The Revenant tells the story of Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) a frontiersman who has been through quite a brutal turn of events. When Glass is left for dead after a bear attack and witnesses his son's death by the hands of John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), he will do whatever it takes to track down Fitzgerald and get his revenge.
There are two elements of this movie that particularly stand out. The first is the brilliant cinematography. The cinematography was done by Emmanuel Lubezki who won the Oscar for Best Cinematography the last two years. This film also gained a lot of attention when audiences and critics found out Iñárritu was to shoot the majority of the film in natural lighting (there are some campfire scenes that use artificial lighting). Although you can tell Iñárritu is a little limited to mostly shoot during the day and at dusk or dawn, to pull off such a daunting task is incredibly impressive. You can see the beauty of it while watching this. This is not the only beautiful aspect of the cinematography though. We get those long continuous shots much like Iñárritu gave us in Birdman. However there are a bit more cuts in this film just because it switches locations at times. The long continuous shots put stress on the actors to perform well since there are less cuts which leads us into the second element of the film that really stood out.
The acting in this movie is very well done. Even though DiCaprio is not given a lot of dialogue in the second act of this film, he carries the performance with body movements and facial expressions. That is very much easier said then done. DiCaprio is not the only stand out performance of this movie. Him and Tom Hardy both have such a powerful on screen presence when we get them together. You can tell they feed off each other very well. Hardy's character is beautifully written and acted out. It would not be surprising to see both DiCaprio and Hardy get an Oscar nomination. More particular stand outs in this film are Domnhall Gleeson and Will Poulter. Both of these young up and coming stars, bleed talent throughout this film.
The only concern with this film was the second act and a little character development with Glass. Without giving away spoilers, we see him get attacked by the bear and they could have developed his recovery a little better. The first and the third act are brutal and has you on the end of your seat most of the way. However the second act has a bit of a problem with pacing and tends to drag on just a little bit. It seems as though they could have cut about twenty minutes out of this film.
Although the pacing of the second act is a bit slow and Glass' recovery was a tad bit rushed, this is one of the best films to see in the theater all year due to the gorgeous cinematography and vast landscape that almost acts as its own character. Although it's not my favorite film of the year, I would very much recommend seeing it in theaters.
Rating: 9.0 out of 10
I agree. This film reminded me of Gladiator in its revenge story and the flashbacks to Glass's son/wife. It also resembled Apocalypto in how they used nature as the biggest force in the story and how a hunter became hunted and vice versa. In the movie you can see how man's vendettas are trivial to the forces of the world (freezing weather, bears, blizzards). It was a more intensified Man vs. Wild episode in how they revealed the extent in which Glass went to survive. But more importantly, the film was a bit politically in how it reminded the audience that discovering this new land of North America did not come without a deadly price. It was Europe's fortune and the Native Americans misfortune. How awkward would it be to see that before thanksgiving?
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