The Revenant's opening scene and The Big Sky

"The Revenant," which is fictionalized version of mountain man Hugh Glass's epic struggle to survive by himself after a grizzly attack, opens with a frightening depiction of an Arikara Indian attack upon the fur-trading crew of a keelboat on the upper Missouri. With the exception of a handful of survivors who flee for their lives, the mountain men are massacred.

AB Guthrie's novel, "The Big Sky," is broken into four parts. Howard Hawks' film adaption takes events and characters from three of those parts for its plot. In the book at the end of Part 2, the crew of the 'Mandan' are attacked by the Blackfeet on the upper Missouri and massacred with only three survivors- the book's main characters who flee for their lives.

Now, I'm wondering if the writers or director of "The Revenant" were inspired by Guthrie's novel for their opening scene. If so then kudos for recognizing a brilliant scene unlike Hawks who inexplicably decided to give his audience a happy-happy-joy-joy ending with the Blackfeet and mountain men becoming pals.

One caveat, though, the mountain men in "The Revenant" put-up a pretty good fight and inflict heavy losses upon the Rees even in defeat unlike the crew of the 'Mandan' who are pretty much slaughtered by Blackfeet.