The Revenant (2015)

by Luke Rajczuk

Another spectacular film from director Alejandro González Iñáritu (Birdman, Biutiful), this time set in unsettled wilderness of Louisiana of 1823 The Revenant is a feast of spectacular landscape shots and amazing control over continuity. Achieving this high level of the ‘real- feel-to-it’ in such demanding weather conditions must have been a tremendous challenge for the film crew. The raw freshness and attention to detail in the majority of scenes make the audience travel along. The film is a stretched and enjoyable walk through the harsh and wintry terrain where human endurance, strength and will for survival are of key importance.

Ahh! The cast! Two very well performed and contrasting characters by Leonardo DiCaprio (Inception) as heroic explorer Hugh Glass and Tom Hardy (Legend) as John the baddie. A spectacular and perfectly choreographed female grizzly bear attack on Hugh is a pinnacle of the film as the elements of it are so well-tailored that many wouldn’t have a clue it was actually CGI and lots of technical work. “It involved cables, it involved me flying around the forest, and it involved a tremendous amount of rehearsal. And it was pretty agonizing to do.” says DiCaprio in an interview for BUSTLE magazine. Another spectacular scene is with Hugh Glass fleshing out a dead but still warm horse to spend the night inside the animal and keep warm to escape from freezing to death. The portrayal of this amazing connection and mutual dependence between a human being and nature is a strong feature of the picture. A fairly god job from Domhnall Gleeson (Ex Machina), who’s only in the film for a bit as Captain Andrew Henry.

As for the pace of the production, hints of resemblance in terms of tone, sound, suspense and tempo remind Nicolas Winding Refn‘s Valhalla Rising and although Iñáritu‘s film is less brutal or intense both touch on various indigenous ethnic groups and the existing interference between them.