Tonight on Netflix: This western is one of the best in movie history, and as improbable as it may seem, it’s inspired by a true story.

The year is 1823. Wild and still unexplored in the giant forest spaces of America, a small band of trappers is making progress. When they were fiercely attacked by the Arikara tribe and many men were killed in the battle, a man named Hugh Glass decided to continue his expedition on foot, away from the river to avoid another skirmish.

But to avoid the first threat, Glass heads straight for another, much more terrifying one. While traveling in search of game, he unfortunately encounters a colossal bear. He tries to protect the two little ones accompanying him, then throws himself into the trap with all his might.

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One of the best westerns of all time

Just a year after winning his first Oscar with Birdman in 2015, Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu repeated the feat with The Revenant. Voted the 8th best Western of all time by AlloCiné viewers (who gave it an excellent average of 4,220 out of 5 stars), this relentless and wildly wild survival is a true cinematic uppercut.

With sumptuous cinematography and breathtaking sequence shots, The Revenant primarily offers a boulevard for Leonardo DiCaprio, whose masterful performance in the lead role earned him his first (and so far only) statuette in a long time.

A fascinating true story

If The Terrifying Adventures of Trapper Hugh Glass is so captivating, it’s clearly thanks to the talents of Iñárritu and DiCaprio, but also for another very specific reason: it’s inspired by an incredible true story.

It happened in the state of South Dakota in the early 19th century. A true trapper of about forty years of age, named Hugh Glass, encountered a terrible grizzly bear there and fought fiercely with it. A commemorative plaque still stands today at the site of the battle, near the Grand River.

At the end of the confrontation, Glass was able to escape with serious injuries to his back, head and throat. Abandoned for dead by his traveling companions (who themselves killed the grizzly bear, contrary to what we see in Iñárritu’s film), it took him six weeks before he was able to return to his refuge at Fort Kiowa.

Before The Revenant, his story had already been adapted for the cinema in Savage Caravan by Richard C. Sarafian, played by Richard Harris.

(re)discover this movie trailer…