The Revenant is a hell of a survival movie. Hugh Glass is leading a fur trapping expedition in 1820. It’s the dead of winter and their expedition get’s attacked by Indians (Pawnee I think). Another group of white men (French) attacked their village and kidnapped a woman. Glass and company were in the wrong place at the wrong time as these dudes come crashing through, hell bent on their rescue mission. Glass gets some of his men away and routes them off the river to trek back to base camp by land. This plan doesn’t sit well with John Fitzgerald.  As the group tries to stay ahead of their pursuers, Glass gets mauled by a bear. He’s clinging to life as his group decides to leave him behind. Fitzgerald makes some poor decisions from there and Glass survives the frontier fueled on revenge.
Sitting on a couch, after dinner, in July, in an air conditioned home really puts Glass’ journey into stark contrast. The amount of abuse and horror this guy endures is off the chart. I’m not going to detail the levels of hell he goes through because that’s really the driving force of the film. You need to witness it firsthand to get the full experience. With that in mind, I didn’t have socks on so my feet got really cold. Glass almost freezes to death a dozen times so it made me feel like I was there with him. Almost.
Production wise, this picture is the stuff of legend. It took forever to shoot, the conditions were real and they used all natural light in 99% of the scenes. That’s insane. No one in their right mind would even think of doing that. It did pay off. The Revenant is a stunning production. These amazing landscapes, the phenomenal cast, everything looks so real which adds to the brutality. Director Alejandro Inarritu has a masterful eye. He knows when and where to cut and how far away he needs the camera to be at every moment.  He loves long takes. He puts you right next to Glass in the most intense moments to shove your psyche into Glass’ head to share the experience. Masterful handheld camera work that only adds, it never distracts or confuses. Props to Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki for a large portion of how this film looks. He had probably the most difficult job with this production and its flawless stuff. His resume was already in the stratosphere but this puts him well into legendary filmmaker status.
Finally, Leonardo DiCaprio won the Oscar for Lead Actor for a reason and I’ll leave it at that. My man Tom Hardy puts another worthy notch on his belt as John Fitzgerald. Not sure if anyone could have played him better.
A riveting film that’s not for the faint of heart.