The Revenant is directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu and stars Leonardo Di Caprio and Tom Hardy. Leo plays explorer Hugh Glass, who after an incredibly violent exchange with a bear and witnessing a traumatic event involving his son is left for dead in the wilderness by his men. Heavily beaten down to the point of near death, Leo undertakes a path of revenge, battling all nature has to throw at him along the way. What follows is a unique and immersive movie experience unlike anything I have ever seen before.
The Revenant is perhaps the most visually stunning film I have ever seen. Straight off of Academy Award triumphs for Gravity and Birdman, Emmanuel Lubezki's cinematography is absolutely wonderful and perfectly immerses you into a world of danger, brutality, but at the same time, a world of visceral beauty. Despite being a white knuckle thrill ride concerning one man's sheer force of will to survive, The Revenant is also a beautiful film as it captures the human spirit in a way I thought movies no longer could. The purposeful contrast between the chaos and anarchy of the battle sequences compared with the way Lubezki's camera so peacefully glides across the environment was an excellent choice made by some very talented filmmakers.
After reading all that I have concerning this film's production, I have to credit the filmmakers for the quality of the final product. The fact that this film was 95% of the time shot out in cold, remote locations where they could only use sun to light their scenes is quite astounding when you think about it. Innaritu's meticulous direction of this film deserves a lot of praise. Considering most scenes in this film are portrayed using long, tracking shots and he had very limited times of day (due to the sunlight) to shoot a scene, The Revenant is a technical phenomenon. Innaritu imaginatively directs this flick in a way that no other director could, despite the quite ludicrous time constraints he had on him making this film.
His trait of shooting scenes with seemingly never-ending tracking shots really brings out the raw emotion from his actors, which it should do in a film as intense and as profound as this one. Leonardo Di Caprio is unsurprisingly brilliant and once again proves no matter what role he has to play, he will always give consistently great acting performances. It's one of the most accomplished of his career as his character Hugh Glass is realised in the perfect way, encapsulating all the emotions you'd expect. But this is a role of few words for Di Caprio who has to spend most of the time using his body to physically convey what his character is thinking.
It's definitely Leo's most physically committed role to date and he knocks it out of the park. I can't honestly fathom how Leo did some of the stuff he did in this film, but it all paid off and contributed to the stark realism of his character's emotional and physical situation. This film would completely fall apart if you weren't routing for Glass to succeed but thankfully you are, which is credit to Leo and the screenwriter's vision for the character. You're routing for this guy right from the get go, and continue to do so throughout due to his sheer determination, force of will and desire for revenge against Fitzgerald, the man who wronged him, played by Tom Hardy.
The relationship they set up between Glass and Fitzgerald is done impressively quickly. Tom Hardy, while sometimes guilty of mumbling things whilst adopting a southern accent, is also excellent in the film and expertly sells the grudge his character has against Leo's. You feel the hatred emanating off of his character's body, and at the same time you hate his guts as well. Watching The Revenant, you want nothing more than to see Glass come back and beat him to death for what he did.
But he's not a 1 dimensional villain with a simple grudge against Leo, you can actually understand the motivation of his character for wanting to leave Leo behind. This is what makes a villain compelling at the same time one who you can't stand to be alive. But the acting performances don't stop being good from there as both Domnhall Gleeson (who's had a tremendous 12 months with Ex Machina and The Force Awakens) and Will Poulter performed well in their respective roles. Both did great jobs at fleshing out their characters within the constraints of a narrative focused on other characters. The humanity and innocence brought to the table by Poulter particularly impressed me. Both characters integrated themselves well within a emotionally charged narrative.
The Revenant is a truly intense film with meticulously shot action sequences which utterly blew my mind as to how action can be filmed. The hand to hand combat sequences are truly white knuckle and brutal. The famous "bear scene" is honestly one of the most intense and disturbing scenes I have seen in a very long time just because the film feels so authentically real.
My major flaw with The Revenant rests with the film's screenplay and the way it utilises metaphorical imagery in a handful of scenes. I felt they slowed the movie down too much as I wanted more thrills and more action on top of what I had already been given. While I totally understand their place in the film (hell, I'd be hallucinating just as much if I were in Glass' physical condition!) I don't feel they added much depth to his character arc.
But overall The Revenant is an excellently made, brilliantly shot survival/revenge tale. It's a beautiful, visceral and unique experience like nothing else in the theatre today. And I have to once again commend the committed actors and expert filmmakers who did such an excellent job considering the time and financial constraints placed on them. This movie will sweep at the Oscars I have absolutely no doubt:
Rating - A-
Thanks for reading,
Matt
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