Like I was going to miss seeing the movie that’ll finally get Leonardo DiCaprio that Oscar award.
Here’s the round up of Alejandro G. Inarritu (Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance))’s The Revenant (2015).
Please note that there may be spoilers. Read at your own risk.
THE STORY:
Inspired by true events in the 1820’s, Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio – The Wolf of Wall Street) is part of a band of American trappers lead by Captain Andrew Henry (Domhnall Gleeson – About Time. They are collecting pelt to trade and Glass, along with his half-Pawnee son Hawk (Forrest Goodluck), serve as the band’s geographic guide. When a bear mauls Glass during one of his scouting trips, he gets seriously injured. The band tries their best to piece him up and carry him to their base in Fort Kiowa, but Arikara Native Americans are hot on their trail and they cannot afford to lose any more time. Captain Henry orders three men to stay with Glass until he passes to give him an honorable send-off and Hawk, Jim Bridger (Will Poulter – The Maze Runner) and John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy – Mad Max: Fury Road) volunteer. When Glass stubbornly refuses to die, Fitzgerald decides to do something drastic.
THE GOOD:
- The film is visually stunning. In the trivia section of the film’s IMDB page, it says that the director and cinematographer both decided to only shoot the movie using natural light. While I’m sure that some Hollywood big wig blew his top off about of the additional cost that decision caused, as an audience I’ve got to say that it was really worth it. There were some shots of the landscape that probably would stay with me for a long time because they were so pretty.
It’s not hard to suspend your disbelief when you see this on the big screen. - It wasn’t as weird as I thought it was going to be. I was half-afraid that the treatment of the story would be like Birdman. Thankfully it wasn’t – there were some weird moments but generally the story panned out in a fairly straightforward manner.
- Leonardo DiCaprio was really good. One would argue that he’s always good anyway, but I think this was the first time I’ve been moved by his acting in a paternal role. I got teary-eyed in the scene where Glass found his son’s body and he promised to never leave him. It was literally painful to see him open his eyes and figure out that he was still alive and that he had to get up and leave his son’s body.
- Tom Hardy!!! I’m almost afraid that he’ll get typecast as Hollywood’s go-to villain, but Tom Hardy has a way of justifying the villainous actions. In this case, his Fitzgerald just really wanted to survive. He wasn’t out to hurt anybody intentionally; shit just happens.
- Will Poulter. Aww, it brings me such joy to see Eustace Scrubb in a grown-up movie.
Will Poulter running around with the big boys in The Revenant - Domhnall Gleeson because, well, Domnhall Gleeson.
THE BAD:
- I could’ve used some subtitles, especially in the early parts of the movie when they were discussing what they were actually doing in the middle of nowhere freezing their balls off.
- Quite a few weird metaphors
What the hell is this supposed to mean? .
- The fight scene at the end wasn’t as satisfying as it should have been. I don’t know why, but the confrontation between Fitzgerald and Glass in the end wasn’t as epic as I expected. It was almost laughable, really, when they didn’t even bother running – they were literally just walking.
- Leonardo DiCaprio. He wasn’t bad, not at all, but I don’t think that this performance was particularly Oscar-worthy. With all of the drooling and the grunting, it honestly felt like that scene from The Wolf of Wall Street. Come to think of it, now I’m sure that that scene was his audition piece for this movie.
THE UGLY:
- It was more than a little bit self-indulgent, if the run time was anything to go by. I mean, seriously? 156 minutes?
All in all, Alejandro G. Inarritu’s The Revenant was a good movie. It certainly delved deep into the nitty-gritty of things, not being afraid to explore just what people are capable of doing if it means ensuring their survival. The scenery was also stunningly shot that it wasn’t very hard to believe that Mother Nature itself was trying to kill off the protagonist. Performances were top-grade all around, although I’m not really sure if any of them were particularly Oscar-worthy.
THE VERDICT: 7.5/10
*All photos are lifted from the film’s IMDB page.
