'Heart of the Beast's' Heart Skips Over Its Weaker Beats
Not every movie needs to be perfect to be good. Some can be wholesome and get by on their humility alone. Heart of the Beast has some weak spots, but its spirit overcomes them. It’s about the dogs of war we don’t think about. There’s a reason dogs and humans share an inseparable connection. Dogs love and protect their owners. They're thrilled to see you when you get home from work or when you're out on the battlefield. It’s a film about PTSD and how it’s not just humans who can experience it. The Heart of the Beast is the kind of flick we got in the 90s that isn’t around much anymore.
The title could be confused with The Dog Stars. Except one movie is a poorly produced adaptation from an old director running low on stamina, and the other is actually interesting. Plus, it’s about dogs without being overly sentimental. The movie starts at an intentionally slow pace. James Belmont (Brad Pitt) flies his plane around the beautiful Alaskan mountains. When he lands, he spends some time with Odin (Uber). After getting into a plane crash a few moments later, James winds up injured and stranded in the wilderness. It’s not a movie where Brad Pitt and a dog fight a bunch of bad guys like they’re in a video game. It’s a simple tale about the effects of warfare on man and animal as both try to survive.
James is untrusting of people. When he runs into Watkins (J.K. Simmons), he’s hostile toward him as if the world has ended. Despite Watkins showing nothing but kindness, James is too traumatized by war to connect with seemingly anyone. Odin is the only one he trusts because they’ve been through hell together. The movie falls a bit short here. The picture’s minimalism is its strength and its weakness. Although we get flashbacks to the war James and Odin were involved in, we don’t get any backstory, context, or even production value for those moments. The flashbacks are cheap, sepia-toned, cross-cut shots, set against what's presumably a green screen in the director’s backyard. This wouldn’t be a complaint if the movie didn’t cut to it so frequently. In these moments, it looks like a Lifetime movie that might translate the idea, but not the feeling. Maybe that choice echoed what older films did by using phony-looking flashbacks set to a single color tone. To director David Ayer's credit, he never overstays the movie’s welcome. Nor should he break his intention. A little more pizzazz with the sets and even brief dialogue samples of some backstory would have made the movie even more impactful, however.
Although it is a simple survival film, Heart of the Beast underneath is about a guy whose own trauma gets him to where he is. James can’t cope with society because, after what he’s seen, how can he just go out in public and smile like everything is okay? James flying around, then being stranded after a crash, may have given him that old rush of being out in the field again. Granted, he didn’t really want to be lost, but unconsciously, soldiers can sometimes live only off survival when they’ve lost human connection. Not only soldiers, but everyone. When we’re alone, a dog is the greatest companion we can have. Yet, we never think about the dreams the dogs have.
The past haunts Odin. He wakes up barking from nightmares of war. James and Odin share the same dreams, bringing them closer than any human can. An animal may die soon, but their love goes on forever. If you want to know if the dog lives or dies, the studio is revealing it themselves. And for good reason. Many folks were upset when The Dog Stars’ poor marketing misled them. Since it never really was a movie about dogs. Also, they probably don’t want a Marley & Me situation. Suffice it to say, the ending may leave you with a little tear of joy. The Heart of the Beast is one of the best doggy films you can put on for your family. It's a complete tonal shift from Air Bud. With a satisfying ending, The Heart of the Beast wins the audience’s heart. The chemistry between Uber and Brad Pitt is genuine; if you’ve seen Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, you know Brad likes his big dogs. Despite its overly simplistic story, Heart of the Beast contains a wonderful love letter to veterans and their pets wrapped in a classic ’ 90s-era Hollywood Bo.
