Death Hunt

The pursuit launched in 1931 in Canada's Yukon for a man named Albert Johnson became one of the country's most famous manhunts, and the press gave him the name the Mad Trapper of Rat River. Peter Hunt's film takes off from that case. Charles Bronson plays Johnson and Lee Marvin the Mountie sergeant chasing him. The best part is the relationship between them: Marvin's character comes to respect the man he is hunting more and more, and begins to question whether the hunt is necessary at all. Carl Weathers, Ed Lauter, Angie Dickinson and Maury Chaykin fill out the cast. Canadian historians criticised the film sharply for distorting facts and characters, and they are right. The actual events were not the story of individual defiance the film tells. It converts the case into the theme of a man standing his ground on the frontier, which is a thoroughly American narrative. Who it is for: viewers who like snowbound pursuit films and want Bronson and Marvin together. Who it is not for: anyone seeking historical accuracy, or disturbed by the dogfight sequence.