Writers: Mark L. Smith, Alejandro González Iñárritu
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Frontiersman Hugh Glass (DiCaprio) is attempting to lead a hunting party back to safety when he's mauled by a bear and severely injured. Captain Andrew Henry (Gleeson) asks for volunteers to stay back and tend to Glass while he goes to get help. One of these volunteers is John Fitzgerald (Hardy) who hardly waits for Henry to disappear over the horizon before he's murdered Glass's half-Pawnee son and left the frontiersman for dead. But Glass is made of much sterner stuff, fighting for survival in a forbidding landscape and driven by revenge...
Let me begin by saying that The Revenant is a film that many of you will not like. It's over two and a half hours long. There are long stretches of this where there is absolutely no dialogue at all and when you do get dialogue it's often delivered in a molasses-thick accent by Hardy or a croaked couple of words from DiCaprio. The violence is grimy and bloody. The plot consists of suffering piled upon suffering piled upon suffering. Like the sound of it?
And yet, even though all of this would seem to be a formula for one of the least watchable movies ever it's a breathtaking, riveting journey which immerses the viewer in the action right from the off with a jaw-dropping opening in which Henry's group struggles desperately to escape from a sustained attack by a group of Arikara Indians. It's a nightmarish set-piece, gorgeously and clearly filmed by ace cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, perfectly capturing the confusion and terror of being besieged by a quick, intelligent, ferocious enemy. From a technical viewpoint, it's one of several "how the hell did they do that?" scenes this film can boast.
There's very little let up either. It's not long until Glass unfortunately happens upon the aforementioned bear, which is another remarkably-crafted sequence, a prolonged, terrifying and merciless fight between man and beast which is so up close and personal that the bear's breath fogs the camera at one point. And even when all of that's done and you're trying to catch your breath (again), The Revenant has only hit the 45-minute mark.
Yes, it may be something of an endurance test but what a superb and powerful piece of cinema Iñárritu has created here. Equalling his commitment to the material is the astonishingly accomplished cast, headed up by DiCaprio who has been rightly tipped for Oscar glory here. He is Glass and the frontier is his home, whether he's plotting the safest course through unforgiving terrain or chowing down on raw fish or bloody chunks of bison.
Hardy is, of course, outstanding too, giving Fitzgerald huge depth and making him a fascinating villain. His actions may be nigh on impossible to forgive but it's understandable why he makes the decisions he does. Gleeson is first-rate as the somewhat out-of-his-depth Henry, as is Will Poulter as the young, conflicted Bridger, a boy attempting to grow up quickly in a world of grizzled, disillusioned men.
Very much like its locations, The Revenant is beautiful and bleak, sublime and savage. It may not be a movie you will want to watch over and over again but it will only take one viewing to make its mark.
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