The Revenant Film Review
FILM REVIEW: The Revenant (2015) – filmed in West Canada, the USA and Argentina March 29th, 2017 Sonja ENGLISH FILMS, FILM REVIEWS, FILMED IN ARGENTINA, FILMED IN CANADA, FILMED IN THE USA, NEW POSTS. Now this is a spoiler-free review, so I'll leave the pleasure of viewing that scene. If all films were shot similarly to how the Revenant is, then the movie industry.
- Overview
- News
- Review
- Trailers & Videos
- Cast & Crew
- TV Listings
Latest NewsSee all »
2016 Oscar Predictions: Who Will Win?
Feb 26, 2016 10:15 AM EST
Leonardo DiCaprio will finally get his Oscar, but will his film prevail too? For the first time in years, we've got a three-horse Best Picture race, between The Revenant, The Big Short and Spotlight after they each took key industry wins. But each ha… Read more
BAFTA Awards: The Revenant Wins Top Prizes
See the full list of winners
Box Office: Deadpool Earns Record-Breaking $135 Million
Prepare for a lot more R-rated superhero movies
DGA Awards: Alejandro Iñárritu Makes History with The Revenant Win
See the full winner's list
Orange Is the New Black, Spotlight Top SAG Awards
How to read a julian date code. See the full list
2016 SAG Awards Predictions: Who Will Win?
Tell us your picks!
The Revenant Tops Oscar Nominations
See the full list
Cast & CrewSee all »
Trailers & VideosSee all »
The Revenant (Clean Trailer) - Official Trailer
02:13 —Leonardo Dicaprio On Why He Wanted To Part Of The Film - Behind the Scenes
00:31 —The Revenant - Trailer 2
02:38 — The new film from award-winner Alejandro González Iñárritu concerns the frontiersman, Hugh Glass, who in the 1820s set out on a path of vengeance agai (more…)Actors Ensemble Featurette (UK) - Behind the Scenes
02:00 —WatchSee all »
Film Review Format
The RevenantFXIn 1820s America, frontiersman Hugh Glass is betrayed and left for dead by his fur-trapping party after he is viciously attacked by a grizzly bear. However, Glass survives and sets out to seek revenge.
The RevenantFXIn 1820s America, frontiersman Hugh Glass is betrayed and left for dead by his fur-trapping party after he is viciously attacked by a grizzly bear. However, Glass survives and sets out to seek revenge.
.. and where to stream them.
Our gift to all you harried parents: hours of peace and quiet.
My News
Sign up and add shows to get the latest updates about your favorite shows - Start Now
Popular Shows
- 1.Jeopardy!
- 2.America's Got Talent
- 3.The 100
- 4.Keeping Up with the Kardashians
- 5.The Bachelorette
- 6.Riverdale
- 7.L.A.'s Finest
Popular Movies
- 1.Into The Blue
- 2.John Wick
- 3.Memorial Day
- 4.The Lion King
- 5.Avengers: Infinity War
- 6.Star Wars
- 7.Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone
Popular Celebrities
- 1.Kathryn Newton
- 2.Rose Leslie
- 3.Gabrielle Union
- 4.Tyler Perry
- 5.Meghan Markle
- 6.Kevin Costner
- 7.Morgan Freeman
Latest Stories
- 1.All the Twilight Zone Easter Eggs in Season 1 of Jordan Peele's Reboot
- 2.What to Stream the Weekend of May 31
- 3.Fear the Walking Dead Boss Says Season 5 Takes a Page From Indiana Jones
- 4.George R.R. Martin's Third 'Holy Sh–' Moment from Game of Thrones Revealed
- 5.Joshua Jackson Needed to Be Alone After Watching When They See Us
- 6.The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Teaser Takes Us Back to Thra
- 7.The Twilight Zone Episode Guide: What to Watch and What to Skip
The Revenant had a long road to the big screen, and the production suffered some setbacks as well as an ever-inflated budget. But every penny is there on the screen, and it was money well spent. Can the film make back the investment? I think it can, since it has several factors working in its favor.
