movie Death Hunt poster. CCTV's straight translation is "Death Hunt", Hong Kong is translated as "Snow Mountain Crossing the River Dragon"
This is an old American movie released in 1981, Death Hunt, which was once shown on CCTV. The CCTV version is called "Death Hunting", which is more faithful to the original meaning. The Hong Kong translation is "Snow Mountain Crossing the River Dragon", which is more imposing. I have never liked the Hong Kong translation very much, but I like this name very much, and it is more in line with the charm of the protagonist.
Hollywood in 1981 is the era when westerns are on the decline and new tough guy movies are in the ascendant. Governor Schwarzenegger 's " Conan the Barbarian " will not be officially released until the second year, and in the same year, " First Blood 1" by the national father-in-law Stallone will also be released. At that time, the "tough guy" image in the Hollywood film circle was supported by the "Red Dead" Clint Eastwood, the two old tough guys in this movie, Charles, who is nearly sixty years old. · Bronson (Charles Bronson) and Lee Marvin (Lee Marvin). Both are actors I really like and even admire, and their experiences are very similar: from poor families, they served in the US military during World War II (Mr. Lee Marvin was born in the Marine Corps, and Charles Bronson was in the US Army). He was a machine gunner on the B-29 bomber , and he had participated in the war against Japan. Charles Bronson had 25 missions in the Pacific battlefield ), after the war, he joined the entertainment industry, and he was not very popular in the early years. Fifty only became popular in Hollywood. The old man who has experienced the baptism of war and played the tough guy has a bit more vicissitudes and realism than the governor and Stallone who were all abs. The first time
watched "Death Hunt" was in high school. It's a movie based on a real event in history, and it's a movie that had a huge impact on me. But I don't want to talk too much about the movie itself here. We are going to talk about the prototype of the protagonist in the movie: the legendary "mad hunter" in North America, Albert Johnson.
death hunt movie poster, in the picture is the movie hero: Albert Johnson, played by the famous tough guy Charles Bronson
On December 31, 1931, two Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers, Alfred King and Joe Bernard, starting from the small town of Aklavik (Aklavik), took a dog sled and came to a deep forest in the Yukon Mountains of Canada, near a river named Rat River. ) next to a cabin on the river. The purpose of their trip was to question a hunter. Neither of the two mounted police took this mission seriously until they walked to the wooden house.
About half a year ago, on July 9, 1931, a man about 5 feet 10 feet (about 1.78 meters) tall, with blue eyes and brown hair, came down the Peel River and came to Yuuko, Canada. There is a place called Fort McPherson in the Snow Mountains area of the province. There, he was questioned by an RCMP officer named Edgar Millen. The man, who called himself Albert Johnson, came here to hunt. Without further questioning, Millen let him go.
We have no right to blame Millen for being negligent. In the 1930s, in the Yukon Territory of Canada, the fur industry was at the right time. Arctic fox skins and beaver skins have brought a lot of money to this desolate snow-capped mountain. Today, this area is still rich in high-quality beaver skins, which are exported to the world and are favored by fashionable women from all over the world. The developed fur industry supports a large number of hunters who make a living by killing arctic foxes and beavers. This hunter is not Hunter, but Traper. In English, hunting is very finely divided: Hunt can be shot with a gun, while Traper can only be shot with traps or traps. For the hunting of furs, they cannot be shot with guns, and furs with bullet holes are worthless. Later, the nickname for Johnson was Mad Traper by the media. There is no corresponding concept in Chinese, and it can only be translated as "crazy hunter".
At that time, under the influence of the Great Depression, a large number of outlaws from North America came here to pan for goldAdventure, these people are mostly from South Dakota and Nebraska in the United States. Many of them are fugitives who have fled after committing crimes in big cities. Luck gangster. This area has also become a place where fish and dragons are mixed. After all, the number of local mounted police is limited, and it is quite difficult to control these outlaws from killing each other. It is obviously not necessary to interrogate a new hunter too much. What's more, these outlaws are usually just agile and excellent marksman, but have no understanding of the cold climate and dangerous terrain of the Yukon Snow Mountains. Most of them freeze to death in a blizzard or get lost in a snowy mountain jungle a few months later, and the questioning of such people is usually just a cutscene. So it makes sense that Millen didn't pay too much attention to the man who called himself Johnson.
