The Revenant

Making a movie with little dialogue that can keep the attention of the audience should be a near impossible task. Yet Alejandro Iñárritu and his crew manage to make a beautiful masterpiece that can only be rivaled in recent memory by Mad Max. It follows the story of these fur trappers led by Captain Andrew Henry (Domhnall Gleeson) and John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) and their guide Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio). Their group gets ambushed by some natives and in their escape, Glass gets mauled by a bear. In deciding whether to put him out of his misery or not, the group moves on and leaves him in the care of Fitzgerald. This proves to be a mistake as Fitzgerald kills Glass’ son and attempts to leave Glass behind. Glass then recovers and goes through a grueling journey to get revenge for the death of his son. There’s one scene in particular that takes Luke Skywalker sleeping in a TaunTaun to a whole other level. Then there’s also the scene with the bear that was most prominent in the trailers. You get a sense for it in those, but when you actually see it fully on screen it’s a wonder the man survives and wills his way to get revenge. Some will say that it doesn’t take much to grunt and scream your way through half the movie, but I believe it’s easier said than done; and Leonardo does it tremendously. Not to mention all the natural elements that himself and the rest of the cast had to go through to film this. However, I do have to say that Tom Hardy outshines him and it’s unfortunate that he’s only being recognized in a supporting role when he could’ve easily been justified in the main acting category. It was also commendable that they cast actual Natives in their respective roles and had them speak their natural language. They could’ve easily gone the normal Hollywood route and cast someone that looks like it and just have everyone speak English. As for the other technical aspects, it was easily one of the most beautifully shot films of the year. Just the fact that they went to these locations and shot in these environments in their natural state no matter the weather is impressive. Each shot held such beauty yet underneath it was real danger for the crew. Also, the music was subtle enough yet carried the right tone throughout the movie. I could probably go on in different tangents on different aspects of this film, but I think it is best experienced in theaters with unspoiled thoughts.