Story Analysis Of Nephtali And The Revenant

How would you represent nature in animation? Would it be a place where nature heals and helps the main characters process their inner turmoil? Or would it be an environment where nature takes no sides and serves as an indifferent backdrop?

Alejandro González Iñárritu’s, The Revenant, and Glen Keane’s short animated film, Nephtali, are two stories that provide polar opposite answers to these questions.

Using wilderness as a backdrop, both these movies portray a search for meaning and spiritual transcendence. Only The Revenant suggests that meaning cannot necessarily be found in nature.

In Nephtali, we see a ballerina who dances her way through an internal struggle in a forest. The animator of this piece, Glen Keane, was a 38-year veteran of the Walt Disney Studios before he left the studio in search of new opportunities. He describes in an interview how this longing for something new partly inspired the story in Nephtali. As he says, “As I left Disney, I didn’t know how I was going to express myself as an animator. I just knew that I needed something maybe deeper, something less commercial, more artistic, but I didn’t know how that would happen.”

He goes on to explain that Nephtali is like a visual poem in three movements that explores an idea of yearning for 'something more.' The story is built on Psalm 42, which begins with “As the deer pants for streams of water / so my soul pants for you, my God.” In the first part of the short-film, the ballerina is yearning for something, looking into the distance; Glen Keane describes it as a “spiritual calling.”

The second part of the short-film involves conflict. The ballerina is swept away by the wind and has to dance her way through this struggle.

The third and last part is about freedom. It is based on the blessing of Nephtali as it is described in the Bible: “Nephtali is a doe set free, that bears beautiful fawns.” Having searched through the forest, the ballerina thus finds what she is looking for.

Using nature as a backdrop for a spiritual search, Glen Keane communicates that we can find what we are looking for in nature and achieve a new level of consciousness. In essence, he shows us that God/spirituality is in nature.

The Revenant similarly portrays themes of yearning — yearning for meaning and transcendence. Throughout the film, the characters are always searching for something or someone; Elk Dog for his daughter; Hugh Glass for the revenge of his son; John Fitzgerald for wealth and security. Within all of these wishes lay prevalent religious/spiritual undertones, like we saw in Nephtali.

For one, the word “revenant” itself has supernatural associations – it implies returning from a long absence, even death; like a ghost.

In a similar religious/spiritual vein, Fitzgerald discusses the idea of God during a conversation with Bridger around 1.17. He promptly ends a story he is telling by stating that “it turns out, God is a squirrel.” By saying this, he highlights a sense of meaninglessness with life and what they are doing. He implies that God does not exist.

The characters all long for more than what they’ve got; they all communicate a sense of despair.

Unlike Nephtali, however, the characters in The Revenant do not find the meaning they are looking for. People are killed; Elk Dog’s daughter is raped; Glass gets his revenge – but is it ultimately fulfilling?

Like in Nephtali, the filmmakers have chosen to make nature the backdrop as the story unfolds.

Thus, both Nephtali and The Revenant express a desire for spiritual longing and have situated that search for meaning in nature. However, whereas Nephtali offers the hope that transcendence and meaning can indeed be found in nature, The Revenant, on the other hand, does not imbue nature with this power. In this movie, nature doesn’t offer the characters the consolidation they are looking for. Their suffering and interpersonal conflicts never cease to exist – not even as they search through the wilderness.