First of all, Leonardo DiCaprio is a global movie star, and he has a reliable fanbase who tend to show up. Nobody should underestimate his ability to open a movie and help it get legs under it. Second, the film follows Birdman's remarkable success and should benefit from that association. Third, despite a few other award groups failing to offer the film the degree of recognition it deserves, I am confident the Oscars will not make that mistake, and so The Revenant will enjoy its own awards buzz on top of the Birdman linkage -- the Golden Globes attention will definitely help in that regard, too.
Fourth, it's the sort of movie with action and historic weight and the 'based on a true story' angle that combine to help it appear an Oscar contender that's also exciting, scary, and entertaining beyond the dramatic value it carries. Fifth, the limited release for Christmas helps it garner attention before it opens wide in January after giving Star Wars: The Force Awakens some initial breathing room. This means it can play as counter-programming but also as dessert for audiences excited by Star Wars and looking for something else to continue their 'movie high.'
Expect strong per screen numbers during the limited release. In wide release, we'll have to see how big Star Wars holds, and whether The Revenant can attract enough buzz to convince audiences to spring for another theater outing soon after the New Year.
Is The Revenant deserving of box office success and the attention it's likely to get? Oh, most definitely. Read on for my detailed look at this magnificent picture and what makes it one of the year's best films..
The Revenant Film Review
I see many reviews claiming the film lacks depth, or is devoid of emotional impact and characterization. Even positive reviews frequently claim it is an exercise in action, a simple revenge tale, and a straightforward wilderness survival story. While it can certainly be narrowly enjoyed as a western mashup of 'man vs nature' and 'dead man's vengeance' films, it is far more than that.
It's not as if I'm incapable of criticizing González Iñárritu's films. Last year, I was among the handful of critics who gave Birdman a negative review -- as you can see if you read it here, mine was pretty unforgiving -- and I've had mixed reactions to his other films (I loved Amores Perros and liked Babel; I disliked 21 Grams and strongly disliked Biutiful). So my perception of The Revenant isn't clouded by any preconceived notions about the filmmaker.
Nor did I walk into The Revenant determined to love it. Having been so severely disappointed with Birdman, I was on guard against letting my hopes get ahead of me. The trailers looked promising, but I was well aware such a tale offered ample opportunity for González Iñárritu to fall into any number of narrative traps or technical excesses.
But he didn't, and instead delivered the finest film of his career to date. Visually, narratively, emotionally, it's the most artistically whole and impactful of his work. Instead of overcomplicating with attempts to draw attention to the filmmaking itself, the film embraces a love of the beauty around it and is often content to let us exist in the natural moment -- a choice that speaks directly to the narrative arc, which I'll get to shortly. Suffice to say for now, the ability to perceive our place within the natural world and accept such moments, to allow them to guide us and define us, in turn defines the filmmaking at every level just as it is reflected in the story.
I cannot fathom that another film will win the Oscar for Best Cinematography. Nothing else this year really comes close to Emmanuel Lubezki's work on The Revenant. It evokes the visual impression of some of Terrence Malick's films, on two of which -- The New World and Tree of Life (the best film of 2011) -- Lubezki was cinematographer. Every frame is a work of art here, and it is a testament to Lubezki's and González Iñárritu's nuanced understanding of natural light and natural space that they crafted these images so deeply invested with the influence of natural phenomena on the photographic process. Even the sound is to be marveled at, if you care to notice the difference between the puffy crunch of compacted snow beneath a boot as opposed to powdery snow or sharp crackling ice. There is little dialogue, so sound editing became extremely important to the film's impression, and like everything else in the film, the result is remarkable.
