The Revenant - Cinema Review

The Revenant is bloody cold, in every conceivable sense of the word. This is pure survival and gritty doesn't do it justice. Leonardo DiCaprio plays a new American man partnered with a Native American woman. They have a child together but as tensions and conflicts rise between the two groups, she is killed and Hugh Glass (DiCaprio) returns to the army with his son as an experienced navigator through the harsher terrain of the new world in 1823.

This is what I surmised anyway as Hugh's story up to a current outing with frontiersmen and fur hunters is purely backstory glimpsed in dreams and hallucinations. It should also be said that the strong accents,and sometimes severely damaged voices make a lot of the dialogue difficult to decipher. The story certainly isn't spoon-fed to the audience but personally I don't feel it needs to be. That feeling might vary for different individuals however so it's worth mentioning as a criticism.

Luckily the plot is fairly simple but I still look forward to watching this with subtitles and understanding 60% more dialogue.

The film begins on a fantastically choreographed and nerve-wrecking action scene as Captain Andrew Henry's (Domhnall Gleeson) group are ambushed by hostile Natives and attempt to flee by boat. If you've seen director Alejandro G. Inarritu's previous masterpiece Birdman, you'll be familiar with the exceptionally long takes and sweeping 360 degree camera movements, making for unique but immersive action scenes.

As the remnants of the group flee their attackers, distrust and frustration boils between Glass and John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) as they become increasingly lost in the mountainous frontier. I won't go much further into the plot to avoid spoilers but the tale is quite a straightforward revenge movie. It's the execution that is so engaging to watch with intensely powerful performances from DiCaprio and Hardy, innovative cinematography, enrapturing landscapes and a visceral realism that keeps an ever-present tension and unpredictability for any of the character's life expectancy.

Tom Hardy is wonderfully dementedly despicable throughout.

Aside from the opening scene and the conclusion, the film is not immensely action packed in the traditional sense. The events are more personal physical struggles rather than group conflicts as Glass has to drag himself back from the brink of death amidst harrowing conditions. Some might find this slow-paced but the grizzly recovery process is punctuated with the rest of the fur trappers finding their way back to safety with danger both within and surrounding their splintered group. Not to say there aren't some spectacular action scenes here but they are well-paced and well-placed. 

If you enjoy westerns but are also open to something a bit different and dark, The Revenant is an excellent story of survival, willpower and vengeance in a beautifully represented setting. I'm reminded of The Road in terms of sheer unflinching brutality. It does require patience and for some I know the ending quarter seemed to drag slightly but I personally feel it amply rewards your engagement with the characters and world.

In many ways you can enjoy this film a lot both as a fan of DiCaprio or
if you really hate and wish immense harm and suffering upon him.