Brotherhood of the Wolf (fight 3 of 5)

Here’s where le merde gets real, as they say.

“Venez à moi, mon frere!”

3) Team Fronsac vs the Beast and the Brotherhood

The Fighters:

• Gregoire de Fronsac, stepping into the action for the first time so far. A rationalist, scientist and knight of King Louis’ court, Fronsac had been dispatched to track down the Beast but ended up playing the patsy in a political game. Now he’s out to take care of business. Played by Samuel Le Bihan.
  • Armed with: An array of small firearms, which he proves adept with during a pre-fight preparatory sequence.
• Mani, Fronsac’s quiet Iroquois friend. This time stripped down to nothing but a loincloth, boots and some freaky ceremonial war paint. Played by Mark Dacascos.
  • Armed with: A sweet tomahawk.
• Thomas d’Apcher, son of the local marquis. Actually a pretty decent & brave chap, despite looking like a spoiled fop. Also the story’s narrator, so he’ll probably survive this. Played by Jérémie Renier, not to be confused with the guy who plays Hawkeye.
  • Armed with: A crossbow, which is kinda funny for the above reason.
• The Beast, a large jungle predator covered in tough and spiky armor. It’s well-trained and bred for viciousness, though its masters also apparently lets it roam free at times. There’s some ambiguity over exactly what the Beast is– we never see it outside of the armor, and the dialogue doesn’t make it explicit. All we’re told at the end is that its trainer brought back “a new kind of animal” (or “a strange beast” depending on which translation you’ve heard/how good my memory is). In interviews, Christophe Gans has claimed the beast is definitely a lion. It doesn’t really move like a lion (says me, the big lion expert), but then the CGI is so bad it doesn’t really move like anything. Others think it’s a rare hybrid between a lion and another large cat (like maybe it’s a liger, GOSH!). Personally I like the interpretation that it really is a new, heretofore undiscovered breed from the depths of the jungle, but YMMV. Played by various computer and animatronic special effects.
  • Armed with: Teeth, claws, sharp armor and a couple hundred pounds of predatory muscle.
• Those gypsies again, including La Bavarde. It’s their own home turf and they’re more threatened than ever, so they’re much more nasty than last time. Their mysterious leader also plays a small but pivotal role.
  • Armed with: Their hook claws and torches.

The real wolves of Gevaudan also make an appearance.

The Setup: After being coerced into a cover-up faking the death of the Beast to avoid embarrassing the government, Fronsac returned to Gevaudan in order to get all kissy with Marianne, a local young noble he’d met there. But their rendezvous was interrupted by a strangely targeted attack from the Beast, convincing him it was time to put the monster, and the men behind it, down for good. One late afternoon he, Mani, and young Marquis-to-be Thomas, form a small but determined hunting party and set a number of traps for the Beast. Mani even feeds d’Apcher a peyote-like substance to get his head in the game.

You’d accept an unknown hallucinogenic substance from this man, wouldn’t you?

A local wolf pack, who have some sort of connection with Mani, offer their assistance by swarming the Beast and driving it to the hunters. They have skin in this game too, since many are blaming wolves for the creature’s attacks.

Note: I’m combining the “battle” of the Beast with Mani’s subsequent human brawl, as they follow directly after one another and the former is too short for its own entry yet too interesting to skip.

The Fight: The first half of the hunt is ambitious, if not overly spectacular. The Beast gets corralled by wolves into Team Fronsac’s prepared area, and they do everything they can to nudge, lure or threaten it into the series of traps they’ve set up. Two of the traps, basically cages or walls made of flimsy bamboo, and don’t hold the Beast for long, if at all. But one device, an enormous swinging log covered with spikes, nails the monster but good and sends it flying.

THUNK

The heroes also give their prey some minor wounds in the form of a tomahawk to the snout and a pistol shot in the haunch. But it gives back pretty good by chomping down on Thomas’ arm and dragging him for a while. When the wounded creature retreats, Mani pursues while Fronsac stays behind to tend to the wounded aristocrat.

Mani tracks the creature to the catacombs that serve as its masters’ base of operations. Looking around, he sees evidence of the cult’s existence and even has a nice moment with some of the kenneled dogs the Beast uses for “practice.” But he soon realizes he’s in the belly of a more figurative beast, and he was probably wearing his Bad Idea Loincloth when he decided to come alone.

Should have brought Scott Wolf as backup

Now it’s the fight of Mani’s life, and if the gypsy punks aren’t holding back, neither is he. War Paint Mani is absolutely brutal in his dismantlement of the thugs ganging up on him, lashing out with deadly precision, often with his tomahawk. He punches, kicks, slices, and guts them one at a time. Most memorably, he chops off one enemy’s clawed hand and throws it in the torso of another.

But it’s not enough. Mani’s in a tight space and he’s surrounded. For the first time, he gets actually hurt, both by cheap shots: one a kick to the face and another by a claw raking down his back. He doesn’t slow down, and for a while it looks like he might survive… until he grabs one attacker who turns out to be La Bavarde, and while he hesitates to bring the axe down, he gets shot in the back by the group’s masked leader. Unable to move, he’s carried away by the surviving villains, laughing at their foe’s fate. We cut to an unknown amount of time later (the light levels haven’t changed much, but it’s implied the gypsies had “fun” with Mani before finishing him off), as a pair of baddies unceremoniously toss Mani’s broken body down a small hill. Fronsac finds him later, and doesn’t take it well.

“He was only two days from retirement!”

This extended battle marks a turning point for the movie, after which things are going to be not just more focused but even more intense in an already bonkers film. The plot thickens, even as some of the mysteries are being revealed (hey, you think that mysterious villain with the gross-looking right arm could possibly be the snooty, paranoid & hostile Jean-Francois, who claims to have lost his right arm while hunting big game in Africa? You get a cookie), and the action ratchets up from here on. Mani’s death becomes a catalyst for real changes, especially with Fronsac (see below).

Meanwhile, this whole sequence is really well-done. While it’s short and there’s not a lot to it, the showdown with the Beast here has some inventive staging and is a nice change-up from the rest of the film’s action. It’s almost a light version of the climax of Predator, so that’s hardly a bad thing. The second half, with Mani’s last stand, is more traditional but really intense, with the heavy violence and serious music really selling his desperation. It’s rough seeing such a likeable character go out this way, but it of course helps set up the retaliation to come.

All in all, an excellent mid-film mini-climax.

Grade: A-

Coming Attractions: Gregoire lets his hair down.

“They see me lurkin, they hatin….”