Movie review: The Revenant

Hi!

Let’s continue the seemingly endless awards season and talk about Leo’s 5th try in getting an Oscar for acting – the epic picture The Revenant.

IMDb summary: A frontiersman on a fur trading expedition in the 1820’s fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team.

The Revenant has already picked up a few awards for acting, directing and simply for being the best picture. I do think that it deserves the Academy Award for Best Picture as well, however, I would prefer Mad Max Fury Road to win instead.

Writing

The Revenant’s script was written by Alejandro González Iñárritu and Mark L. Smith, based in part on Michael Punke’s book The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge and real life events. Iñárritu  is a very well know Mexican auteur, who has created a few epic films, including last year’s winner of Best Picture at the Oscars – Birdman. He has also won best directing and original screenplay for Birdman, while Emmanuel Lubezki won for cinematography. Babel is also another film by Iñárritu, which is worth a watch.

The Revenant’s story was really interesting and unbelievable. I liked the usage of dialogue in a foreign language, however, those parts seemed dubbed – a few times it looked like the movements of the lips and the sounds were not precisely synchronized. I also enjoyed the usage of flashbacks and dream sequences for the backstory.

The cunning twist at the end with the switching of the bodies on the horse was really clever. I also liked the idea that revenge is not in human’s hands. The final fight was also really amazing to watch – it contained two of my favorite characters literally killing each other.

Directing

The Revenant had amazing cinematography and directing. It was mainly shot on location with natural light. The long takes (although, not as long as in Birdman) and mobile frames were used once again . There was also a lot of low angle shots and following/dolly shots from the side. The close-ups were also present in the film, so the viewer could clearly see the emotional and physical struggle of the characters. The CGI of the bear was also very realistic and just plainly spectacular.

The mise-en-scene of the film was also both breathtakingly beautiful and stomach wrenching. The setting of the forest, freezing rivers and snowy mountains was amazing. I also really loved the shots with vertical trees and the sunlight/moonlight or torchlight. coming through the tree trunks (these shots were not only beautiful, they were also used as bridges in the narrative, signaling the passages of time). However, the film’s fight scenes were extremely explicit and violent, while the character design was realistic and gritty – the characters’ costumes and the hair (or lack of them) spoke for themselves.

In short, once again, Iñárritu channeled his passion for filmmaking and delivered a masterpiece of gritty realism.

Soundtrack

A lot of intense scenes of the film lacked soundtrack, so the viewer could hear the breath, moans or screams of the characters, which only increased the intensity of the film. However, when the music was used, it was very elevated and grand, it felt like you were listening to a live symphony. This great score was created by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Alva Noto, and Bryce Dessner.

Acting

While everyone is talking about Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance in the film, the film’s entire ensemble cast is really good and everyone deserves recognition and praise.

• Leonardo DiCaprio as Hugh Glass was spectacular. He once again deserves an Oscar and just simply has to get it. If he loses once more, I think he should just stop trying, because I don’t know what else can he do. He completely morphed into the character. The way he looked at the camera in the closing shot of the film also made me shiver – it felt like he was looking deep into my soul. I have seen a lot of DiCaprio’s films, including Django Unchained, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Great Gatsby and a bunch of others, however, I still have quite a few of films, starring DiCaprio, on my list of films to watch, like The Departed and The Aviator.
• Tom Hardy as John Fitzgerald was also truly wonderful. He has proved himself to be an amazing actor a few times this year, first in Mad Max, then in Legend and Child 44 and now in The Revenant. I hated his character and I really like him as an actor, so props to him for being so versatile and for being to play a complete crazy freak. I also really liked the close-up shot of Hardy’s eyes, when he realized that Hugh was onto him. I somehow really noticed the characters’ eyes in this film.
• Domhnall Gleeson as Captain Andrew Henry was also wonderful and just a complete bad-ass, especially, when he was looking for Fitzgerald back in the camp. I am used to Gleeson playing quite calm characters (Ex Machina, Brooklyn), well, except in Star Wars The Force Awakens. I really liked him in that film, but he just blew me away in The Revenant.
• Will Poulter as Jim Bridger was also amazing. I was first introduced to him in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, in which his character was really annoying, and then in the comedy We’re the Millers. He then also starred in a few young adult films, like a more serious one – Plastic and the dystopian action one – The Maze Runner. I haven’t seen him in a serious/dramatic role, so I was very surprised at how good he was in The Revenant, so now I would really like to see him take on a few more serious roles like this one.
• Forrest Goodluck as Hawk made his acting debut and was really good in the role. It was also really nice seeing a person of Native American descent in a film because Hollywood needs as much diversity as it can get.

To sum up, The Revenant was another epic masterpiece by Iñárritu. While I don’t really want it to win the Best Picture award at the Oscars, I would love for it to be awarded Best Director and Best Actor in a Leading Role. Last advice: do not watch this film if you have a weak stomach – despite the fact that the story might interest you, you won’t enjoy the film if you can’t deal with explicit images of blood and guts on screen.

Rate: 4,5/5

Trailer: The Revenant trailer