The Revenant (2015) Review

Time: 156 Minutes
Age Rating: Graphic Violence, Sexual Violence and Content that May Disturb
Cast:
Leonardo DiCaprio as Hugh Glass
Tom Hardy as John Fitzgerald
Domhnall Gleeson as Captain Andrew Henry
Will Poulter as Jim Bridger
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu

While exploring the uncharted wilderness in the 1800s, legendary frontiersman Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) sustains injuries from a brutal bear attack. When his hunting team leaves him for dead, Glass must utilize his survival skills to find a way back home to his beloved family. Grief-stricken and fuelled by vengeance, Glass treks through the wintry terrain to track down John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), the former confidant who betrayed and abandoned him.

I was interested in this movie not only because of Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy’s involvement, but also because Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Birdman) was directing it. The fact that these three as well as other talented people are involved made this one of my most anticipated movies of 2016 as soon as I heard about it. After seeing it I can say that this is truly one of the best directed movies I’ve ever seen. The performances and the excellent direction by Inarritu makes it one of the best films of 2015.

Before watching this movie you should know that it isn’t action packed like the premise might seem. It’s not an arthouse borefest (not anything against arthouse movies) like The Assassin but it is slower than you would expect, at least I felt it in the earlier scenes. There are also some dream sequences that Glass goes through, I liked these scenes though I did feel like some of them weren’t very necessary. Those are really the only problems I felt in the movie. This movie created a world that’s brutal, unflinching, violent and unforgiving and all of this is helped by the direction which I’ll get to in a bit. Seeing Glass overcome so many of these obstacles put in his path is truly thrilling and it makes his journey all the more fascinating.

Leonardo DiCaprio is once again great, I swear he gets better every single time I see him in movies. He has the least dialogue out of the four characters, some of it not in English, but he conveyed so much through his facial expressions. Tom Hardy is also good, even though he does a little bit of the Tom Hardy mumble that’s prevalent in some of his movies that makes a lot of his dialogue a little incomprehensible. Other actors like Domhnall Gleeson and Will Poulter are also great in standout supporting roles.

DiCaprio and Hardy are the leads of the movie but Inarritu is truly the star of the movie. Before the release of this film, news has come out about the difficult production of the film, after seeing this movie I can say that all of this payed off. I honestly don’t know how they managed to film many of these scenes. A truly great example of how well this film was is, is shown in the bear attack scene, which is truly great. I don’t know how they managed to do it. This film also looks beautiful, there are long shots which really immersed us into the world that this movie created. As many know this movie uses only natural light and that’s another good example of the extent that Inarritu went to get as perfect a movie that it could be.

As I said, The Revenant is one of the best directed movies I’ve seen. This film had a long and difficult road but it all payed off in the end, taking dangerous measures to get the best possible film. This film has great performances, beautiful cinematography, brutal and unflinching scenes and much more, making this a movie that must be seen. Don’t miss out on this fantastic film, see it in the cinemas as soon as possible.

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