Man in the Wilderness **** (1971, Richard Harris, John Huston, Henry Wilcoxon, John Bindon, Prunella Ransome, Henry Wilcoxon, Ben Carruthers, Percy Herbert, Dennis Waterman) – Classic Movie Review 9122

Director Richard C Sarafian’s 1971 adventure Man in the Wilderness is a gory but involving great outdoors tale propelled with a rousing turn from Richard Harris as Zachary Bass, a beaver hunter marooned in the wilds of the Canadian North-West and left for dead by his fellow trappers after being attacked by a grizzly bear.

He survives his wounds and the weather, dining on the rabbit and fish he catches, and then goes hunting for the men who abandoned him, in this gritty revenge story based on two actual historical incidents in the early days of the 19th century. Both Man in the Wilderness and the 2015 The Revenant, which was based on a 2002 book, are fictional accounts of an incident in the real life of the fur trapper frontiersman Hugh Glass, so the two movies are very similar.

Director Sarafian puts a lot of sting in the strong tale, with the help of a good-looking production, fine Technicolor cinematography by Gerry Fisher and a compellingly written script by Jack DeWitt.

Also in the cast are John Bindon, Prunella Ransome, Henry Wilcoxon, Ben Carruthers, Percy Herbert, Dennis Waterman, Sheila Raynor, Norman Rossington, James Doohan, Bryan Marshall, Robert Russell, Bruce M Fischer, Dean Selmier, Manolo Landau, William Layton, Judith Furse, Ines Acosta and Joaquin Solis.

Jack DeWitt later wrote a novelisation of his screenplay for the film.

Man in the Wilderness is directed by Richard C Sarafian, runs 105 minutes, is made by Limbridge and Wilderness Films, is released by Warner Bros. (1971) (US) and Columbia-Warner Distributors (1971) (UK), is written by Jack DeWitt, is shot in Technicolor by Gerry Fisher, is produced by Sandy Howard and C O Erickson, is scored by Johnny Harris, and is designed by Dennis Lynton Clark.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9122

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