As a dog owner and fan of survival movies/shows (The Edge, Survivor, etc.) David Ayer’s Heart of the Beast starring Brad Pitt is right up my alley. Pitt plays James Belmont, a retired special forces commander who journeys through nature with his Army-trained combat dog, Odin, both of whom suffered physical and psychological trauma during their deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. After a harrowing plane crash in the Alaskan wilderness, James and Odin must stick together and rely on each other’s deep bond to survive. It’s a simple, yet effective premise. And for dog lovers like me who MUST pet every dog I come across, you will thoroughly engage with the rollercoaster of peril that Odin (specifically) must overcome.
The military backstory makes sense on paper and I don’t necessarily disagree with the character choice as a mechanism to set up the storied relationship between James and Odin, as well as convey their high levels of skills to survive. The authenticity would hit a lot harder if this was actually based on a true story, but this film is an original script from Cameron Alexander.
In this our year 2026, with the American military industrial complex exerting it’s will across the globe as you are reading this, including and especially the Middle East, the surface level sympathetic/patriotic themes of American warfighting just doesn’t have the same effect, compared to, say, if Heart of the Beast was released in 2005. In American cinema, the American military are almost always portrayed as the “good guys” and this is another example of whitewashing the intentions and actions of the powers that be at the time.
In conveying their collective PTSD, the flashbacks in this film not only are hastily executed, but there is no moral reflection of WHY James was actually there and what he actually felt about what he did there. He even brags about his kills in a fireside chat with JK Simmons. There’s a palpable element of war glorification that doesn’t mesh well with our lived reality in current times. Veterans deserve our respect (and they have mine), but for a film that relies on the trauma of war as the backbone for the protagonists’ character arcs, the end result just comes off as shallow and superficial.
From a purely survival standpoint, that is where Heart of the Beast really shines. There are constant perilous obstacles, challenges and threats that James and Odin must face to make it back to civilization are hugely entertaining: stalking wolves, threatening bears, treacherous water crossings, pounding storms (though I will say the CGI animals is pretty rough; like awful). Much of those sequences are quite thrilling and are especially impactful as James and Odin both need to help each other when the other is hurt and unable to go on. Pitt does a good job in the role and Odin is a marvel of an animal. Their bond sings off the screen and is the emotional core of this film.
Thematically superficial, Heart of the Beast is a decent film. Engaging survival thrills and scenery. The bond between James (Pitt) and Odin (the dog) is a wonderful emotional core. But David Ayer should have asked for a lot bigger CGI budget.
