Message 1:
From: Terminx900
I realize that we don't look for accuracy in a movie, but how long was the wagon train group in that cave? 3 months. It seems that even one cow or horse would last quite a while. And why didn't the group kill and eat Ives if he looked like he was going to cause trouble? The others had eaten the flesh of others, wouldn't they be as strong as Ives?
In the fact that he was the lone survivor do you think the movie was showing him as a super natural person who could over come the group?
Message 2:
From: DanzigerE2@aol.com
Ha ha, I know, I said to my brother once when watching the movie - those were some damn hungry people - didn't he say 3 oxen!?
I like the fact that Martha was too smart and got the heck out of there when she could. Man, poor woman must have thought they were all crazy. Can you imagine waltzing into camp at the end, one of the guys (Hart) you thought was dead and never returned is laying in his office, very much younger looking with his neck slit and then the one person you thought was sane (Ives) is laying under the one you thought was insane and part of the legend "Wendigo" (Boyd) at his side. Wouldn't you run? I am assuming that she never knew Ives was the nutty one. I mean she did stop Boyd from killing him at night - "You kill him, I kill you" bit. Did anyone else see that differently? I can imagine all the different points of view of the many scenes we could all have - it just makes for great discussion. But I do think it's funny as anything when Boyd asks if he "eat her too" and Ives says "As a matter of fact." That is a great part.
Ives is my favorite character. I adore his humor about the whole thing and Robert Carlyle is too perfect in that role. No one else could have done as great of a job.
Message 3:
From: Virginia (vlgood@email.msn.com)
As for the animals (two oxen, five or six horses, and a dog) only lasting the stranded travelers a month, I thought that was a real problem. They may only have had enough food for a month, but during that time they ate like kings! Then I realized that Colqhoun is probably just making it all up anyway. But it's not like him to have a hole in his story like that, so there's got to be another explanation. I think that as the travelers killed their animals, the smell wafted over the forest and the hills and brought every wolf, coyote, cougar and bear in northern California to their cave. It didn't take long to run out of ammo trying to protect their meat (although, any wild animals they did manage to kill would've added to their food supply. Let's not think too hard about that). They couldn't bring the meat into the cave with them, because then you'd have wolfpacks and grizzlies in the cave as well, campfire or no campfire. Also, it's possible that the wild animals killed some of their domestic animals at night, leaving mere scraps for the people to eat come daylight. Between the six people and innumerable predators and scavengers, all that meat disappeared way too fast.
Why didn't the other travelers kill Colqhoun when it became clear to them that he was killing and eating them? Either they never knew--or knew too late--who was doing the killing, but were more than happy (if horrified at themselves) to eat the bodies that resulted, or he killed them all in one bloody night and preserved the meat--pioneer jerky. He could have also made it look like the aforementioned wild animals did the killing--"You should've seen 'em! Wolves as big as buffalo! I nearly died myself trying to save him, but I was too late...hey, let's eat!"
