Instructors:  Daniel Ross

The Revenant is a film by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, following his previous Academy Award winning film, Birdman, from the previous year.  In each film, there is a man being stripped down to his bare essentials by the forces of nature.  In Birdman, those forces are psychological and in the context of the theater where our gods have always been confronted. In The Revenant, they are both environmental and psychological.

Based on the legend of Hugh Glass, The Revenant tells the story of a mountain man contracted by the Rocky Mountain Fur Trading Co. in the early 1800’s to lead a group of hunters through the wilderness to collect furs. Glass barely survives an attack by a mother bear protecting her cubs.  Then, near death, he embarks on a journey to find and kill the men who abandoned him.  The magnificent landscapes displaying awe-inspiring beauty is perfectly matched with moments of savage brutality and meaninglessness.

This is a film to experience and feel in the body as there is something that is taken into the body that slowly works on the psyche of the viewer.  We know that whatever Glass experiences transforms him by the end of the film.  The term “revenant” refers to someone or something that was reborn, that was dead and came back to life.

This story is about a man who did not know he was spiritually dead until he almost dies and literally must crawl out of a grave to find his life.  Jung, in his studies of alchemy, writes about the journey of individuation as a coming together of the highest within us with the lowest within us, the farthest with the nearest. Leonardo DiCaprio, as Glass, takes us on that journey.  Join us for a viewing & discussion of this film.

Following the film, the Instructor will use a power point presentation to illustrate the Jungian themes in this film as a frame for the discussion.

About the Instructor
Dan Ross has worked in the field of Hospice for 30 years. His interest in Analytical Psychology grew from his work with dying patients and in 2008 he completed the Clinical Training Program at the Jung Institute of Chicago. He is currently working on completing the requirements for the Analyst Training Program. He has committed himself to the integration of Jungian psychotherapy in hospice care and to the training of clinicians as well as the public in the principles of Analytical Psychology. He serves as a Volunteer Therapist at the Center.