First, a little backstory, I saw this movie on the night of the Golden Globes award as I wanted to wait a while to see if the movie would win any major awards. And it did. It won the Golden Globe award for best drama, best director and best actor. Just recently the movie received Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. That being said this movie had a lot going for it when I saw it. In my opinion, The Revenant deserves all the acclaim its getting.
Alejandro G. Inarritu returns after his Academy Award winning dark comedy Birdman. He teams up with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy to bring us the story of Hugh Glass and his story of survival and revenge. For those unaware of Mr. Glass's reputation, he was a pioneer fur trapper who after surviving an attack by Native American warriors, lives through a grizzly bear mauling and must survive the harsh winter weather in the wilderness in order to enact revenge up on one his fellow trappers that left him for dead and killed his son. It's a tale of both survival and the human spirit as Glass, who is on the verge of death, wills himself on and takes drastic measures in order to ensure his survival and revenge.
DiCaprio plays the titular character and by god if he does not win an Oscar for this, there must be something wrong with the academy. The man is put through the wringer in this movie. Not only did he have to act in extreme weather conditions but he also had to get thrown around and hurt in this movie. The role of Hugh Glass is a big departure from DiCaprio's usual role as a charming yet cocky character. He has very little dialogue in the movie and I think it works to both DiCaprio's and the movie's advantage. Giving Glass to much dialogue might have made audiences see that its just DiCaprio and not Glass saying these things. For the movie, the minimal dialogue allows the story to be told through its solid acting, visuals, and tone. Which brings me to the director.
I've only seen two movies from Inarritu, those being this one and Birdman, but I can clearly tell that he is a lover of cinema. You feel the passion in every shot of his movies and how hard it can be to work with the guy. This a guy who will put his actors in freezing wildernesses and might try to do a movie all in one take. It's a hard task to accomplish but so far he has gotten the best out of everyone on board, both actors and crew. However, even the best of things have problems.
The worst thing about the movie is that it feels long. I remember checking my phone three times in the theater to see how long I was sitting there. There were times I wanted to get up to use the bathroom but I held it in to see what would happen next. Another thing that bugged me was that every time the film would cut to the forest or any form of wilderness it felt like I was watching a nature documentary. But for those problems I can say that this movie was intense from beginning to end.
You feel like you're there watching something that happened in the days of the frontier and I commend that. Going for anything less than real in this movie would have been a let down given how serious the trailers made this movie to be. The acting in the movie by its two stars sell the feel of it being real. Tom Hardy's character is kind of a bastard as he is one who leaves Glass for dead in the snowy wilderness and kills Glass's son so that he can get back to civilization and get paid for his work. But the setting of where this movie takes place makes these actions justifiable. I feel that many fur trappers at the time would do the same thing, though probably doing a mercy killing instead of leaving someone to die. Hardy's character is not greedy but will do whatever it takes to survive and that kind of thinking works in this time period.
The Revenant is a strong contender for best picture given its many wins at the Golden Globes, but anything can happen. It's also Leonardo DiCaprio's best performance as he runs the gambit of emotions a man can have will finally nab his first Oscar for Best Actor but it's a strong field of contenders with accomplished talents like Matt Damon, Bryan Cranston and Michael Fassbender as well as the transgender role Eddie Redmayne played in The Danish Girl which may get some of the "lets avoid controversy or be really pro LGBT" votes. As for best director, Inarritue will win though Geroge Miller may be give him a bit of competition and is my hopeful to win, though given the nature of the academy, I can see them palying it safe and giving it to Inarritu. As for Best Picture, its safe to say like the director, its the academy's safest bet though I found Fury Road be more entertaining. It's a long sit but by the end, like me, you'll be glad you stuck with it.
Grade: A
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