Only a year and a half ago, the Boy Scouts of America officially changed the name of the century-old youth organization to Scouting America, a move intended to be more inclusive than its gender-specific predecessor. (Currently, Scouting America includes roughly 200K female participants out of a total of 1 million.) Their motto, “Be Prepared!”, however, remains the same.
While those two words encapsulate Scouting America’s wilderness-related goals, they're also applicable to everyday life, even in a survival thriller like Heart of the Beast, a Brad Pitt-led film helmed by David Ayer, Pitt's Fury collaborator (The Beekeeper, Suicide Squad, End of Watch), which can — and should — be amended to: “Be prepared and bring your closest canine companion on your wilderness adventures, planned or unplanned, if you can.”
For Pitt’s character, James Belmont, a recently retired Special Forces (Green Beret) sergeant still nursing physical, emotional, and psychological injuries from his participation in one of America’s Forever Wars in the Middle East or Central Asia, flying deep into the untamed Alaskan wilderness in a single-engine plane with his longtime partner, Odin (Uber), a German Shepherd Belmont raised from a pup to senior combat canine status, isn’t so much a one-man, one-canine vacation as a much-needed sabbatical from human civilization.
Initially, all goes well in the Alaskan wilderness for Belmont and Odin, with Belmont bearing the cruel scars of war on his body and mind, until a sudden mid-air emergency forces Belmont to crash-land into an icy lake. Initially fearful of Odin’s permanent loss, Belmont finds Odin injured and unconscious, desperately needing unqualified, unconditional care, a care born not out of duty or obligation, but out of the love that Belmont gives him. Carefully, tenderly, Belmont nurses Odin back to relative health, but that’s a temporary respite: Belmont’s utilizes his well-honed orienteering skills to determine their location and their proximity — or lack thereof — to the nearest road and, with that road, the civilization Belmont sought to escape.
Finding the closest road involves an uncommonly grueling 58-mile trek through dense forests, rocky, mountainous regions, a shaky tree-bridge above potentially deadly rapids, and, of course, the not-quite-hospitable fauna, including at least one territorial bear and a ravenous pack of wolves. While rations are one issue for the duo, Belmont’s declining health and the combination of injuries old and new slow their progress across the unforgiving Alaskan wilderness.
Throughout, though, it’s the credibly developed, unshakeable bond between Belmont and Odin, essayed magnificently by Pitt and Uber, respectively, stunningly grand vistas of Alaska (actually New Zealand) courtesy of on-location shooting and Oscar-winner Mauro Fiore’s cinematography, and Ayer’s generally tight, taut direction that elevate an otherwise seemingly rote survival thriller into an emotionally impactful drama centered on Belmont and Odin.
As a filmmaker, Ayer has never been known for his narrative or thematic subtlety, and Heart of the Beast is no different from any of the previous entries in Ayer's filmography. Working from Cameron Alexander's Black List-approved screenplay, Ayer repeatedly flashes back to Belmont and Odin’s wartime experiences as a combat duo, specifically the firefight that left most of Belmont’s comrades dead or, like Odin, severely wounded. It’s a narrative device that should be employed, when it’s employed at all, to maximize emotional impact and keep the audience engaged, if not outright enthralled, in Belmont and Odin’s journey. Not surprisingly, that impact diminishes over time and through overuse.
Thankfully, Pitt and Uber (along with several other canine performers) save Heart of the Beast from Ayer's worst impulses, especially during the final stretch as Belmont’s physical struggles slow their progress across the Alaskan landscape, perhaps even ending before they reach the road at the end of their seemingly endless 58-mile trek.
Heart of the Beast opens Friday, September 25, only in movie theaters, via Paramount Pictures. Check the official site for showtimes.