The Revenant

Plot: The Revenant is the story of 1820's Montana fur trader Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio), who was mauled by a bear. The other traders are unable to carry him back to safety, and they are fearful of attacks from the Native American Ree (more properly called Arikara), so they leave Glass with Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) and two boys. After a few days Glass is abandoned to die, the rest of the movie is about how he survived. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: The bear attack is incredible. I have never seen anything like it. Truly horrible.  I watched it with one eye through my fingers.

Life was hard for the trappers and Mountain men in Montana, especially for Hugh Glass. The movie is never boring because terrible things keep happening. The vast majority of the movie is stressful because of the suffering and death. So many things go wrong, that it seems like The Martian. It improves when Glass becomes ambulatory again.

There are a meteors, avalanches, buffalo stampedes, and prayerful chanting that director Inarritu uses to create a sense of magical reality. While it suggests that the native gods are watching, it is also how Inarritu is acknowledging larger-than-life exaggerations in Glass's legend.  (see Even More, below.) 

One great scene was when Hugh Glass is floating in the freezing river to avoid the Ree, and ends up in rapids and then going over a waterfall: great pictures and very tense.

The action scene that "jumped the shark" was when Hugh was being chased by the Ree though the forest on horseback. Suddenly the horse runs off a cliff, and they fall directly into a fir tree. The Ree can't follow, and the tree breaks Hugh's fall. It sets up another clever/outrageous scene about keeping warm at night that I'm not going to spoil.

I didn't find DiCaprio's performance engaging or interesting. No doubt DiCaprio's performance was technically difficult, but so what? I am not a fan of DiCaprio.

Tom Hardy's performance as the bad guy Fitzgerald is more interesting and realistic.

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnail Gleeson

Directed by: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Based on the novel by: Michael Punke and inspired by the life of Hugh Glass

The Music by Ryuichi Sakamoto was slow and discordant; it added a lot to the movie. 

The Visuals: Generally dreary forest scenes befitting the mood, but there are some spectacular views of tree tops, mountains and river rapids. They did a nice job with the wounds on DiCaprio.

Rating: 2.5 stars: There are a few good scenes -- like that bear scene. It was fun to watch in a horror movie way, but mostly it was hard to watch in a documentary way. The few highlights are too spread out. I was looking at my watch regularly. 

 

More: Revenant - means someone who returns, especially back from the dead, according to the dictionary.

Even More: Hugh Glass is a legendary folk hero whose story is certainly embellished, just like Paul Bunyan. He has other interesting chapters in his bio, for example he was a pirate.

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