Heart of the Beast (dir. David Ayer)

By: Adam Freed

Simply stated, Mother Nature is undefeated.  This undisputed fact of life is established early in storytelling, and has become as inevitable as the sun setting in the west.  From preteens internalizing Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet, to armchair adventurers living out Jack London’s winter woodland fantasies, there is no greater antagonist historically to man’s survival than nature herself.  No broad swath of inhospitable earth better exemplifies this danger than the Alaskan interior.  Brutal and indifferent to the plight of man, Alaska carries itself with the broad power of a Clydesdale, carelessly whipping its tail at the human flies that seek to inhabit its land.  With his latest film, Heart of the Beast, Director David Ayer (Fury, The Beekeeper) attempts to blaze a new trail through the already saturated “man tempts nature” survivalist sub-genre.  Fortunately for Ayer, he doesn’t travel alone, as he is accompanied by megawatt leading man Brad Pitt (Se7en, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) and Uber, a gorgeous and stoic German Sheppard who, without question, will become the lasting memory of Heart of the Beast.

As is usually the case in survivalist films, there is little need for manufactured human drama. David Ayer allows the simplistic premise of Heart of the Beast to establish the only dramatic stakes his film requires. Retired Army Special Forces Command Sergeant Major James Belmont (Pitt), left his service to his nation after losing all but one of his fellow soldiers. His lone remaining comrade in arms is Odin, a highly trained military canine who, like his owner, is bestowed with lethal capabilities, and an equally powerful sense of loyalty. Their partnership is tested after an unfortunate aerial accident leaves Belmont and Odin stranded in the midst of Alaska’s interior, a visually delicious, yet devilishly daunting landscape from which to seek subsistence.  The unexpected wrinkle in Belmont’s compact hail mary heave at survival is the touching friendship he shares with Odin.  The longstanding Hollywood adage that urges the avoidance of working with animals is wrought asunder by the impeccably nuanced and connective performances from Pitt and Uber, a bond made possible by the film’s animal coordinator Andrew Simpson (Lioness, John Wick: Chapter 4).

Heart of the Beast doesn’t have much to offer by way of plot, recycling mostly tropic and predictable elements from previous survival films, most notably, The Edge (1997) and The Grey (2011) two films that similarly find their protagonists at the mercy of the jaws and claws of nature.  There is an argument to be made that Heart of the Beast is at its best when it avoids the adrenaline bait of CGI bears and wolves and instead leans into the cool looming threat of death on account of the lethal combination of wind, water and suboptimal temperatures.  David Ayer, who has built his career on the transportive joys of excess may have been wise to take a page from Sean Penn’s directorial debut Into the Wild (2007), in which his protagonist finds nature to be daunting enough, sans any manufactured battles with fanged wildlife.

While there is plenty of room for consternation about the way the adventure within Heart of the Beast unfolds, there is also an unquestionable warmth to be found within any film that visually celebrates the Alaskan wild with such respect and grandeur.  In addition, there is a profoundly touching relationship between man and his dog, a path well-worn on screen, and yet captured from a fresh angle in Ayer’s film. Pitt, still handsome if not slightly worn, proves the perfect choice to embody the former soldier as the aging actor is able to quietly blend into the story’s pristine scenery, understanding that his is not the centerpiece performance of the film, a distinction that belongs to his memorable canine costar.  

Target Score 6.5/10 - David Ayer’s Heart of the Beast is a touching, albeit predictable, survivalist tale about two former soldiers, both carrying with them the mental and physical scars of combat.  Spending 100 minutes with an effortlessly inviting Brad Pitt and his remarkably nuanced canine companion makes overlooking many of the film’s shortcomings a rather easy burden to bear.