The Revenant Movie Review

The Revenant (2015)

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Written by: Mark L. Smith & Alejandro G. Iñárritu (screenplay), based in part on the novel by Michael Punke
Directed by: Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson, Will Poulter
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot:
After being mauled by a bear and left for dead by fellow trapper Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) struggles to survive, intent on seeking revenge. The movie is based on a true story from the early 1800's.

Verdict:
The Revenant is a brutal revenge tale. Tragedy and misfortune strike Glass time and again, but revenge keeps him alive. It's at times haunting and horrifying, in its entirety expertly told. Many scenes are perfectly crafted to generate the maximum emotional response. Everything about this movie is well done. DiCaprio is amazing and his pain and torment is visceral in a performance that is anything but easy.
Watch it.

Review:
This is revenge movie at it's core, but it's also about survival. Revenge is anything but easy for Hugh Glass. Glass is a scout for fur traders. After an attack from a Native American tribe leaves most of the group dead, Glass directs the men to ditch their boat and travel inland.

While scouting game, Glass sees two bear cubs but no mother. When he turns and sees the mother, it's too late. The bear rushes Glass before he can even fire a shot.
The bear mauling is brutal and horrific, Glass screaming in agony. You can feel Glass fighting to stay quiet, hoping the bear will leave him for dead. When the bear leaves him, Glass musters the strength to grab his rifle and aim at the bear. The shot enrages the bear who attacks him more voraciously than before. Glass looks like a rag doll as the bear flings him around the forest.

The Revenant - A brutal and effective revenge tale.

Glass is found by the fur trappers under the dead bear and his wounds treated. He's carried on a makeshift gurney, with Fitzgerald urging the trappers to put Glass out of his misery. The captain of the group refuses, but when they reach a mountain pass, they're unable to continue with the gurney. Fitzgerald negotiates a sum of money to stay with Glass. The captain is surprised, but is more afraid of killing Glass himself. Fitzgerald is joined by Bridger and Glass's son Hawk. Fitzgerald goads Glass into giving up, telling him to just blink. The camera circles DiCaprio, his eyes shining in the daylight, unblinking. It's an intense scene as you hope Glass won't blink, knowing what's at stake. Fitzgerald attempts to suffocate Glass anyway, but is stopped by Hawk. Fitzgerald kills Hawk as Glass is unable to do anything, struggling to move or even make a sound. Fitzgerald hides the body and early the next morning convinces Bridger that they are under attack by Native Americans. They leave Glass behind in an open grave, and by the time Bridger realizes Fitzgerald has tricked him, it's too late to turn back.

If he wasn't acting against DiCaprio,Tom Hardy would be the stand out as Fitzgerald. You don't disagree with his initial assessment to spare Glass the pain, but abandoning Glass confirms he is evil. I have a difficult time picking the better performance. DiCaprio does an amazing job. His screams of pain feel so real. It's a powerful performance as he is the only one on screen for a lot of his role. We're rooting for Glass, but at the same time his plight seems impossible. After being left and fueled by revenge Glass pulls himself out of the grave.

In one scene, Glass is attempting to fashion a crutch out of a branch. A trio of elk cross a stream nearby, and Glass raises the branch to his eye, aims at the elk, and pretends to fire. It's a powerful scene showing where Glass is, was, and where he wants to be. How can he survive with no weapons or supplies?

This movie is full of powerful and emotional scenes. I never exclaim out loud at a movie, but when Glass rides his horse off a cliff, I audibly said, "Woh!" It was a complete surprise filmed perfectly. We see the horse and glass sail off the cliff and clip the top of the snow covered trees below.
That same horse, Glass guts so that he can sleep inside of it to weather a storm approaching.
Glass finally makes it back to camp, everyone astounded he's alive. Fitzgerald has fled and Glass pursues. The battle between them is brutal, and the outcome is hard to predict. Glass completes his quest for revenge, though it doesn't unfold as you would assume. He's again left in the wild with no supplies and has to make it back to camp.

At first  I didn't like the ending, but it is thematically consistent. You hope Glass will make it back to camp, he's braved worse, but now he's not fueled by revenge. With his mission complete, will he be content to rest quietly in the snow?

The Revenant has a lot of camera work, much like Iñárritu's previous film, Birdman (read my review).
The camera maintains a sense of motion and fluidity, looping around actors and changing the point of view without cutting. The scenery looks great with snow covered trees and vistas. It feels completely authentic, and the movie proclaims this, lingering on gurgling streams and nature shots. The movie does have  a few wide shots that go too far in showing off, adding nothing to the movie and stating look at me.

With a lot of parallels to the Western genre, it's brutal and horrific. We root for Glass to survive, hoping he will indeed get his revenge. He deserves it. At the edge of victory, Glass makes a surprising decision. If this wasn't based on a true story, I could easily see one of the last shots being DiCaprio in the grave, having died on the spot, though that would be an unwelcome trick.
DiCaprio shares very little time with other actors, instead putting on a one man show of torture, grief, and pain. This is a good case for DiCaprio finally getting the Oscar that's eluded him for so long. Though an understated performance, The Departed might be his best work, but you can't deny the difficulties of filming this. The movie went over schedule, over budget, and many of the production crew quit or were fired. Even DiCaprio has stated it's been the most difficult conditions he's encountered for a film.