Man in the Wilderness … Part 3: The Ark of Zachariah

Grace’s Mother: (Man in the Wilderness): 
“There was nothing you could do.
It was God’s will.”
Zachary Bass (Hugh Glass):
“I never much agreed with God’s will.”

The Ark of Zachariah

I haven’t seen all of John Huston’s movies. Among those few that I have seen though, I detect a strong undercurrent of what I would call Christian Mysticism. And there’s plenty of it in Man in the Wilderness.

In the very first image of the very first scene in Man in the Wilderness, we see this:

Any way you look at it, that’s a Cross – a Crucifix. THE Christian symbol.

What’s the next thing we see?
– That the Cross is the mast of a small boat.
A rather odd looking boat.

Or is it?
Let’s take a closer look:

That odd boat (call me crazy) is a miniature version of Noah’s Ark.

See below.

The only thing missing is the animals.

Next comes the Title and the Credits:

The credits say that the movie is “historically true”
and it’s obviously based upon the true story of Hugh Glass.
So why did they change his name to “Zachary Bass“?

Maybe we’ve seen the name Zachary somewhere before … ?

Maybe right here:

The Unforgiven (1960)

Directed by John Huston !

With a whole pile of Zarchays (5 actually).
and accompanied by a mad prophet on horseback spouting Biblical style quotes.

Call me Zachary?

Zachariah – Old Testament Hebrew: means ‘The *LORD remembers’.
The Old Testament prophet Zechariah taught people that God remembers his promises.
Like from a movie called ‘The Bible: In the Beginning ..’
Directed by John Huston
who also acted the part (wait for it) NOAH!

Also acting in the movie? Richard Harris as Cain!

Zachary?

Zakaria, Zakariya, Zakariyya (Arabic),
Zachariah, Zacharias, Zechariah (Biblical),
Zacharias (Biblical Greek),
Zekharyah (Biblical Hebrew),
Zaccharias (Biblical Latin) …. 

and on and on …

and more coming.

Next:
Man in the Wilderness / Part 4