My Review of The Revenant
The Revenant is directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy. The story follows Glass, DiCaprio, who is attacked by a bear and is on the cusp of death until Tom Hardy kills his son and tries to bury him alive. However, Glass does not give up. He rises from almost death and seeks revenge on the man who killed his son and left him for dead. This film has screamed a must see ever since I first heard about it and even hearing about the troubles on set, where Iñárritu was causing problems because he wanted the entire film to be shot in natural light, just made me want to see this movie more. Now I have finally seen it and boy does it live up to every single hope I ever had about this film.
There is so many good things to talk about with this film I don’t know if I will be able to write about how spectacular this film is. Firstly, the acting. I cannot comprehend how people are saying that DiCaprio is not going to win best actor, if he does not win this year then I don’t know what this guy has to do. You have to appreciate how amazingly disgusting it would’ve been to film this movie, all the actors are dressed in the heaviest and horrible clothes possible. They are walking through rain, mud and snow they would’ve felt horrible. Of course they all got a pretty big pay check for this film but the dedication needed for this film to be completed is incalculable. Also in this film is Tom Hardy, although he has a questionable accent at times he is also incredible in this film. Other actors include: Will Poulter (probably the biggest surprise in this film, he goes from captain eyebrows in The Maze Runner to this) fair play to him; Domhnall Gleeson, what a year this guy has had first Ex-Machina then Star Wars and now this He has been incredible this year. Those four are really the main actors in this film everyone else is still very good they just don’t make big enough of an impact on the film for me to pick them out specifically.
This is possibly the most beautiful film ever made. There is no hyperbole there, I am being serious this film’s cinematography is flabbergasting, that’s right flabbergasting. Every single shot in this film is a work of art. Even when it is just a close up of a face, you see all the wrinkles and bruises. Just the shots of the faces tell a story of hardship, struggle, endurance, hope and defiance. At the start of this film, there is so much going on in every shot that I started to get a headache. I got a headache from a film and it is a positive, I never thought I would say that. There are parts of this film, which are so phenomenal that when someone is talking and the shot is just so beautiful that you don’t have to focus on the speaker. You can just be enveloped by the wonderfully written dialogue and absorb the exquisite scenery. To go with some of the most magnificent cinematography of all time there is an incredible score. There is one shot where DiCaprio is just a needle in the haystack of the beautiful mountains and it pans down on to him. The music is just mesmerizing it gave me chills. I’m not really sure how much Iñárritu has to do with how amazing the cinematography is, every shot comes from his vision I guess. But putting that aside the film is still expertly directed from the fight scenes, to the lucid visions, to the horse chases, to the Indian raid and to the water scenes. Another thing which really impressed me was the bear scene, the CGI was staggering and wasn’t the ‘bear rape’ that people were saying. I don’t know that came from. Visually this film is 9,360 seconds of pure perfection.
No film is faultless; this is close but I do have a few nitpicks. As I have said, sometimes Tom Hardy’s accent is very thick and some of his dialogue is just indecipherable though that is just at the start of the film. When the film really gets going the accent is not a problem. The amount of ‘bad luck’ Glass has to go through is a bit outrageous verging on comical. However, with DiCaprio, the cinematography and the direction guarantees that there is no sense of levity throughout this film. It maybe could’ve been like 10/20 minutes shorter but upon thinking that I thought would I want any of the beautiful shots taken out of the film the answer is no. There could’ve been one more Indian attack on a group of people, be it the Americans or someone else and there might be one too many near death visions.
The Revenant can be extraordinarily intense but not to the point where I didn’t want to look. I was locked to the screen for the entire run time. This is a story of how far the human spirit and a father’s love for his child will stretch. It is brutal and savage like a wild bear yet it is utterly stunning. This shouldn’t be classed as a film this is a visceral experience like no other. This film is nominated for 12 Oscars and after seeing it I can say I wouldn’t be opposed to this film winning 12 Oscars. YOU NEED TO SEE THIS FILM.
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