“I love you so goddamn much, Odin” Belmont (Brad Pitt to the dog, Uber)
You will love this survival so much as well. Unadorned as it is with surplus, superficial nostalgia and full as it is with realism from the Alaskan wilderness (actually dynamic New Zealand). Not an original plot point anywhere but such feeling coming out of the camera that it feels like no one else ever depicted the loneliness and danger of being stranded after your small Cessna crashed.
Special Forces (ret) James Belmont and his specially-trained combat dog, Odin, trudge over Alaskan wilderness to find safety at the end of 58 miles. Both actors are deeply respectful of each other as Belmont tends to Odin’s wounds and Odin pulls him to safety more than once. Not at any moment is safety guaranteed, especially when they encounter a pack of stalking, albeit CGI wolves.
What director David Ayer and writer Cameron Alexander do offer is a sympathy for both actors based on their love for each other and their willingness to face odds like an enormous bear (think of the scary one in Revenant attacking Leo), a parlous tree bridge over rapids, and the wolves to harrowing effect. Even mother nature intercedes as Belmont struggles with his own physical weaknesses.
In some sense is the loveliness of Castaway and Jack London with a darker promise from the wilderness of this Alaska. In all senses, however, Heart of the Beast is more like Heart of Darkness in its dread fostered by an indifferent Nature.
In the end, you might have difficulty finding a dry eye; it’s that good depending on your sentimental index.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts NPR’s It’s Movie Time and Cinema Classics as well as podcasts Back Talk and Double Take (recently listed by Feedspot as two of the ten best NPR Movie Podcasts) out of WCBE 90.5 FM, Columbus, Ohio.Contact him at JohnDeSando52@gmail.com