The lead actor in the new survival drama Heart of the Beast possesses rugged, movie star good looks, does almost all his own stunts, and delivers an understated, deeply moving performance. Brad Pitt is also in this movie. Pitt’s great here, too, but the titular heart of this gripping and emotional film is the dog, who is a very, very good boy indeed.
The movie even opens on the soulful face of Odin (real name Uber), a former US Army combat dog who bears scars, has titanium in his mouth, and a prosthetic leg from injuries suffered in war. His handler/owner is James Belmont (Pitt), a now-retired Green Beret whose face we don’t clearly see until a few moments into the film. As much as James is the protagonist, the film is largely seen through the eyes of Odin.
James and Odin also both suffer from PTSD due to their combat experiences (yes, dogs get PTSD, too). But they have each other, and the bond between them is stronger than steel, a mutual devotion and dependence that keeps them going after James’ plane crashes during a camping trip in the remote wilds of Alaska.
After suffering a heart attack while piloting his Cessna, James is put through the wringer as he and Odin (aka Odie) battle the elements, the terrain, and the wildlife over the next several days as they hike roughly 50 miles to reach the nearest road and get help.
Assuredly directed by David Ayer from a heartfelt screenplay by Cameron Alexander, Heart of the Beast throws nearly every survival scenario possible at James and Odin. From the unrelenting challenges of navigating the land to enduring gnarly injuries to storms to wolves and a grizzly bear, James and Odin encounter everything that could kill you in the woods except for a masked, machete-wielding serial killer.
I was emotionally invested in every moment of their brutal journey because of their relationship. There are as many “please don’t make me cry” moments in Heart of the Beast as there are “God, that looks excruciating” ones, with both James and Odin coming to each other’s aid to help them survive (although, in truth, the dog is pretty useless when it comes to setting up and breaking down campsites!).
Heart of the Beast isn’t as overtly emotionally manipulative as you might expect from a dog movie, simply letting Odin’s face and reactions do the work. But Brad Pitt also makes their whole dynamic work so well because of his deeply human performance. As tough and quiet as James is, his wounded soul and world-weariness are made clear just by Pitt’s eyes. That‘s some damn fine eye acting there, Brad Pitt, especially in the film’s closing moments.
And in a career that’s seen him get famously battered and bloodied in films like Fight Club, Snatch, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Bullet Train, Fury, and even Meet Joe Black, to name a few, Brad Pitt gets the absolute shit kicked out of him for about three-quarters of Heart of the Beast’s run time. I can’t imagine just how physically grueling this shoot must have been for him.
Less effective are all the flashbacks to James and Odin’s combat experiences, not because they are poorly done but because they don’t convey much new information to the viewer. How both James and Odin ended up with their physical and psychological torments was made perfectly clear during a brief scene with a retired miner (J.K. Simmons) whom they encounter before the plane crash. The flashbacks could’ve been pared down, as they do tend to occasionally interrupt the flow. It’s a testament to how much I cared about James and Odin that I wanted the film to cut back to them and not leave me hanging.
Finally, on a technical level, I need to shout out the sumptuous landscape porn cinematography by Mauro Fiore and the haunting score by Jared Michael Fry. However, the CGI wolves and grizzly bear stick out like sore thumbs (although they’re nowhere near as bad as the CG dog in Call of the Wild). I understand the practical reasons why they had to be used, but the attention they draw distracts from the otherwise very realistic look of the film.
