To Forgive, or not to Forgive, is the Question. By William Van Zyl. Published in October 2022.

The Extravagant Podcast

EXCERPT:

At last, he gets him.

They are both bloodied, exhausted to death. The tomahawk slices through some of his fingers. The assailant looks at his hand in disbelief. He is missing a couple of them, blood starts to trickle from the exposed flesh. It colours the white snow ruby-red. The white bone of Fitzgerald is visible, But only for a few seconds. He instinctively tears a piece of his shirt off with his right hand. He wraps the dirty shredded fabric around his hand, ready to continue the fight. The pulsing blood from his hand is under control. They are both lying on the ground. Hugh Glass (DiCaprio) can’t get up, he has a severe stab wound to the back of his upper leg. His hamstring twitches from the trauma. He grabs his leg and screams.

‘AArrggghh!’

He had been chasing down John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) in the frozen water and melting snow of the mountains in Nebraska. Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio), the legendary fur trapper who survived a grizzly bear attack, had been trekking through the snowy terrain to track down the man who betrayed him – Fitzgerald had killed his son. He will pay. Glass shows the same grizzly-bear determination he had modelled months ago. Glass became a legend for surviving a grizzly bear attack, left for dead, and walked over 320 Km back to the fur-trading camp.

Glass is ruthless, fearless, and unforgiving. Like a groaning grizzly bear, his eyes are locked onto his target –Fitzgerald. He will destroy him. He has to take him out. Fitzgerald has to pay for taking the life of his young son. He will avenge his son’s death. John Fitzgerald will pay with his life.

Synopsis:

As you’ve gathered, the true story and the legend have been turned into a movie. I watched this movie, The Revenant, in September of 2022 on the Maori TV Channel in New Zealand. The film was released in 2015, and DiCaprio won an Oscar for the leading actor’s role in 2016 at the Hollywood awards. Leonardo made a stunning speech on the night, calling for action. Over and above the list of people he thanked graciously, his focus was on saving the environment. See the 49 million views on YouTube of his speech. ‘We have to take action for our environment,’ he said.

https://youtu.be/xpyrefzvTpI

It is 1823. In short, the story goes like this:

While exploring the uncharted wilderness in 1823, frontiersman Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) sustains life-threatening injuries from a brutal grizzly bear attack. When a member (Tom Hardy) of his hunting team kills his young son (Forrest Goodluck) and leaves him for dead, Glass must utilise his survival skills to find a way back to civilisation. Grief-stricken and fuelled by vengeance, the legendary fur trapper treks through the snowy terrain to track down the man who betrayed him.

The frontiersman, Hugh Glass - the legend who survived a grizzly bear attack.