The movie “Heart of the Beast” is arguably the greatest dog movie ever made, with the best acting performance in Brad Pitt’s career. Like “The Revenant” (2015) starring Leonardo DiCaprio, the months of hardship in the wilderness and danger in this film were as impressive as any movie I have ever seen. There is a high probability, for the same reasons DiCaprio won an Oscar for The Revenant, that Brad Pitt will win a Best Actor Oscar for this film.
Both Pitt and DiCaprio are very wealthy and successful actors, and it was hard to understand why either one of them would take roles like these at any stage in their careers. There were many parts of this film where it was impossible to figure out how they were able to shoot scenes of imminent danger with a high probability of major injury or death to both Brad Pitt and the dog Odin (Uber II). Then add months of living in the worst conditions in the world to film a movie.
Odin is a highly trained military/combat German Shepherd who served alongside Brad Pitt’s character, retired Army Special Forces veteran James Belmont. Odin lost his leg in the war in Afghanistan, has several scars on his face, and lost several teeth when he was hit by a brick. The intelligence and physical abilities, even with a prosthetic leg in this movie, are off-the-charts incredible. At times Odin seemed more like a superhero than a dog.
In the first 10% of this movie, a traveler played by J.K. Simmons runs into James and Odin for one night of drinking and talking before leaving them. I thought that this part of the movie seemed out of place and more filler, unrelated to this survival story.
This movie was filmed in New Zealand, but it represents the wilderness of Alaska, where James Belmont pilots a small plane that lands only on water. As in just about all stories about Alaska, its harsh wilderness and flying a small plane mean things do go wrong, putting James and Odin in severe danger many times in this impressive but fictional story. Through their years together in the war and now in Alaska, the love between Olin and James is as powerful as any relationship I have ever seen between a dog and a human being. There are many scenes in this movie that are hard to watch because the connection between this man and dog is so strong. The ending was as powerful and difficult to watch as any movie I have ever seen.
As almost everyone knows, the bond that humans have with dogs and cats have never been complicated. Human relationships with dogs and cats have always been simple and binary, without any of the insane complications that come with humans. I have never seen a movie where the well-known phrase “dog is God spelled backwards” has been truer.
The Rotten Tomatoes rating for this movie is 88%, with my rating in line with the audience rating of 97% and a strong recommendation to see this great film.
