica.com/biography/Hugh-Glass
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