The Revenant

Spoilers!

While 2015's THE REVENANT may not entirely play as the deep philosophical and theological piece it clearly aspires to be, the breadth and professionalism of its production more than compensates.  That may come off as shallow, an admission that the film is best appreciated as a vivid picture book of striking locations.  Director Alejandro G. Inarritu mounted a lengthy shoot across North America and into Argentina when the snow melted in Canada.  His ambitions are all there onscreen.  The credits inform us that Jack Fisk was the production designer.  If you are familiar with his work that is all you really need to know as to whether you should take this two and one-half hour plus journey. 

The subject is Hugh Glass, a real life fur trapper and frontiersman who legend has it survived a mauling by a grizzly bear and crawled his way across the Dakotas after his compadres gave him up for dead.  Leonard DiCaprio dives into the role without reservation.  An impressively physical performance of few words and enormous tenacity.  One that even required him to seek warmth in the carcass of a newly deceased horse and to consume bison liver.  Amidst punishing weather conditions that sent some crew members packing. 

The widower Glass, with his half-Pawnee son Hawk (Forrest Goodluck) in tow, guides a flank of trappers lead by Captain Andrew Henry (Domhnall Gleeson) in 1823 Dakota territory, suffering attacks by the Arikara tribe who seek the chief's kidnapped daughter.  Competing for pelts are a group of French Canadian hunters, real brutes.  No less brutish is John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy, whose dialogue is indecipherable enough to make the case for onscreen subtitles), part of Henry's camp.  A greedy and racist barbarian who is the first to suggest a mercy killing of Glass after his near death experience with the bear - a relentless sequence, one unlikely you'll soon forget. 

The crew makes some hard decisions, asking for volunteers to stay behind and give Glass a proper burial when the inevitable arrives.  Fitzgerald and upstart Jim Bridger (Will Poulter) agree to remain.  The former grows impatient and will eventually stab Hawk to death and order Bridger to flee with him.  Thus begins Glass' agonizing journey of survival.   

One driven by revenge.  That's the heart of THE REVENANT.  A long painful slog toward justice. Justice as perceived by a man whose son was taken.  Simplistic to be sure, and essentially what I got from this movie.  The screenplay, by the director and Mark L. Smith, adapting the same named novel by Michael Punke, touches upon weighty issues and religious musings, but none seemed particularly deep, at least on first viewing.  "Vengeance is mine" we hear more than once.  Not Hugh's.

It was a pleasure to watch such a lavish adventure in an age where cinema has been reduced to static televisualism.  Old school brio and craft with a cast and crew up to the challenge of making it look as realistic as possible.  Frequent Inarritu collaborator Emmanuel Lubezki shoots on digital but it looks fabulous.  His 360s create the appropriate dizzying perspective of Glass and his latest predicament.  Against a majestic wilderness that is as much a cast member as anyone, though to my eyes Leo deserved his Oscar.