Still, Millen was impressed with Johnson. As he later recalled, the man, who identified himself as Albert Johnson, had a Scandinavian accent and seemed to have more money than the other hunters (because he seemed well-stocked and had a lot of ammunition). His clean-shaven beard sets him apart from other sloppy hunters. Other than that, people don't know anything about him.
After being questioned by Millen, Johnson took his carry-on equipment and crossed the waterway on a local-built raft to the Mackenzie River Delta, about 80 miles from Accravik, a river called the Mouse River. (Rat river) built a log cabin and lived a hunting career.
Soon, other hunters began complaining to the local RCMP that Johnson was unruly and had no hunting license. Many of Johnson's researchers today think such accusations are not credible. At that time, due to the large number of hunters, there were fewer and fewer prey to hunt, and many hunters tried to use various excuses to drive away other competitors. However, Johnson did not apply for a license. At that time, in fact, it is the same in Canada today, no matter Hunting or Trapping, you have to apply for a special license. It was later speculated that Johnson did not apply for a permit to avoid producing valid documents. The name Albert Johnson is apparently also a fake name. He did, however, have been in the Trapping business and had several fur trades with a local Chinese. At that time, there were a lot of Chinese people doing fur business in the Yukon. The rifle used by
Johnson and the Mounties to fight and flee, the Savage 99 .30 caliber lever rifle. Note that this isn't the
that Johnson used. Even the hunters who attacked Johnson admitted that Johnson didn't do anything out of the ordinary. He was very silent, rarely spoke, and never argued with anyone. In this mixed area, the troopers generally have a good impression of these troublemakers. Johnson has always lived in isolation, and his district's mounted police are stationed in Accravik, nearly 80 miles from Johnson's log cabin, a 20-hour dog sled ride to get there. In this ice and snow, none of the troopers are interested in traveling long distances to deal with the trivial matters of such hunter disputes.
In December of that year, another hunter went to Accravik to complain to the Mounties that Johnson had altered his trap without permission, causing his damage. Probably because there were too many similar complaints before, the mounted police had to express something, so there was the visit we mentioned earlier. It was really just a visit, and all they wanted to do was check Johnson's hunting license, ask him if he had moved someone's trap, and head home. At that time, the disputes between hunters were usually difficult to distinguish between true and false, and the attitude of the police was not to get involved too much.
The two mounted officers could see smoke from Johnson's cabin from a distance, indicating that someone was in the house. However, when two mounted police officers knocked on the door and identified themselves, Johnson refused to open the door. This alerted the two mounted officers, so King and Bernard returned to Akkravik, filed for a search warrant, and brought three more assistants with them. Five days after the last visit, the group returned to Johnson's hut and identified themselves again, this time still refusing to open the door. So the Mountie King loudly announced himselfA search warrant was brought and an attempt was made to forcibly enter the cabin. At this point, Johnson fired a shot from inside the house, wounding King. Things have since gotten out of hand.
King is not dead, just injured. But the temperature that day was below minus 30 degrees, and under this severe cold, the injured would soon die of hypothermia. In view of the situation, Bernard could only return to the station with his assistants with the injured King. King was treated and saved his life. This detail also shows that the Yukon's mounted police were extremely physically fit at that time. In this severe cold, with a gunshot wound and lack of medicine, he still survived 80 miles and 40 hours. In the Yukon at that time, those who could become Mounted Police were also first-class tough guys.
Johnson's shooting made matters worse, and the troopers couldn't stand idly by. After some deliberation, the Mounties decided to arrest Johnson. So they organized a capture team, led by Edgar Millen, who had questioned Johnson, and eight mounted police officers, including Bernard, and a number of hunters who volunteered to join. Concerned that Johnson might have escaped, they brought their tracking dogs with them, forty-two in all.
Johnson didn't run away, he was still in the house. The mounted police also expected this, and they prepared to storm. Before heading out, the mounted police brought more than 9 pounds of explosives with them. After surrounding the cabin, the mounted police used explosives. Explosives of the day tended to freeze in the cold and needed to be heated on a fire before they could be used—a detail that is also featured in the movie—then the troopers lit the heated explosives and threw them at Johnson’s on the roof.
was involved with the Mounties in pursuit of Johnson. The photo was taken in 1932
According to the film - and indeed many Johnson researchers - despite the limited power of the explosives at the time, it still blew up the wooden house. But local police records show that the explosives were of very limited effect, only blowing up the door and part of the wooden wall, and the demolition of the hut was after Johnson escaped. But in any case, the explosives did their job, and the troopers were ready to swarm Johnson (or his body). At this time, another unexpected thing happened:
It turned out that Johnson had dug a deep trench as a bunker in the house long before the Mounties arrived, and stored ammunition and supplies in it. After the cabin blew up, Johnson opened fire from the bunker just as the police surrounded him. However, unlike in the film, Johnson's round of shooting did not hurt the mounted police. The troopers quickly retreated. After that, the two sides faced off for a full 15 hours in the freezing cold of minus 40 degrees.
