Opening in theaters on September 25 is ‘Heart of the Beast,’ directed by David Ayer and starring Brad Pitt, J.K. Simmons, Anna Lambe, and Uber.
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Initial Thoughts
There’s a scene in ‘Heart of the Beast’ in which Brad Pitt’s retired Army Special Forces officer James Belmont falls from a great height into rushing rapids and is carried away by the current, breaking his arm and slamming his head into rocks – all while having a heart attack. It really taxes the suspension of disbelief, but that’s the kind of movie director David Ayer (reuniting with his ‘Fury’ star) has made here: call it ‘survival porn,’ as he throws every challenge possible at Pitt – and then piles on even more.
‘Heart of the Beast’ is about nature and trauma and isolation and war and a bunch of other tough-guy topics that Ayer (‘The Beekeeper,’ ‘Suicide Squad’) likes to tackle in his work. But it’s mainly about the bond between Belmont and his beloved pet, a former combat dog named Odin, and while that bond is sweet, heartfelt, and the captivating soul of the film, it’s part of a heavy-handed story that’s stacked with well-worn tropes.
Story and Direction
Weirdly, ‘Heart of the Beast’ opens with a scene that sort of undermines a lot of what happens in the film. We won’t say what it is here, and in one sense we understand the reasons for this choice by Ayer and screenwriter Cameron Alexander, but it’s a decision that has repercussions for what follows. And what follows starts out benignly enough: Belmont, now retired after 30 years in the military, flies his private plane to a beautiful, peaceful lake in a remote part of Alaska for some fishing and camping with his dog Odin.
Both suffer from PTSD: Belmont has sepia-toned dreams of being under fire and getting injured in what looks like a stereotypical Middle East location, while Odin will abruptly get rattled and start showing signs of anxiety triggered by certain sounds. The pair clearly plunged into danger together and pulled each other out numerous times. Odin has also lost a few teeth and a front leg, with titanium replacements for both, while Belmont has his own physical scars to go along with his psychological ones.
These two damaged souls share a deep bond, one that is gravely tested when Belmont suffers a heart attack at the controls as they begin their flight home. The plane crashes but the two miraculously survive – one of several moments we found hard to believe, especially since Odin is actually thrown from the plane. Belmont, still having cardiac issues, manages to get out of the plane as it sinks into a lake and somehow also goes back and gets two crates full of survival gear out.
Once he gets himself and Odin patched up, it’s a 58-mile hike to the nearest road, a journey during which Belmont and Odin not only face the aforementioned rapids, but crossing those rapids via fallen tree trunks, a standoff with a CG bear (Odin stares him down), and an assault by a pack of CG wolves. With New Zealand standing in for Alaska, Ayer and cinematographer Mauro Fiore shoot the hell out of the scenery, but there are moments like the encounters with the digital animals and a couple of scenes where it seems like Pitt is acting against a Volume screen that take us out of the story.
Once Belmont and Odin set out on their journey, the movie enters a rinse-and-repeat mode for most of its middle section, as they walk from one dangerous incident to the next. Throw in some overt sentimentality and few more repetitions of Belmont’s flashbacks to battle, and ‘Heart of the Beast’ hovers near self-parody at points. But Pitt’s own rugged determination – even in the face of increasingly grave injuries – pulls it back to Earth, leading to a moving conclusion.
Cast and Performances
Brad Pitt has settled into two basic modes of acting in recent years: either broadly comic or understatedly taciturn. He’s appropriately the latter here, while also physically quite believable as the rugged, resourceful Belmont. Yet the character is a bit of a cypher, admitting that he’s a career military man with no family and essentially no friends (alluding that he lost them all in conflict) except for Odin. Pitt’s performance is subtle and empathetic, but we glean so little of Belmont that we remain emotionally distant from him.
We have no such problem with Odin. Played by four credited dogs (but primarily by one named Uber), this German shepherd mix has big, soulful eyes, an expressive face, and an undeniable presence that wins the viewer over from the get-go. As with a canine lead in any film like this, he’s an unabashed scene-stealer who is, in the end, the movie’s heart and soul. The bond between Odin and Belmont is the film’s most palpable, resonant element, and kudos to Pitt, Odin, and the latter’s handlers for making that work onscreen.
Only two other characters appear onscreen in any meaningful way, one of them being a fellow outdoorsman and retiree named Watkins who comes upon Belmont’s camp, played by J.K. Simmons in full grizzly man mode. He and Pitt share a few beers and some conversation, the kind where the menfolk draw out their words real slow and tend to repeat themselves.
Final Thoughts
As the film itself states at the end, untold numbers of military dogs have saved thousands of lives, both on the field of combat and off. That is a lovely, worthwhile idea from which to springboard a movie, and ‘Heart of the Beast’ shows flashes of it. But seating that premise in a wilderness survival thriller that simply puts its protagonists through familiar paces does the idea somewhat of a disservice.
‘The Revenant,’ ‘All is Lost,’ ‘The Grey’… ‘Heart of the Beast’ joins a long list of survival thrillers in which a single person (or sometimes more than one) must battle the odds and fight to survive against the unyielding, indifferent power of nature. As far as that aspect of the film goes, despite everything Ayer puts our two pals through, there’s not enough here to set it apart from any other entry in this genre. What makes it all hang together is the simple love story – between two friends who have seen both the best and the worst that life has to offer together — at the heart of the movie.
‘Heart of the Beast’ receives a score of 65 out of 100.
What is the plot of ‘Heart of the Beast’?
After a harrowing plane crash, Special Forces officer James Belmont (Brad Pitt) and his combat dog, Odin, find themselves stranded deep in the Alaskan wilderness. Together, they are forced into a brutal fight for survival against the elements as they face their greatest battle yet.
Who is in the cast of ‘Heart of the Beast’?
- Brad Pitt as James Belmont
- J.K. Simmons as Watkins
- Anna Lambe as Amber
- Uber as Odin
