Review: The Revenant (2015) · 6:38pm Dec 25th, 2015
Okay, I'll admit it. I cheated. I watched the DVD Screener of The Revenant that got leaked, and I don't feel guilty at all.
The Revenant is Mexican auteur Alejandro González Iñárritu's sprawling, intense, uncompromising and mysterious meditation on revenge and what lengths people will go to achieve it, and the costs it heaps upon those who allow it to consume them.
Taking a page out of Terrence Malick's playbook, Iñárritu crafts a film that plays more like a spacey, deeply meditative experience then a standard revenge flick. Seemingly an intentional step away from the increasingly kenetic and ultra-violent explosions that the revenge genre tends to foster, The Revenant instead plays more like a meditation, an almost ethereal unwinding of metaphorical imagery, symbolism, and the absolutely stunning vistas of remote wilderness. Now, that's not to say that Iñárritu isn't able to film complex action sequence. In fact, when the action DOES happen, it's beautifully orchestrated and dynamic, with a guttural, visceral sense of gristly realism that isn't often seen in the Western genre, especially in the brutal bear attack sequence. But it's abundantly clear from the opening minutes, that Iñárritu's main goal isn't to craft an action/revenge film, but a thinking, almost spiritual film. It can be argued that, at times, the film might spin off into some rather strange, perhaps even unnecessarily obtuse avenues, but at the same time, these strange, obtuse moments help the film stand apart, and help create this unique aural-visual experience.
Moving onto the acting, DiCaprio returns to acting after a two year break with this film, and in doing so, looses none of his unique ability to completely inhabit a character. Spending most of the film unable to speak due to injuries sustained by bear attack, DiCaprio must emote mostly through the body and face, and Iñárritu often keeps his camera intimately close with DiCaprio's intense, grizzled gaze. When DiCaprio does speak, it's in a smoldering rasp, with pregnant pauses between sentences as he seems to carefully choose his next words. DiCaprio truly becomes Glass, and his intense, yet highly restrained performance here provides a wonderful example of his range, especially when compared to his previous performance, the explosive and debauched Jordon Belfot in The Wolf of Wall Street. if DiCaprio does finally win his Oscar for this, it will have been a well deserved award. As a character, Hugo Glass is kept enigmatic, yet still given a backstory via his fever-induced flashbacks to his Native American wife, and their son. These sequence feel very influenced by Malick, and help create an emotional base for Glass' uncompromising determination.
Tom Hardy, meanwhile, is on an equal level as DiCaprio in sheer skill. Adopting a growling, grizzly mountain man styled American accent, his character, while easily being a horrible human being, is kept from demonic villany by Hardy's pitch-perfect performance, which often gives him an undercurrent of (unsavory) humanity. The film wisely avoids trying to add any more demonization then his character creates for himself, and Hardy's performance is the key. He deserves an Oscar for this, that's for sure.
The rest of the cast, made up of Domhall Gleeson, Will Poulter, and others, are all equally good. While they might not get the focus that DiCaprio has, they make their scenes count, and leave their mark, all perfectly fitting into the film.
An interesting thing to note is, that, while the film notes the racism between Native Americans and white people, it still keeps the balance even. The Native Americans are shown as on equal footing as the whites, and in an interesting note of parallel, much of Hugh Glass' woes come upon him due to a Native American tribe of Ree Indian attacking his party for their valuable furs, which is then revealed to also be a Native father searching for his daughter, who had been kidnapped by French trappers. This not only provides a logical reason to have the Native Americans be a continually threat to Glass, but also provides them with a humanity, and motivations to their actions, while still showing the brutality in which they waged war. It's a minor subplot, and not the key focus of the film, but still remains another interesting facet. At other times, other tribes of Native Americans are shown as living in harmony with white people, namely at a fort where Glass manages to finally reach proper help. In that, we get to see how, while there are still prejudices, the two peoples are living together, and starting to forge however fragile allegiances.
Now let us move to the techincal aspects of the film.
Emmanuel Lubezki continues to show why he's one of the most respected cinematographers working today with his stunning all natural light work here. Often adopting a wide angel lens to give a subtle sense of voyeurism and intensity, Lubezki takes the raw vistas of the Canadian and Argentine wilderness where the film was shot, and creates beautifully stark images. His camera catches light in unbelievable ways, and in relying entirely on the natural light available via sunlight, moonlight or fire, gives the film yet another layer of realism and visceral emotion that is supremely unique.
Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Note's score is another vital element of the film. Blending orchestral with electronic elements, it ebbs and flows beneath the film, helping counterpoint and enhance the imagery, a vital element in a film with such long stretches without dialogue.
So in the end, The Revenant is an almost dreamlike, unflinchingly intense epic, yet one that also takes the audience down deeply meditative and mysterious avenues, forcing us to unravel it's layers and symbolism, while also presenting a revenge epic. While some might find the more ethereal and dreamlike elements too esoteric for the film's overall good, I found them fascinating, and it helps make the film unique.
5 out of 5 stars.
Alright. Didn't read the review just looked at the rating, 'cause I had some doubts if I actually wanted to see it, but now I'm definitely gonna do it. A bit too late, but Merry Christmas. May you stay as awesome next and every year as you did in this one.
3644113 thank you so much!
3644166 2016 is gonna be such an amazing year for fans of superheroes and movies in general. I'm so glad that I finally got (kind of) a job so I can pay for this myself. Looking forward to your reviews.
3644254 well, i hope that civil war and doctor strange are good
don't have much faith in x-men, deadpool or batman v. superman though