That said, the scene where it is Hugh Glass against the blizzard will give you frostbite. It’s late December. You may remember stories about men in the Klondike killing and gutting a bear and climbing inside it for the night. This scene is kind of like that but no animals were harmed. While reading this exciting western adventure, I was constantly reminded of how many things we take for granted today. Little things like blankets, lighters, automatic rifles, and those two words that kept running through my mind while reading: ANTI. BIOTICS. This alternates between the stories of those living inside the fort, and those of the indigenous people living on the surrounding land, which includes the renowned Crazy Horse, who has seen the women along with the children, making him realize that they intend to settle the area, the idea of them doing so leaves him deeply disturbed.

In the end, Fitzgerald brings this up, saying he and Glass had had a deal and Hawk wasn’t listening to him try to explain. Glass yells that they’d had no deal. He did blink though! But maybe he wasn’t fully comprehending what Fitzgerald had been saying at the time, or maybe his eyes were just feeling dry and he had to blink sometime lol. McNary, Dave (July 11, 2014). "Leonardo DiCaprio's Survival Drama 'The Revenant' Attracts Megan Ellison's Annapurna". Variety . Retrieved August 29, 2014. In 1866, with the country barely recovered from the Civil War, new war breaks out on the western frontier--a clash of cultures between a young, ambitious nation and the Native tribes who have lived on the land for centuries. Colonel Henry Carrington arrives in Wyoming's Powder River Valley to lead the US Army in defending the opening of a new road for gold miners and settlers. Carrington intends to build a fort in the middle of critical hunting grounds, the home of the Lakota. Red Cloud, one of the Lakota's most respected chiefs, and Crazy Horse, a young but visionary warrior, understand full well the implications of this invasion. For the Lakota, the stakes are their home, their culture, their lives. After Glass became seriously ill, Hikuc (the Native American who saves him, but is then killed by the French) treated his wounds with his medicinal methods and placed him in a hut to help him heal and to protect him from the snowstorm. During this sequence, the voice of a Pawnee woman, which is believed to be Glass’ wife, was reciting a poem about life and how one has to keep breathing. While asleep in the hut, he dreams about seeing and hugging his son while in the dilapidated church. This serves as a little bit of closure for Glass. The next morning, Glass emerges from the hut feeling physically better and rejuvenated. No one can know exactly what happened on that bloody day — or why it happened the way that it did — but Punke’s combination of historical fact and logical speculation is certainly plausible. The basic facts are these:

This is a particularly excellent read for a cold winter night with a cup of something hot to drink near your elbow. Crazy Horse is aware of the military’s belief that they aren’t capable of planning any kind of strategy, which he believes will play out in their favour. The battle that inevitably ensues ends up being an epic one. A battle fought with an almost blind arrogance on one side, and brilliant strategy on the other.

Is it a good way to get to grips with The Revenant? It has a power to it, and it feels like a more authentic experience of the story. Perhaps that’s because the oral form of storytelling is so old, and intimate. You could imagine yourself around a campfire, getting drawn into The Revenant in this format; after all, it’s the perfect subject matter for such an approach. Although they don't appear directly, Lewis and Clark hang heavy over The Revenant. Why not learn a little more about America's first dynamic duo? Movie or TV ProductionsI need to requisition more provisions from St. Louis," said Kiowa. "I'll send a courier downstream tomorrow by canoe. He can carry a dispatch from you to your syndicate. You can reassure them before rumors about Colonel Leavenworth's debacle take root." This is why I love historical fiction – books like this. Everyone has heard of Crazy Horse (and I’d even been introduced to this real-life hero through Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee years ago in an undergrad lit class). And yet, I knew (or recalled) so little of this historic figure’s bravery. Now that's an intense trailer if we've ever seen one—makes us want to stay indoors forever. Articles and Interviews Henry lets this happen, saying it us up to Glass to enforce the punishment. In the movie, Henry is the one that finds Bridger after Glass’s return, and beats him up while Glass watches. Glass then later tells Henry that Bridger isn’t to blame. In the book, Glass is at the fort for a month and during that time Bridger avoids being around him. When Glass is about to head out, Bridger approaches him and apologies for everything. Glass replies telling Bridger to be his own man, rather than following a bad lead essentially.

After this incident, Glass is thrown into jail. He's bailed out by Kiowa, who begs him to embrace life rather than waste it by going after Fitzgerald again. To our surprise, Glass seems to accept this suggestion. The Revenant is a remarkable tale of obsession and the lengths that one man will go to for retribution. Due to his work with the U.S. State Department, Punke can't actually talk about The Revenant (even the movie version); this article from Maxim is the closest that we can get.Kit, Borys (April 15, 2014). "Leonardo DiCaprio, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu Team Up for 'Revenant' ". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved August 29, 2014. I think that is why we have the breathing shown so prominently in the end. He is still breathing, so he still lives to fight on. The story isn’t about getting his revenge, rather it is about learning that his revenge won’t fix anything. If his revenge stayed important till the end, he would have killed Fitzgerald himself. I love a good revenge story, even a revenge story where the person does indeed kill the people they are getting revenge on. (For example Kill Bill 1 and 2 are amazing, and that’s one where she follows through with it). But I absolutely love the ones where by the end, the person lets go of their revenge; realizing that their obsession has just further robbed them of who they are or were. If you enjoyed reading The Revenant, you may enjoy The Knife of Never Letting Go. Though not based on a true story, it shares the traveling-through-the-wilderness feel and tension of this book. Three summers ago, a friend with longtime family ties to Wyoming suggested that we visit Fort Phil Kearney while I was wandering around that part of the country. About the only thing that sounded remotely familiar to me at the time was the name of the Civil War general for whom the fort was named. I knew nothing about the history of the fort itself or what had happened there. Fort Phil Kearney is in such a remote location even today that it is easy to envision how scary it must have been there when the fort was constructed by military personnel in 1866, but it was only after hearing the fort’s history from an excellent Wyoming State Parks ranger that I wondered why it was still such a well-kept secret. Why were there no movies or novels about Fort Phil Kearney and the “Fetterman Fight” that happened there on December 21, 1866? After all, the Fetterman Fight, right up until the massacre of troops at the Battle of the Little Bighorn almost ten years later, was the worst defeat the US army ever suffered in battle against united tribes of American Indians.