The film often felt like Malick's presence was somewhere guiding the production, not only in photography but also in pacing, in the use of some sorts of 'visions' by certain characters, and in larger themes about the spirit and the natural world around us. In the end, it is far more structured than Malick's work, but the impression is there in the best way. I suspect this is less about a direct intentional influence taken from his work, and more about the fact The Revenant speaks to similar themes demanding similar ways of thinking to approach them in cinema. Observing the purely physical and natural, perceiving it in a way transcending one's self, and experiencing something metaphysical -- that is at heart a very Malick-esque thematic foundation, after all.
The Reverant is a remarkable film, raw and visceral and spiritual in a way too few films understand how to be in such a simultaneous manner. That it is underappreciated and/or misunderstood even by many of its admirers -- for some of the positive reviews still assert it lacks deeper characterization and emotional resonance -- is probably at least partially due to the complexity of its expression of overlapping concern with both the physical and the spiritual. It doesn't assert itself in easy, typical cinematic parlance, relying far more on compounding power of visual implication. The more we watch, the more we see, and the more we see, the more we understand.
As for characterization, there is a great deal happening below the surface of the lives in this story. I will begin not with Leonardo DiCaprio's protagonist, but with Tom Hardy's antagonist, as a way of coming round about to the central conflict and emotional tension driving that conflict. And here I must add a spoiler warning, because it's impossible to delve into the depths of this story and talk about the meaning and emotional weight without discussing some important aspects of the story. So be warned, there are a few significant spoilers ahead, but if you've read synopses of the film you may know many or most of them already.
Hardy's character isn't evil, nor simple in his emotional sentiments or motivations. He swears to stay with the seemingly mortally wounded DiCaprio and give him a decent burial, and then proceeds to plan on doing just that. He digs a grave, he waits for days, and he tries to explain his concerns to DiCaprio while asking him to give a sign that he wants to be put out of his misery. When he acts, he does so legitimately thinking he received the go-ahead. And then DiCaprio's son sees this and begins shouting, threatening with a gun, but Hardy tries repeatedly to explain himself before panicking that the boy's screams will attract the attention of the Indians hunting them through the mountains. He stabs the boy, and within seconds seems overcome by the realization of what he's done.
We must remember that Hardy's character frequently postures, but is frequently revealed to be disguising a constant undercurrent of fear. He was once scalped by Indians, and when he speaks of it, we see that the scars run far deeper than the skin. He is deathly afraid of ever being captured and scalped again, the horror of it seemingly worse even than death in his mind. So he wants to flee the Indians, wants to avoid being caught, and later his fear of the vengeance of the Indians transforms into fear of DiCaprio's vengeance coming to haunt him.
Hardy's is a masterful supporting performance, as a man with nothing in the world and determined to find at least some measure of comfort some day even if it's just a small piece of land to relax on, so he can stop struggling just to remain alive and with half of his scalp left on his head. He's not very smart, not very careful, and not very brave.
It's easy to hate him for his sins, but equally easy to feel a bit sorry for him since in some ways you can relate to his point -- DiCaprio appears to have no chance of survival, carrying him through the wilderness is slowing the rest of the team and likely will result in them being caught and killed by the pursuing Indians. DiCaprio is in agony, unable even to speak except in choked cries of pain through gritted teeth. To Hardy, keeping DiCaprio alive is only torturing the man and condemning the rest of them. He is cruel and selfish, yes; but so too are most of those around him, in a pitiless, frozen world where death stalks the just and unjust equally. At all costs, he wants to get away and back to safety, and then to get paid enough money so he never has to endure that pitiless world again.
