THE REVENANT
Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Screenplay by Mark L Smith and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Based On The Novel By Michael Punke
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio; Tom Hardy; and Domhnall Gleeson
A frontiersman named Hugh Glass (DiCaprio) on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s is on a quest for survival after being brutally mauled by a bear.
It is over 2:30 minutes and it is exhausting!!! It is gorgeous!! It is violent!!!
Let me break it down for you with no spoilers.
Well lets start with the actors!!!
DiCaprio Four Oscar Nominations!!
What's Eating Gilbert Grape
The Aviator
Blood Diamond
The Wolf Of Wall Street
(Wait a minute how did he not get nominated for the Departed???!!!)
Zero wins!!
This performance has to be the one. The winner. If not, I do not know what he has to do. In fact this may be the best performance by a lead actor this century. This performance as Hugh Glass is extraordinary. As you can tell by the trailer DiCaprio's character is mauled by a bear (An excruciating 5 minute scene that has you hiding your eyes). Then left for dead, and at that point he brings you in to a journey that is painfully excruciating to watch. The camera is up against his face and it becomes almost a silent film as we follow him on his journey for revenge. I wanted him to just pull out his cell phone and call Uber!!!
Now we come to Tom Hardy. I have said on past blogs that Tom Hardy is one of the best actors in the world. Don't believe me? Watch this. Here as Fitzgerald, he embodies this trapper who has no sense of right and wrong which makes him so dangerous. Just sometimes a look or a grunt can send chills off the screen. His problem here is DiCaprio's performance is so good he may be lost in that big shadow at Oscar time for a best supporting actor nomination. I hope not. He already was ignored for a Golden Globe Nomination.
And real quick note. Another fine performance by Domhnall Gleeson as the loyal Captain Andrew Henry. Lets see: Brooklyn; Ex Machina: Starwars The Force Awakens; and now this, yes he has had a very good year.
Now for the film itself.
Inarritu gives us the most realistic film you may have ever seen about frontiersman. As usual it gives you the Inarritu touches we are used to with as few cuts as possible, in fact as the camera switches scenes into the trees sometimes it is dizzying. He makes every shot realistic by showing the beauty of the frontier and at the same time he shows us how unforgiving it is.
Faults?
Editing. Inarritu does have an ego (We all have heard stories of how excruciating it was for the actors while filming this movie in the snow), and at 2 hours and 30 minutes I am sure someone told him to cut it down a bit. Especially some of the moments while Dicaprio's character was making the hike alone, which definitely could have been left on the cutting room floor..
One of my problems with Inarritu and it may be his ego again is he cannot just let a film end with a clean ending. Here, like Birdman, he has to throw in some mystical odd thing to make it all deeper. It is not necessary. Now I did not read the book maybe he was just following the book. Still at the end I thought..That Is Inarritu being Inarritu.
I do not know if this is a fault or more of a warning, but this film is very violent. With many scenes that may have you turning your head away, from arrows shot into a head. Limbs cut off. Scalping. Animals being cut open. This film is more violent then The Hateful 8. So beware if you plan on seeing it.
Well I did my best with out spoiling the film for you. I give it 4 1/2 out of 5. This is a hard film because I may not want to see it again, and movies that I love I can watch over and over again. Maybe I just need some time and space away from it. It is one of those movies you say to people: "It is really good. Beautiful. But very hard to watch!"
From the shadows as always thanks for your time.
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