{"id":4207,"date":"2016-01-08T06:30:42","date_gmt":"2016-01-08T13:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=4207"},"modified":"2016-01-08T06:56:33","modified_gmt":"2016-01-08T13:56:33","slug":"review-the-revenant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=4207","title":{"rendered":"Review: THE REVENANT"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Screen<\/a>\"fixbutton\"<\/a>Having won multiple Oscars in 2015 for the cinematic treat \u201cBirdman,\u201d filmmaker Alejandro Gonz\u00e1lez I\u00f1\u00e1rritu and his team take on grim and difficult material with \u201cThe Revenant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Set in the 1820s, guide and tracker Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio), after a vicious mauling by a bear, is left at the mercy of the soulless John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) in the cold, cold wilderness. Prior to his mortal injuries, Glass was attached to a fur trapping operation led by the young, privileged, and idealistic Andrew Henry (Domhnail Gleeson), who has to make the tough decision to leave the suffering Glass behind in the care of Fitzgerald. But once alone with Fitzgerald, Glass and his half Native American son are not safe.<\/p>\n

A harrowing tale of survival and revenge, I\u00f1\u00e1rritu\u2019s script co-written by Mark L. Smith (\u201cVacancy\u201d and Joe Dante\u2019s \u201cThe Hole\u201d) and adapted in part from Michael Punke\u2019s novel may frustrate some viewers who want more structure. At times, the story is almost incoherent, especially as Glass wanders from place to place constantly under attack from mysterious Native Americans.<\/p>\n

While it rambles about, the film evolves into what could be described as some kind of nature narrative experiment containing long dialogue-free passages set against breathtaking vistas.<\/p>\n

Even though the story may be somewhat slow and difficult to reconcile in places, the pairing of DiCaprio and Hardy, two of the most intense actors working today, is entertaining mainly on a visceral level\u2014bleeding, spitting, chewing, screaming, crying, snorting, and always suffering, quite a human range is on display. DiCaprio is tortured and in terrible pain throughout the bulk of the film, and Hardy, bearing a horrible scar on his head from a past Native American battle, is physically ugly and hardened as he descends farther and farther into selfish madness.<\/p>\n

The actors\u2019 animal-like transformations are captured expertly by multiple Oscar winner Emmanuel Lubezki, whom I\u00f1\u00e1rritu worked with on \u201cBirdman.\u201d Lubezki, also, won the Academy Award for \u201cGravity,\u201d another solitary tale, and it is not surprising that he lensed Terrence Malick\u2019s \u201cTree of Life\u201d as well. It is enough to say that Malick\u2019s work is an acquired taste. And \u201cThe Revenant\u201d may have as many committed fans as it does detractors.<\/p>\n

My biggest problem with the tale is its depiction of the Native American characters. I was confused as to their motivations and why in the world they would randomly appear and shoot arrows and fire guns at Glass. One explanation is provided, but even that reasoning, regarding the search for a chief\u2019s daughter or wife, is illogical in that instead of capturing Glass and questioning him, they continuously try to kill him.<\/p>\n

The constant chase\/escape rhythm is more frustrating than exciting, at times. Still, there are moments that do provide several thrilling sequences, including one, I will not spoil, that comes surprisingly out of nowhere to help give the narrative an added lift.<\/p>\n

One is invited to ruminate upon the images and emotions on display with movies like \u201cTree of Life\u201d and, now, \u201cThe Revenant.\u201d Such introspection is encouraged as we are asked to reflect upon the meaning of revenge and survival. Through a Google definition search, I learned that \u201crevenant\u201d literally means \u201ca person who has returned, especially supposedly from the dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such is a theme in the film in which DiCaprio\u2019s Glass and Hardy\u2019s Fitzgerald are both men who have seen death and returned to walk among the living.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DiCaprio and Hardy snort, spit, and bleed for the Oscar<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4207"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4211,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4207\/revisions\/4211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}