Which brings us to the main performance of the film, and the counterpoint to Hardy's emotional weakness. DiCaprio's isn't a performance without greater meaning, it merely refuses to lay out the details in an easy fashion for viewers. He is a man who left behind the 'civilized' white world, preferring to join the Pawnee where he married a wife and had a son. When confronted by U.S. Calvary, DiCaprio struck back by killing an officer to save his own wife. The Pawnee were subsequently killed, their homes burned, DiCaprio's wife murdered and his son severely burned. There was a Christian church burned to the ground in the flames that consumed the Pawnee village, where DiCaprio sought solace after losing the new life he'd made with the Pawnee -- a man between two worlds, having lost both, and now left to try to coexist with the remains of his favored people now colonized by his former people. We never find out the details of what started the conflict between the U.S. Calvary and the Pawnee, with whom the whites coexisted in an 'occupying' fashion.
In the aftermath of that general but vaguely sketched background, DiCaprio's character tried to keep his son safe and alive, teaching him to avoid attracting attention and to work alongside the whites while avoiding stepping too far into their world. As a father, his sole purpose became helping his son adapt and grow to manhood with a foot in both worlds -- his Pawnee heritage, and the white world consuming the land. DiCaprio feared what white men could and often would do, and he saw that fear realized when Hardy murdered the boy.
In the aftermath, DiCaprio's struggle for survival is first a comparison and contrast with Hardy's own fearful attempts to stay safe and alive. But whereas Hardy flees toward some new life, DiCaprio has no life left. Hardy killed to stay alive, DiCaprio stays alive so he can kill. DiCaprio becomes the manifestation of Hardy's fears, and a literal manifestation of his own conflicted soul. Hardy represents everything about the white world that took DiCaprio's life away -- the bigotry toward the Pawnee that led to the slaughter of the village and the death of DiCaprio's wife, and the subsequent loss of his son. DiCaprio no longer wants to successfully and carefully navigate the white world, he walks through it as a ghost, with only vengeance as a release for all of the pain and sorrow crushing his heart.
DiCaprio's family were all killed, he himself was buried and left for dead. His return from death is at odds with his recurring vision of his wife peaceful and at rest, unburdened by hate or pain or vengeance. After his son's death, the boy enters DiCaprio's visions as well, in the burned church that represented the overlap of the white and Indian worlds in the village. And when DiCaprio seeks to embrace the boy for solace, there is none to be had because DiCaprio's mission is one of death and destruction, no different than the fate delivered by the other white men upon Pawnee victims.
The film isn't equating one killing with another. Rather, the point is about the survivors, not the killers or the victims. Honoring his loved ones is not possible through hatred and death, the very instruments of their demise; it is only possible when he lets go and embraces his own fate and the fate of everyone else as determined by larger forces.
What larger forces? The natural world, of course. The world that sent a bear to maul DiCaprio and sent a blizzard to torment those in the mountains and forests. The world that provided the river for escape and provided the animals for food. We see nature as a force not unlike God in the story, always enforcing its will upon every character and every sequence. There are constant reminders of the majesty of this world, and of its unequaled power. We are dwarfed by it, physically and metaphysically. That is what DiCaprio must learn, and it's a lesson he hasn't been able to hear because of his singular obsession with revenge, despite the fact he is surrounded constantly by evidence of the fact of the natural world's awesome power and his own destiny inevitably determined by those forces.
It is important that he finally hears it only when Hardy of all people makes him see the truth. Nothing DiCaprio does can bring his son back. Nothing. And in that terrible truth, he can comprehend how truly powerless he is, and how blind he's been all along. His visions of his wife tried to tell him, even as he was engulfed in nothing but a world larger than himself exerting its will upon him, as he struggled first against and then alongside it. The final struggle he had to give up was his struggle to control life and death. He heard the words several times before, but now he speaks them with understanding, and acts accordingly.
The Revanent is among the truly great films of 2015, and is Alejandro González Iñárritu's greatest film, with Oscar-worthy performances from Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy. You feel every moment, so by the end you share in the characters' exhaustion of heart and soul, and perhaps in their glimpse at something infinite, beautiful, and terrifying.
Follow me on Twitter, on Google+, and on Quora. Read my blog.Listen to my new Popular Opinion Podcast (POP) with Sean Gerber.