The Revenant Review

The Good, The Bear and The Ugly 

Released : January 15th 2016

Certificate : 15

Director : Alejandro González Iñárritu

Cast : Leonardo Dicaprio, Tom Hardy, Will Poulter, Domhnall Gleeson, Paul Anderson, Forrest Goodluck

Plot : A hunting party, guided by Hugh Glass (Dicaprio) and his son (Goodluck), are met with hostility by the indigenous tribe. Whilst running for their lives the party is slowed down by the severe injury’s of Glass after a bear attack. This strikes debate amongst the party as the native tribe slowly catches up.

As the BAFTA’s loom, British audience get a chance to pass judgement on Alejandro González Iñárritu new western, and with all the nomination indicating that this film will be giving him the best director Oscar for two years in a row. When films are formulaically released at such a time as January award season in an attempt for the films to be fresh in the minds of the academy in order to better chances of getting to votes, it does mean that British cinema goers get a late verdict. Meaning as the Golden Globes take place and the nominations pour in, the British cinema fanatic will know who much every critic and academy members like the film before viewing. As such a majority of British viewer will see The Revenant with the knowledge that it has gain several awards as well as 12 Oscar nominations, a factor that will undoubtedly be in the minds of every viewer and can have one of two effects. The average man expects to see the best film ever and is disappointed leading to great distaste for film, or peoples pleasure is matched by their hype claiming it a new favourite. Either way the result is an extreme.

Straight off the bat The Revenant isn’t a film with a base story line that is revolutionary of the genre, it’s a simple revenge film, which has gained its praise via its execution. The films structure outside of execution and construction isn’t anything to write home about, neither are the characters that complex or individual. Tom Hardy’s Oscar nominated role for example is a true bad to the bone baddie. He possess very little aspects that we will related to due to his total distasteful nature and evil plotting, the same truth apply for the most part for the other character and story dynamic. But for this reason it means that when a story such as The Revenant is handled by such experienced and naturally talented people, it means these simple blocks can be placed together perfectly to create a masterpiece. This doesn’t imply that anyone can make a great film out of basic characters and story premises, but what it does mean is that people of such a high caliber have an ability to really excel, resulting in surprising twists to the genre and great execution such as profound emotional impact in scenes as well as the unique brilliant cinematography.

Without a doubt the runaway selling point of the film is the direction from Alejandro Iñárritu, who surprisingly had never filmed a horse before in his career until The Revenant, and yet he was able to build scenes of stunning nature an arsenal of components. Dealing with bear attacks, large scale battles, horse cashes, show downs, character drama (something he had already perfected in Birdman) all while capturing and dealing with the sprawling Canadian landscape. Each scene of the film is captured in such a unique visually ‘tasteful’ way that every sequence feels authentic and beautiful, overcoming the challenge of pacing that many two and a half film. But it is clear to see that the films long nature and wholly artistic approach to filming means that it won’t please the widest of audiences, if people are contempt with long scenes absent of dialogue and entertainment that is purely directorial, than there isn’t an issue. But every audience member won’t be able to deny the absolute visual ‘joy’ of some of the shots. To pick an obvious example, the bear attack in this, which is teased within the trailer, is like the Saving Private Ryan beach landing scene of animal attacks in films. In short breathtaking.

To address the acting side of the film, there will be much attention directed towards Dicaprio due to the hype at the idea of him finally winning an Oscar, but there needs to be hats taken off to some of the supporting cast. Will Poulter and Domhnall Gleeson turned out brilliant supportive roles, Poulter as the young lad of the hunting party well out of his depth morally and physically and Glesson as the rather weak captain attempting to keep his crew in line and focused. Both of there best scenes being the one revolving around just them, the fact that it was noticeable alongside Hardy and Dicaprio can stand as a testament to their growing skill. If there was an Oscar for best newcomer/best overall year for an actor, Glesson would be a main contender for it. Tom Hardy has as well gone from strength to strength since 2011 to become one of the definitive actors of this decade, typified with his role in The Revenant as a bad guy that isn’t his more interesting character, but delivered with such believable nature, conviction and ease it is well deserving of the Oscar nomination it has received.

And the frosting on this cake is of course the main man Dicaprio, as he turns out his third Oscar worthy role of the decade (with Mr Candie deserving an nomination as much as Waltz deserved to win). Probably not the role he will be remembered for due to the films lack of ‘fun’ in comparison to others, but due to the skill that is demanded of the role it’s his biggest piece of Oscar bait ever. This being due to the roles duties such as conveying emotion while seeming on the edge of death, telling a story with just facial expression (due to lack of dialogue) and its always a bonus to throw in a foreign language for good measure (as speaking native American to his son). As well as these star performances it would be a crime not to mention the work of Emmanuel Lubezki as cinematographer, who is in serious danger of winning his third academy award with this film, if it wasn’t impressive enough that he this year is his 8th Oscar nomination within his career.

Verdict : The Revenant offers perfection in fields of acting, cinematography and especially directing. Some might find it too focused on its artistic nature, or find little metaphorical meaning behind Iñárritu shot chooses, but its all done for the sake of beauty. As MGM production say in their slogan, “Ars Gratia Artis”, meaning “Art for Arts Sake”.

Verdict : 5/5

Quote : “If you look at its branches, you swear it will fall. But if you watch the trunk, you will see its stability.”