Ravenous is a 1999 horror Western cannibal film starring Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle, Jeffrey Jones and David Arquette. The film, which is set in 1840s California, was directed by Antonia Bird and filmed in Europe. It was not a box office success and failed to recoup much of its $12 million budget. However, despite initial reception being mixed when first released, it has since garnered a reputation as a cult film. Ravenous had a troubled history. Issues over budget and shooting schedules were still ongoing when filming was about to start in Slovakia. After the original director Milcho Manchevski walked off the set three weeks into production, he was replaced by Bird at the suggestion of actor Robert Carlyle. Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn composed the film's score, which generated a significant amount of interest for its quirky and inventive use of loops, instruments and musical structure. Screenwriter Ted Griffin wrote a script that combined elements from the Donner Party and that of the real life "The Colorado Cannibal", Alfred Packer, who survived by eating five companions after becoming snowbound in the San Juan Mountains in the 1870s. However, the film's plot also serves as an overt criticism of Manifest destiny through its use of cannibalism. By turning the act into an insatiable hunger, the voracious need to eat human flesh is equated to the all-consuming pursuit of power and wealth that was inherent to the expansionist attitudes of those seeking to settle the American frontier in the 19th century. Plot During the Mexican–American War, Second Lieutenant John Boyd, who is fighting in the United States Army, finds his courage failing him in battle and plays dead as his unit is massacred. His body, along with the other dead, is put in a cart and hauled behind Mexican lines. However, in a moment of bravery, Boyd seizes the chance to capture the Mexican command post. His heroism earns him a captain's promotion, but when General Slauson learns of the cowardice through which victory was achieved, he posts Boyd into exile at Fort Spencer, a remote military outpost high in the Sierra Nevada commanded by the weary but genial Colonel Hart, and staffed by a motley array of misfits: the pious Private Toffler, the drug-addicted Private Cleaves, the drunken Major Knox and the ferocious Private Reich, in addition to the Native American scout George and his sister Martha. Shortly after Boyd