Episode 70. Man Eater: Ravenous (1999)

Andrea and Alex head West to explore the notions of Manifest Destiny and the Frontier Myth in Antonia Bird’s Ravenous. Combining historical context through a modern gaze, Ravenous proves you are who you eat.

REQUIRED READING

Ravenous. Dir. Antonia Bird, 1999.

EXTRA CREDIT

Manifest Destiny – An overview of the philosophical American mandate to head West.

Cannibal (2006) – a German film based on the true story of Armin Meiwes, who ate a man he met online.

“You Are Who You Eat” – Bitch Flicks’ essay on Ravenous, with a discussion on how it handles “manpain.”

Frontier Violence – NYT 1974 article on Richard Slotkin’s recontextualization of the American Frontier Myth.

Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature, by Margaret Atwood.

A Tribe Called Red – Canadian Indigenous rap group.

Tanya Tagaq – Canadian Inuk throat singer.

LISTEN

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8 thoughts on “Episode 70. Man Eater: Ravenous (1999)

  1. Once again you two (my favorite faculty) “saved my bacon” with the timing of this one. Made it worth getting out of bed at 430am on a miserable day in the Divided States of America. If I end up with a tax return from my Viagra-addled “president” a good chunk of it is coming your way!!

    Thanks as always for an amazing, in-depth tour through a movie I had never heard of and intend to watch this weekend.

  2. Krista Gehring says:

    As I was listening to this episode, a familiar name came up – Alferd Packer. Here’s a little piece of trivia – Trey Parker and Matt Stone (of Cannibal: The Musical) both went to my alma mater, the University of Colorado, Boulder. This is likely where they were introduced to the stories about Packer. It just so happens in the student union building the food court is named after him. It’s called the Alferd Packer Grill with a bunch of little places to eat. My favorite? The Mexican food at El Canibal 😂 https://www.colorado.edu/umc/dining/alferd-packer

  3. Nh Sci says:

    Great episode – a lot of, uh, food for thought. As a palate cleanser, here’s a very tangentially-related song called “Not a Step Back” by feminist metal duo Jucifer:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMZ91G5npfs

  4. My colleague and I do a psychology podcast (Apply Topically) and gave The Faculty of Horror a big shout-out in a recent episode. We started talking about diet and mental health and ended up talking Wendigo! Thanks Faculty!

  5. LivingDeadPunk says:

    Hearing you talk about Alferd Packer reminded me of this song and truly bizarre video by C.W. McCall, who was famous for the song Convoy.

  6. Alice says:

    Unforgiven is a deconstruction of the macho mythology in Westerns. I’ll admit it has been years since I’ve seen it and considering it was an Eastwood film made in 1992, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were problematic elements to it looking back.

    However, it’s not fair to use Unforgiven as an example of a Western that is “steeped in this macho antihero, Dirty Harry typed thing” when the movie’s main theme is why that macho mythology is a lie, a lie that leads to nothing but destruction and misery for everyone, including the antihero.

  7. FictionIsntReal says:

    Cannibalism was quite real in human history. Including that discovered in the New World:
    https://westhunt.wordpress.com/2018/06/25/tower-of-skulls/
    If you go back far enough into Europe’s past you’d also find it common there, but by the time European conquistadors arrived they found it quite alien.

    Lots of people moved to the United States or Canada because it was better than where they came from (for the United States, many of them are coming from the parts of Mexico that president Polk declined to annex). People who don’t like living in those countries could still leave for somewhere more to their liking, and some of them actually do.

    This isn’t the first time Michael Nyman has scored a cannibal movie. One of the most notable films he’s worked on is “The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover”.

    A Tribe Called Red (with Tanya Tagaq) contributed music to Cory Finley’s directorial debut Thoroughbreds. I highly recommend that film, though it’s more of a dark comedy than a horror movie.

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