Watching a film that’s had a huge amount of hype can be a curse. More often than not it doesn’t live up to expectations, and requires a second viewing for you to really appreciate if it’s great or not.
Not so with Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant, which is clearly a masterwork from the first screening – one that will no doubt garner him his second Best Film Oscar in two years – along with a best actor nod for Leonardo DiCaprio.
The story itself is a fairly simple one: in snow-covered 1820’s Montana, a frontiersman on a fur trapping expedition, with his half-breed Indian son, is left for dead by his own team after being mauled by a bear. Somehow surviving his ordeal, he journeys to seek revenge on the man who killed his son before his eyes before buring him alive in a frozen forest, against orders.
But the beauty of this film is in it’s simplicity, the script places you firmly in the characters’ world – making you stand in the blood-soaked snow alongside with them. You can thank Inarritu for this, as both writer and director he pushed cast and crew to the very limit. Prior to release there was word of just how difficult the shoot it was, and that is laid bare on the screen. The film is all the better for it of course, although I doubt all involved would be keen for a repeat performance any time soon.
The supporting cast, from American military, to Indian tribes and French smugglers, are great and add a surprising level of depth to proceedings – not bring there just to make up the numbers. But it’s DiCaprio and Tom Hardy who really shine – as if we didn’t know just how good they were beforehand. Hardy’s villain is given great screen time and is far from one-dimensional – something many recent films could learn a thing or two from. But it’s DiCaprio who carries a bulk of two and half hour journey on his back – putting himself through hell to show us what hell back then really looked like.
The film is stunning to look at, as you’d expect, but the exceptional cinematography creates an equally menacing villain of the landscape, one that few would survive on a good day. Occasionally the film drifts off into Terrace Malick-like territory, but not so often that it pulls your completely out of the moment – more adding brief rest-bites from the despair.
This bleak, gritty, survival-revenge-western drags you to through hell and spits you out the other side – a journey you’re surprising grateful for at the end.
9/10
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[Box]THE REVENANT
USA | 156 minutes | Adventure, Drama
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Will Poulter, Domhnall Gleeson, Paul Anderson
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Screenplay: Mark L. Smith, Alejandro González Iñárritu
Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki[/box]