Johnson had bunkers to keep out the cold and plenty of ammo, while the troopers were camping in the freezing cold and had limited ammo. Eventually, the troopers decided to retreat back to Akravik and organize their manpower to capture Johnson. They have been in the area for several days due to the blizzard weather. By this time, the news about Johnson had spread across Canada by radio. Police offered $1,000 for Johnson's arrest. At that time, a thousand Canadian dollars was a lot of wealth, enough to buy a house in a big city in the United States. After the news came out, hunters from all over the Yukon rushed to join the pursuit team, ready to capture Johnson and make a fortune.
Due to the delay of the snowstorm, it was not until January 14, 1932 that the pursuit team headed by Millen returned to the cabin with sufficient manpower and equipment. Johnson had fled by this time. From all indications, the troopers judged that Johnson had no sled and no other help. Johnson, who is unfamiliar with the Yukon Territory, will soon freeze to death in the freezing cold of minus forty degrees with the limited supplies he carries.
Johnson's cabin on the banks of the Mouse River
However, they were wrong again, and this deadly hunt became a legend in North American history.
No matter whether Johnson lives or dies, the pursuit team will continue to chase. Under the leadership of Officer Millen, they rode a dog sled and tracked them all the way, and soon they found Johnson's survival trail. This Johnson is very good, he runs away with the sled tied to his feet upside down, trying to mislead the pursuit team, andOften hide in reindeer herd to escape with the deer, thus covering up their footprints. On several occasions, he also hid behind the pursuit team. And, to reduce exposure to targets, Johnson never cooks on a fire along the way. You must know that this is in the Yukon Snow Mountain region, and it was winter, the minimum temperature outside was more than minus 50 degrees, and there were blizzards from time to time. Not to mention ordinary people, even experienced hunters in the Yukon, it is difficult to spend the night without a fire without freezing to death. In fact, Johnson didn't start a fire all the way until he was finally killed. What's even more amazing about
is that this person is extremely capable. With a load of 80 pounds (about 40 kilograms) on his back, he can move faster than a dog sled! Not only can you walk fast in the snow, but you can also climb cliffs and cliffs with your bare hands. In order not to expose his tracks, he rarely shot and hunted while fleeing, and made a living by catching rabbits and fishing with his bare hands. Even the troopers who tracked Johnson had growing admiration for the guy. Fortunately, the hunters and mounted police of the pursuit team are all masters of snow survival. After about two weeks of pursuit, on January 30, 1931, the brigade finally blocked Johnson into a canyon under a cliff.
Johnson was hiding in bushes on the edge of a cliff. The pursuit team climbed into the canyon from above him. An alert Johnson opened fire quickly, and the mounted police and hunters returned fire. After a flurry of gunfire, Johnson collapsed behind a tree as if he had been shot. The pursuit team gradually ceased fire, and calls for Johnson to turn himself in went unanswered. The
pursuit team did not act rashly, but waited for two hours in the snow. At this time, the experienced captain Millen judged that in this biting cold wind, if Johnson was shot, he would definitely freeze to death. So he personally led two police officers down the canyon, ready to examine the body.
did not expect that Johnson, who had been lying in the snow for two hours before the three approached, suddenly got up and shot, the first shot hitting the snow beside the mounted police. The two officers beside Millen were blinded by the snow and could only shoot back indiscriminately. Johnson then fired two more shots, both so fast that others sounded like they were fired at the same time. Afterwards, the troopers saw Millen turn face down in the snow. The mounted police immediately panicked and rushed down the canyon to rescue one after another, while the hunter shot to cover.
Unfortunately, by the time the RCMP dragged Millen to safety to examine his wounds, it was too late. Despite poor visibility, Johnson hit Millen directly in the heart and he nearly died on the spot. Mounties later swore they heard Johnson laughing. What about
Johnson? He was not injured. Instead, he climbed the cliff bare-handed with an 80-pound package and escaped once again while the pursuit team was in chaos.
(to be continued)
