The Revenant

Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu

Year: 2015

Runtime: 156 minutes

Rating: 8/10

“I’m not afraid to die anymore. I’ve done it already.”

Back in the golden age of Hollywood, they had a saying that was supposed to guide all creative decisions: “Don’t impress me. Convince me.” Director Alejandro González Iñárritu has built a career out of ignoring this advice. He has mastered the craft of filmmaking and consistently bring amazing crews and casts together for his films, but his work bear the stamp of a man whose first priority is to display his own genius. Still, The Revenant did leave me very, very impressed.

Based on real events, the film takes place in 1823, in the wilderness of the Louisiana Purchase. This area consists of 828.000 square miles of land, located in what’s known as the middle of USA today. The French sold this land the US in 1803. In 1823, a mixture of French, Americans, and Native Americans roamed the area.

The film follows a group of American hunters who are attacked by a Native American tribe in the beginning of the film. They flee, but soon our protagonist, Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio), is attacked by a bear, and left for dead by this troops. Before leaving him for dead, however, John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) has a fight with Glass’s son, and kills him. The film chronicles Glass’s struggle to survive, get back home, and get revenge. The strength of this simple set-up lies in the competency of Glass; It’s compelling to watch his inventiveness and resourcefulness as he struggles to survive. My personal favourite is when he smears one of his wounds in gunpowder and sets it afire to seal the wound.

The film’s claim to fame, more than quality, is the insanity of its production. Iñárritu made the decision to only shoot in natural light, which, in combination with the real-world locations that took hours to travel to, meant that the crew could only shoot for a few hours a day. The locations were freezing, which lead many crew members to quit the production. The shoot went on for three months longer than scheduled, which made it’s original budget of $60 million balloon to $135 million – something which was exacerbated by Iñárritu’s wish to shoot the film chronologically.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s praise for the film similarly stems from the hardships he went through, more than the emotional depths he portrayed in his character. Devin Faraci wrote a great article about why we shouldn’t care how difficult a film was to make, only how good it is. However, I will argue that the madness of this production is what makes the film unique, at least visually.

The Revenant is pornography for cinematographers. Every shot is immaculately composed, the natural lighting is breathtaking, and the choreography between the camera and actors, especially during fight scenes, is daunting. The extreme-wide lenses sometimes warp the frame too much during pans, but this is a small problem. I have never been more impressed by the visuals of a film. I have been more moved, though. The cinematography’s priority isn’t to convey what the characters feel, nor to observe them naturally. The camera is its own character, and in a sense it’s the protagonist.

Leornado DiCaprio gives his most dedicated performance ever, but not his best. As you see him crawl, limp, mumble and scream, you believe the physical trauma he goes through, but there’s little emotion to his character. He hits three different beats: survival, mourning and revenge, and they’re all filtered through the same primal pain. It’s a strong performance, but emotionally superficial compared to much of DiCaprio’s previous work.

Tom Hardy owns this movie; his villainous Fitzgerald steals the frame every second he’s in it. I couldn’t understand half of what he said, but that doesn’t matter. When people argue in this film words carry little meaning, but tone and body language are everything. Hardy disappears into his role completely. Even though Fitzgerald is cartoonishly evil on the page, Hardy creates a believable character who justifies everything to himself. There’s an electrifying madness in his eyes; you never have a clue what he’s going to do.

Domhnall Gleeson is great as the captain of the group. While the beginning and middle of the film gives him little to do, he shines in the last act.

The score is fantastic. It’s dominant and raw, and succeeds because it’s never manipulative. It doesn’t sound like a conventional score – it’s purpose is never to express what the characters are feeling, but to convey the brutality of the landscape they’re all fighting.

Where The Revenant stumbles is in Iñárritu’s incessant need to show off. The film is stuffed with dream sequences, flashbacks and hallucinations, which make the already long film way too long. Every time we jump into these junk scenes you better be taken with their visual beauty, because that’s the only thing there to keep you interested.

It’s not just the presentation of the material, but also the material itself that’s empty. There’s no thematic, moral or character-based explorations here, just a hero, a villain, and obstacles. Which is perfectly all right, if  Iñárritu didn’t think he’d made the next Apocalypse Now (Coppola, 1979). The Revenant feels and looks so IMPORTANT, you might just believe it is, until the credits roll and you think about the movie that preceded them.  

The Revenent is probably the most impressive film you’ll see all year, and while it feels like it could’ve been a masterpiece in the hands of a less egotistical director, his ego simultaneously brought the greatness. Still, the good here far outweighs the bad, and regardless of his motivations, Iñárritu did create something unique, and at times powerful.

(I’ll post the trailer below, but know that it spoils scenes that happen in the last 30-minutes of the film)

 

Links:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1663202/combined

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Revenant_%282015_film%29

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_revenant_2015/

http://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-revenant-2015

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=revenant.htm