Movie Review:
Great film has the power to convey the unimaginable. We sit in the comfort of a darkened theater or our living room and watch protagonists suffer through physical and emotional pain that most of us can’t really comprehend. Too often, these endurance tests feel manipulative or, even worse, false. We’re smart enough to “see the strings” being pulled, and the actor and set never fades away into the character and condition. What’s remarkable about Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu’s “The Revenant” is how effectively it transports us to another time and place, while always keeping its well worth as a bit of visible artwork. You don’t just watch “The Revenant,” you have it. You go out from it exhausted, impressed with the entire quality of the filmmaking and a bit more grateful for the creature comforts you will ever have.
Iñárritu and co-writer Tag L. Smith collection their shade early, staging a breathtaking assault on several fur trappers by Local Americans, portrayed not merely as “enemies” but a violent push of character. While a few dozen men are getting ready to pack up and get to their next stay in the fantastic American wilderness, a picture out of “Apocalypse Now” unfolds. Arrows pierce air and flesh as the few making it through men flee to a close by boat. As it happens that the tribe is seeking a kidnapped daughter of its leader, and can kill anyone who gets in their way. At the same time, we learn that one of the trappers, Hugh Cup (Leonardo DiCaprio) has a half-Native American boy called Hawk (Forrest Goodluck).
Low on men and hunted, the expedition leader Andrew Henry (Domhnall Gleeson) orders that their team go back to its foundation, a fort in the center of this snowy wilderness. John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) disagrees, and the seeds of dissent are planted. He doesn’t trust Henry, and he doesn’t like Glass. In the midst of these discussions, Glass is away from the crew one day when he’s brutally attacked by a bear-the sequence is, without hyperbole, one of the most stunning things I’ve seen on film in a long time, heart-racing and terrifying. Glass barely survives the attack. It seems highly unlikely that he’ll make it back to the base. With increasingly dangerous conditions and a tribe of killers on their heels, they agree to split up. Most of the men will go back first while Fitzgerald, Hawk and a young man called Bridger (Will Poulter) will receive a sizable fee to remain with Cup until he dies, offering him as much comfort as is possible in his last times and the burial he deserves.
Obviously, Fitzgerald quickly tires of experiencing to watch a guy he doesn’t value die. He kills Hawk before an immobile Cup and then fundamentally buries Hugh alive. As Bridger and Fitzgerald return, Glass essentially goes up from the dead (the term revenant means “one which returns after loss of life or an extended absence”) and starts his search for vengeance. With damaged bones, no food, and miles to look, he pulls himself through snow and across mountains, seeking the man who killed his son. He is practically a ghost, a man who has come as close to death as one possibly can but is unwilling to go to the other side until justice is done.
The bulk of “The Revenant” consists of this torturous journey, as Glass regains his strength and gets closer to home through sheer force of will. Iñárritu’s Oscar-winning cinematographer for “Birdman,” Emmanuel Lubezki (who also took a trophy for “Gravity” the year before and could easily make it three in a row for this work) shoots “The Revenant” in a way that conveys both the harrowing conditions and the artistry of his vision. The sky seems to go on permanently; the horizon is neverending. He works in a color scheme provided naturally, and yet improved. The snow seems whiter, the sky bluer. A lot of his pictures, especially in times of great danger like the starting strike and the keep picture, are unbroken-placing us in the center of the action.
At other times, Lubezki’s options recall his focus on “The Tree of Life,” especially in moments in the next fifty percent when Glass’s trip gets more mystical. And that’s where in fact the film falters a little. Iñárritu doesn’t quite have a deal with on those second-half moments and the 156-minute working time begins to feel self-indulgent as the film loses focus. When it centers on the conditions and the tale of a man unwilling to die, it’s mesmerizing. I just think there’s a tighter version, especially in the mid-section, that would be even more effective.
About that man: So much has been made of this film being DiCaprio’s “Overdue Oscar” shot that I feel like his actual work here will be undervalued. Make no mistake. Should he win, it will not be some “Lifetime Achievement” win as we’ve seen in the past for actors who we all thought must have gained for another film (Paul Newman, Al Pacino, etc.). He’s completely dedicated atlanta divorce attorneys terrifying moment, pressing himself beyond he ever has before as an actor. Even just the physical needs of the protagonist could have been enough to break a great deal of lesser stars, but it’s how DiCaprio captures his inner fortitude that’s captivating-his body may be damaged, but we believe he's unwilling to stop.
The minimal helping cast is good, and it’s nice to see Gleeson continue to have an incredible 2015 (also in “Brooklyn,” “Ex Machina” and “Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens”). Tom Hardy is less effective, often going a little too heavy on the tics (wide eyes, shot up-close), but I think that’s a fault of the direction and not one of our best actors. In the end, this is DiCaprio’s film through and through, and he nails every challenging beat, literally throwing himself into this character that demands more of him in physical form than every other before.
What do you do for vengeance? What conditions would you surmount to obtain it? Or would you merely give up? Well known movies often drop questions like these into our lives, allowing us to understand the world just a little differently than before we noticed them. “The Revenant” has this power. It lingers. It hangs in the rear of your brain like the best traditional parables of man vs. character. It'll stay there for a long time.
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