DiCaprio's Oscar hopes. Inarittu's bustling post-Birdman hype. Tom Hardy's increasingly impressive array of acting talent and prominence. The Revenant takes all these aspects in stride to strongly assert itself as one of the most cutthroat action films of this season.
Revolving around the true story of Hugh Glass, an American frontiersman contracted as a scout for a fur trading company, The Revenant transports us to the American Rockies in the early nineteenth century to tell a story of rebirth and revenge. Glass. while hunting game for pelts, is brutally debilitated by a grizzly bear. The leader of these "mountain men", Captain Henry, played by Domnhall Gleeson, chooses to give Glass a proper burial after realizing he cannot be kept with the expeditionary crew. Fitzgerald, the man tasked with this job, abandons Glass in fear for his own skin and kills Glass' son Hawk in the process. The third man on the job, Jim Bridger, is lied to by Fitzgerald to leave Glass. In an extraordinary journey of willpower, Glass exacts his revenge on Fitzgerald and comes back from the dead essentially. Though the film is rather long and could have used some good editing, the work is wholly essential.
Within the first ten minutes of the film, key themes of steadfastness and vengeance are already established. Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, with the help of director Alejandro Inarittu, continues these themes throughout the rest of the movie. Hugh Glass' lost wife ominously returns in some divine shots and haunting narration to emphasize key motifs to the audience. Motifs take the form of natural elements, such as the stability of a tree's roots playing to Glass' struggle for survival, or the skulls of dead bison juxtaposed over the meteoric and asserted, inevitable decline of the Native American peoples. Lubezki aptly frames these essential scenes in strictly natural lighting using only the sun, moon, stars, and the occasional campfire.
Another particularly poignant use of camerawork here was fog and obstruction of the lens. Three different times Lubezki and Inarittu have interference with the physical lens to instate further understanding of theme and authenticity. Surely the most picturesque of these fogged obstructions is the discovery of Glass' dead son where he lies there fervently waiting and mindlessly numb. The fog on the lens consumes what the audience sees and then they are transported to the skies where the fog becomes clouds in flight above the vast expanse of nature. This cinematography that conveys key feelings of our protagonist is what makes this film so memorable. Costume design and makeup also provide immensely gritty realism in this film. Outfits appear suiting, while closeups of the main characters feel personal and intimate, although some more wear and tear on characters' bodies would have been appropriate.
Unfortunately, screenplay writers Mark Smith and Alejandro Inarittu held far less to the realism in their adapted screenplay of The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge by Michael Punke. For the sake of narrative, Glass is given a son who he saw slain in front of him. In fact, there is no evidence of Glass ever having children or relations with a Native American woman. Similarly, Glass' actual revenge towards Fitzgerald, played by the illustrious Tom Hardy, is also fictionalized. Dialogue operates well in this movie, especially the fireside chats between Fitzgerald & Bridger and Glass & Captain Henry, which both touch on similar points of killing appropriately. However, the dubbed Native American vocals are bothersome and lazy. The moments absent of dialogue have the most impact. Scenes of Glass' foreshadowing dreams of his lost son and a terrorizing anglicized, colonial dominance. These fictionalized portions of the screenplay offer much-needed depth to a realistically one-dimensional plot.
Likewise in contribution to depth, the acting truly elevates this film to new heights. Leonardo DiCaprio starring here as Hugh Glass makes for something he has never accomplished before. With a newly confirmed lead as H.H. Holmes in Scorsese's new adaptation of The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, DiCaprio is trying harder than ever to expand his repertoire and he does just that as Hugh Glass. DiCaprio's Glass here is an unyielding grit of a man. What DiCaprio can portray by sheer facial expression and assumed spark reaction comes off as entirely genuine. His love for his son Hawk, played by newcomer Forrest Goodluck, feels entirely real in its delivery in the Pawnee tongue. Their reunion in Glass' dream is extremely sincere. What is really admirable here is the inaudible excellence on screen -- how DiCaprio's Glass can portray the harshness of a bear attack that was entirely computer generated, save for some staff members who tackled DiCaprio for the shot. DiCaprio prepared ruthlessly for his role as Glass and it is almost certain he will be awarded for it (as he already has at the Golden Globes). Tom Hardy foils this acting method extremely well. His character, John Fitzgerald, is far more talkative than Glass and far more quarrelsome. Hardy is keen with his accent and crude with his delivery. He makes for a very believable antagonistic foil to Glass, the one people look to root for. Domnhall Gleeson as Captain Henry and Will Poulter as Jim Bridger are both decent, but nothing outstanding, mostly in part to their small roles.
Ultimately, The Revenant tells a story of how revenge corrupts. The audience is given the perspective mostly of Hugh Glass, the assumed protagonist, but not necessarily the hero. Glass is figuratively reborn out of a horse carcass into a solely vengeful person not afraid of death, a cold killer. Fitzgerald legitimately thinks he does what is best for himself. There is no right or wrong here, just a triangle of revenge sweetly played out in the final fight scene. The Native Americans feel robbed of their livelihood and land by the colonists, Fitzgerald feels robbed by the Native Americans for his pelts, which he believes are his "entire life," and Glass feels robbed that Fitzgerald murdered his son and left him for dead. Each entity is methodically trying to wrap their way around the other. That is why the harsh violence and gore in this film is so fitting. Glass essentially resolves his conflict at the end of the movie, where he even gets teary-eyed for seeing the visions of his wife so content. The look Glass gives to the audience at the end is truly the most daunting, to think Glass has become the embodiment of revenge lurking and staring you in the face. The Revenant challenges the audience to participate in its story of convoluted motivations. Inarittu asserts that revenge is no clear-cut emotion, but rather one deep-seated in visceral savagery suited only for the likes of men in the wild, wild, wild West.
9.0 / 10.0
Further reading:
http://variety.com/2015/film/news/the-revenant-leo...
http://variety.com/2015/artisans/production/the-re...
http://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/revena...
