Movie Review: THE REVENANT (2015)

The Revenant comes about a year after Alejandro González Iñárritu became more of a household name with last year’s film, Birdman, starring Michael Keaton. For people that were paying closer attention, Iñárritu has been around for a good decade and a half delivering films with mixed results.

The Revenant tells the story about frontiersman, Hugh Glass. If you want to maximize your view of this film, I highly recommend that you do not read up on his story. This is not the first adaptation on the story of Glass. There was a loose adaptation on his story with 1971’s Man in the Wilderness. However, I feel that this recent adaptation feels more authentic than the previous adaptation. More on that in a little bit.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays Hugh Glass who is with a team of men on a fur trade expedition gone wrong. This team of explorers flee from Indians who are trying to track down a daughter of one of their own. The Indians are convinced that this group of white men have her.

Honestly, that’s about as far into the plot that I think I should get into as, like I said previously, it is best to go in cold and oblivious to the real-life tale of Hugh Glass. Hell, I’d even say be careful of the IMDB page for the film.

While the film has a great story about survival and hope, what Iñárritu has done with his cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki (Birdman, Children of Men) and Leonardo DiCaprio to bring this tale onto the screen is something pretty damn amazing. I’d even go as far as saying that this is really Lubezki and DiCaprio’s film, as it highlights pinnacle moments in their filmographies. With Lubezki’s naturally lit wide-angled long takes feeling not only exploratory but more so as a a view of a floating observer in a land at a time we shouldn’t be observing.

What’s even better, for at least this viewer, is that while the first fifth of the film establishes the environment, what follows feels like a revenge film of the highest regard. One packed with such emotion that makes you identify and empathize with DiCaprio’s Glass that makes everything that unfolds more potent.

There are many spiritual images littered throughout the film and intricate sound design that also heighten the senses which begs for a theatrical viewing. The world that The Revenant documents is huge and demands your first viewing to be in a theater, on the biggest screen possible and as loud as possible.

If there was one negative that I had towards the film, it would be that it could have used a tighter edit. The only issue is that this could fracture the exploratory logic that drives this film. Also, while the story is strong, let’s not doubt ourselves – the filmmaking is what stands out here along with DiCaprio’s performance.

The Revenant is stark, harrowing and nothing short of spectacular.