The Revenant
"As long as you can still grab a breath, you fight. You breathe... keep breathing." -Hugh Glass
The survival/revenge drama The Revenant is directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu and stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Hugh Glass, Tom Hardy as John Fitzgerald, Domhnall Gleeson as Captain Andrew Henry, Will Poulter as Bridger, and Forrest Goodluck as Hawk.
This was my most anticipated film of 2015 (even though it came out in wide release in early 2016).
The Revenant is set in Montana and South Dakota via 1823. Hugh Glass and his Pawnee Indian son, Hawk, is part of a group of trappers and hunters looking for pelts to sell and trade. With tension at an all time high between Native Americans and everyone who's on their land, Glass' group, led by Captain Andrew Henry, is ambushed and only about a third of the original group manages to escape by boat. When they eventually escape and head towards their base camp, Captain Henry still knows that they are being followed by the tribe, leading the remaining survivors to travel on foot and Glass becoming the leader since he is the most experienced trapper. Glass goes off by himself in search of a clear path from their enemies, but stumbles across a grizzly bear who mauls him (almost to death). Fortunately, he brings her down with him. The group helps Glass during their trek by making a gurney of some sort and carry him over hills and mountain sides. A problem arises and they can't carry him up an incredibly steep mountain side so Hawk, fellow trapper John Fitzgerald, and young Bridger stay behind to keep an eye on Glass while the rest of the group goes off to find an alternative route to the camp. The unfortunate side to this is that Fitzgerald is pissed off at Glass because it was Glass who suggested that the group abandon the boat. Fitzgerald tries to kill him while he is still severely wounded, cannot speak, and strapped on the gurney, but Hawk interrupts and pushes Fitzgerald away. Another unfortunate turn of events, Fitzgerald hates Native Americans, so he murders Hawk while Glass is watching. Bridger, during this time, is off doing something else and comes back not suspecting anything because he is told by Fitzgerald that he hadn't come back from getting food. The next morning , Fitzgerald rushes Bridger to run because the Arikara tribe is just down by the river. They run, leaving Glass in a hole in the ground almost dead. Amazingly, Glass barely survives the situation and does whatever he can to stay alive and being the experienced trapper that he is, he tries to find his way back to camp to kill Fitzgerald. The rest of the movie involves Glass doing the impossible to just stay alive and it is miraculous to see what he does in the face of death.
Nature does some crazy and scarring things to you. Just look at what it did to Leo!
I did a review of the trailer for The Revenant way early when I started this blog. I'll post my original review of the trailer at the end of my review, but what was pretty much summed up was that The Revenant was my most anticipated film of 2015. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see it in 2015 because the limited release theaters it was playing at were not anywhere near where I live. Still, I got to see it this week and, boy oh boy, did it not disappoint. What I expected was something completely different from what I saw, in a good way. The only two things I expected and got, were Leonardo DiCaprio's fantastic performance and the gorgeous cinematography. The two other big factors that really made up the majority of the movie and were not expected, at least by me, were the super intense vibe it gave out throughout the entire film and the performance of Leonardo DiCaprio in terms of commitment.
I got to hand it to you Alejandro (left), you made one hell of a film.
I'd like to start off with the Golden Globe nominee (maybe winner) and possible Academy Award winning actor (hopefully this is his year): Leonardo DiCaprio. His commitment to the character of Hugh Glass was unbelievable. I really mean that though. What he did with the very little dialogue he was given was something I don't think even the greatest method actor (Daniel Day-Lewis in my opinion) could pull off the acting Leo did. The Revenant was filmed in the wilderness in below freezing temperatures for most of the time and Leo got in the river, crawled on dirt, ice, and rode horses. I'll also touch on the intensity here because Leo, being the main character, had the most intense moments especially with that bear scene. Oh, that bear scene...
I seriously can't figure out how they pulled off this scene. Maybe it was a CGI bear? Maybe it was a dummy being mauled? I don't know. Your guess is as good as mine.
Alongside the bear scene, there were a plethora of other violent and cringe-worthy scenes in The Revenant. Some include the first battle scene between the Arikara Indians and the trappers trying to collect pelts, the scene when Hugh Glass is riding a horse trying to get away from the Pawnees but ends up falling off a cliff into a tree because his horse gets hit by an arrow, Glass using his horse as a sleeping bag after it gets shot (think about it), the last standoff scene between Tom Hardy's John Fitzgerald versus Hugh Glass, and more. I can't fathom how many grueling hours this took in order to get the right shots and the right time of day. Like I said, this is the most intense film I've seen to date. It may or may not change in future years to come, but for now, The Revenant is the most stomach upsetting, sweat inducing, and fiercest movie I have ever seen.
Glass' face when he sees Fitzgerald kill his son. It's so intense because you know he can't do anything....I think I'm going to throw up.
So besides the intensity and the performance of DiCaprio, I want to point out that the overall look of The Revenant helped bring me into the atmosphere of 1823. It looks super gritty, but at the same time very beautiful. The natural lighting in place of artificial lighting is potentially the main reason. Alejandro chose to only use the natural lighting given from the Sun, and the moon to light up his film. It was a bold move given that he had to film the scenes he wanted at the exact right moment or else he would have to try again the next day, but it was definitely worth it. The product was amazing visuals which effected the theme of survival throughout The Revenant.
It's seriously a beautifully dirty movie. That's pretty much how I can sum up the visuals.
Maybe some of these visuals, mostly made up of the symbolic flashbacks of Glass, were thrown in a little too much though. It just seems like there wasn't enough dialogue in the film to tell a proper story. Then again, I'm nitpicking so hard. The Revenant was very much a visual kind of story showing the survival of one man in the woods and trying to get back to his camp to kill the man who killed his son. It was just fascinating that I walked out of the theater shocked and mind-boggled at what I had just seen.
This was my face when the credits rolled.
With everything going on in The Revenant, it was hard to choose one thing that stood out to me the most. I would just have to say that The Revenant is one of my favorite movies of 2015 (actually, it may fall in between number 1 and 2 on my list). I walked out of the theater wondering how they got a lot of the shots that were shown, I was paralyzed at some moments at the raw intensity of the violence between characters (and animals), and Leonardo's performance, including Tom Hardy's, was such commitment that I couldn't see Leonardo DiCaprio. It was Hugh Glass. All in all, The Revenant is one of the most immersive films of the year that really makes you root for the protagonist and allows you to follow him on this long journey.
Pro
- Leonardo DiCaprio performance (Oscar winning performance?)
- Incredibly intense, bloody, and mind-boggling scenes
- Alejandro's vision of the film including the gutsy move to use natural lighting
- None
5/5
The Revenant is rated R for strong frontier combat and violence including gory images, a sexual assault, language and brief nudity
Watch the trailer here
The Revenant is in theaters everywhere now
Click here for my trailer review of The Revenant
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