Movie Review: The Revenant

Thriller/Drama/Adventure

Rated – MA15+

Duration –156mins

Release – Jan 2016

Director –Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Cast –Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson, Will Poulter

Mr Knight

There was a lot of anticipation for me coming into the days leading up to this epic movie. The previews had such a fierce intensity that it forced me into the cinemas a day after opening to see it for myself before hearing more of the hype. After walking out of the cinema after three hours I felt The Revenant completely delivered in every way.

The Revenant tells the story of famous tracker Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his company of hired men seeking out pelts in the rugged American wilderness. After an intense battle with Native American Indians and many of his troop are slaughtered Glass is relied upon by his Captain Andrew Henry (Domhnall Gleeson) to lead the men out in a hasty escape.

Whilst in the thick forest Glass is horribly mauled by a grizzly bear. For me, watching a scene that clearly uses special effects, it was the most real and horrid scene I’ve watched, which impressed me a LOT! The thing I liked most however was that he wasn’t just ripped apart, the behaviour of the bear seemed so real. But that is a moment for the viewers to judge.

Once ripped to pieces, Glass hangs by a thread. As the rest of his troop must flee, Glass is left with the protection of Bridger (Will Poulter) an innocent, green as grass boy, his son a Native American, Hawk and the highly opinionated and self-preserving trapper John Fitzgerald, played expertly by Tom Hardy.

To save his own skin and get what is owed, Fitzgerald betrays Glass burying him alive and he makes for camp. What follows is the most painstaking, brutal, revenge fuelled journey you could imagine. Glass, still bloodied, half dead, starved, desperately dehydrated and unable to speak crawls through snow, rocks, sticks, rivers and hostile country to get to Fitzgerald.

The Revenant does not have much talking. It doesn’t need it. A majority of it is Leo groaning, bubbling spit and blood and crawling through the mud. A scene we may have already experienced with Leo in The Wolf of Wall Street when Jordan Belfort takes some old “Ludes” and tries to drive his Lambo to the country club.

The cinematography and direction was brilliant. The film was made with all natural light giving you a sense that you were in that dim, cold forest, during that oppressing winter. The fighting scenes did not hold back and in some moments you literally squirm when an arrow hits true or a limb is cleaved off. The realism of it makes you feel glad to be living with modern technology, and modern medicine.

The Revenant was a refreshing change to the variety of movies we have been dealt with lately. It leaves the glitz, glam and wit behind of today’s movies and brings everything back to its primal form of a dirty, bloodied test of survival which many wish to never experience.

 
Mrs Knight

From the promotional material and story line, I originally thought this film wasn’t going to be one I would enjoy. I then saw the trailer, in cinema and it was so intense that it changed my mind. Plus it stars Leo-baby, so there was never any doubt on whether I would go see it in cinema.

This film has my vote for Best Picture at the Oscars. It was one of the best produced, directed and acted films I have seen in a very long time. This film was dramatic story-telling at its peak. Its set in the 1820’s and follows a man named Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) who is trying to survive after a brutal attack from a Grizzly Bear. He faces incredible betrayal from his team as he is left for dead to survive in the wild through a deathly cold winter.

Let me begin by mentioning the bear attack. I have no prior knowledge of what it would look like if a bear was to attack a human, but if I had to guess, I would say that it plays out exactly like it does in this movie. The special effects were incredible. All I kept thinking was, my mum actually got out of a car in Canada to take a photo of one of these creatures…Voluntarily…That woman is fearless.

There were a couple of moments when I felt nothing much had happened and it was a bit long, but before I could finish the thought I would be sucked in to the intensity of it all. There were hardly any words spoken in a two and a half hour film, yet it was engaging, heart breaking and caused anxiety for those watching. Everything about it was just so incredibly real and gritty. The makeup was one of the best I have ever seen. I’m actually thinking there might have been real scratches on their skin. The lighting and direction made you feel like you were there experiencing it all firsthand.

Tom Hardy plays a bit of a villain in this one, but only because he goes to extreme lengths to stay alive. Hardy, along with DiCaprio played their parts so well, it’s hard to imagine them in any other role. If DiCaprio doesn’t finally win his Oscar, Hardy certainly will. Another highlight was “About Time” and “Ex-Machina’s” Domhall Gleeson who seems to be the flavour of the month in Hollywood at the moment. Popping up everywhere, including Star Wars. He was once again, just as convincing as ever in a very different role as Captain Andrew Henry. I would also be surprised if Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu doesn’t walk away from this with an Oscar tucked under his arm.

This one definitely won’t be for everyone. It is dirty, grim, gruesome, violent, suspenseful and INTENSE! If you don’t like the trailer, you’re probably not going to like the film. I’m deducting half a star from a near perfect rating purely because I had a few moments of thinking it was long with nothing happening. I also like dialogue. However, as mentioned before, in terms of how it was produced, directed and acted, it gets a near perfect score. It will have you glued to the screen, squirming in your seat and shocked from the brutality of it all.