This was the first movie I watched this year that I actually went to the cinema for. I'd only seen one Inarritu film before this one: Birdman, which just happened to be one of the greatest I have ever watched. I had another goal in mind as well this year: see every Best Picture nominee before the night of the Academy Awards. So I had two very strong reasons to see this movie, to expect great things from it, and to be excited for it.
With all that in mind, I can comfortably say that The Revenant does not disappoint.
The plot is simple: Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio), a fur trader on the American frontier, is brutally mauled by a bear. Glass is left by his expedition group in the hands of John Fiztgerald (Tom Hardy), a man who ultimately kills Glass' son and leaves him for dead. Glass must now somehow survive on his own, still severely wounded, and ultimately get revenge on Fitzgerald.
On a purely cinematographic level, it is a masterpiece. Every shot is magnificent; every frame captures the excruciatingly visceral violence and the sheer cold the setting suggests. Seriously, I cannot overstate the beauty and savagery contained within the visuals of this movie. As per Inarritu's style, there are many long takes, which really benefit the film overall, allowing the audience to take in the scenery in great detail.
The film is also extremely immersive; the long takes and visceral nature of what happens on screen helps with this, but so do a lot of little things. The bear attack scene in particular shows a lot of this. The film never cuts during the attack, instead drawing the audience in to what is happening and maintaining a close view the entire time. The clincher, though, is when the bear's sniffing fogs up the camera screen as it approaches; it makes the bear seem more real, simply adding to the immersion the film offers.
The acting in the film is also top notch all-round. Leo got an Academy Award for best actor for this piece, though it may not seem obvious at first as to why. The truth is, he carries this movie through its middle third with barely a word spoken, simply struggling to survive each step of the way. If you can forget for a moment that you're watching movie you realise that Leo is believable the entire way, that he really does seem to be going through every struggle that he has to deal with. Tom Hardy is also excellent; giving an unhinged performance as Fitzgerald, stealing the show in a few choice scenes, such as a humourously bleak monologue about the existence of God.
For all its virtues, The Revenant isn't without its weak points. I know that this is based on a true story, but I also know that they added a son character to be killed by Fitzgerald purely for an additional motivational reason for Glass to seek vengeance, as if being left for dead by someone who has voiced his hatred of you isn't enough. There's a secondary story involving a kidnapped Native American girl, which seems ultimately to exist purely to add a heroic act to Hugh Glass' list of trials and tribulations. Finally, there's several dream sequence scenes involving Glass' dead wife. It all seems to be in aid of an effort to make Glass a character we can sympathise with, and put a few breathing points in between each moment Glass is put into a live or die situation. Unfortunately, it also seems to do nothing to change Glass as a character. This would probably be fine if the movie didn't run for over two and a half hours, which makes a lot of the additional scenes feel like fluff.
The Verdict: The Revenant is a truly beautiful and immersive movie, one that's really worth looking at, even if just to literally look at. The story is thin on character development and bloated on plot threads; making the film longer than it seems it should be given how little change occurs in Glass during his journey. I would recommend this to anyone who wants simply to marvel at amazing cinematography and can stomach the sometimes ludicrous brutality. Anyone with a weak stomach or looking for a less arduous experience probably isn't looking for this.
Rating: 8/10
Watched January 12th, 2016, Published July 7th, 2016
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