The Revenant is a 2015 American frontier survival and revenge movie, directed, co-produced, and co-written by Alejandro G. Iñárritu. The Revenant premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on December 16, 2015, and had a limited release on December 25, 2015, followed by a wide release on January 8, 2016. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Glass, and co-stars Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson and Will Poulter. It received positive reviews, mostly for its performances, direction, and cinematography. The Revenant and DiCaprio won a series of awards and prize.

The film is based in part on Michael Punke’s novel with the same title, inspired by the experiences of frontiersman Hugh Glass in 1823, in what is now Montana and South Dakota. It tells the story that a trapper badly was hurt by a bear, and robbed of fortune, and abandoned in the wild, but he struggled to survived through suffer and began to revenge. The R-rank film receives all kinds of criticism. In the amazingly beautiful nature, the violent and brutal story just happens here. The dark sides of human nature, the thirst to survive, the slaughter against Native Americans, hunting against wild animals without restraint, sexual assault, are all interweaved in the limited time and space to give people to think about the history.

The trappers hunted for pelts.

The North West coast of North America of 18th century first came the Russians. Danish explorer Vitus Bering, who worked for Russia, found groups of sea otters and seals on Coleman Dole Islands. They sold the sea otter and seal furs to Chinese merchants at unexpectedly high price, which stimulated Russian to further exploration to the North America. From 1743 to 1800, Russians got amazing profit from the fur exploration.

The second was the British people. In 1778 spring, Cook James led an expedition team in North West Coast of North America, inadvertently finding that the furs exchanged from the Native Americans sold at very high price in Guangdong Province, China. But engaged in the war with France and Spain, the British people were unable to do the business in large scale with China.

The third was Spain. From 1783, Spain began sea otter furs trades with Chinese, but for the same reason as British, they were engaged in war with British and mineral trade in South America, so the furs trades remained in small scale.

But finally, the party that got the most profits was the United States of American. In 1782, there was a guy who followed Cook James. When he returned to America, he wrote a book about his venture, which gave the way for Captain Kendrick and Captain Gray of the United States to do the business. They bought cheap knives and blankets in Boston, and went to the North West coast to exchange for furs with the Indians, then went to Guangdong, China, to exchange for tea and silk, and went back to America to sell Chinese goods. And they gradually killed the animals themselves for furs. From 1793 to 1807, three million and five hundred thousand seals were killed.

The Chinese merchants purchased pelts.

The enthusiasm of the fur was not first launched by Chinese people. Early in 17th century, Western Europeans were the first to set off the upsurge, when beaver fur hat was the trend of fashion pursued by Europeans. From then on, the fur trade was gradually eastward. Until 18th century, China became the biggest market of fur trade. But it was not happened over night.

Both Europeans and Chinese people were lack of warm clothing and equipment. But for Chinese people, they had less resource to get animal fur in their history, and they mainly relied on nomadic people from the North to change goods for furs. So, it was reasonable for them to get warm clothing from animal furs in any way.

And second, at that time, Chinese tea, silk, chinaware, and other goods were very popular abroad. When one side of the trade was lack of silver cash, animal fur sometimes played as hard currency to make the trade to happen. This also made the need for furs stronger.

The third, why did American people go far away from Europe to China for the market? The large Chinese population formed the large-scale market. There’s no comparison between Chinese and European need. And after the Independence War, the American Merchants in pursuit of economic interest turned to China.

How do Chinese help Leonardo DiCaprio?

Chinese help Leonardo DiCaprio in two ways. The film was premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre, though the Theatre has nothing to do with China. And the Chinese strong demand for furs inspired the following series of events, including Michael Punke’s novel with the same title that gives the chance for Leonardo DiCaprio to star in the film. Without Chinese, Leonardo DiCaprio might never have the chance to win Oscars. That’s funny!