The Revenant **** (2015, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson, Will Poulter, Paul Anderson, Lukas Haas) – Movie Review

‘All I had was my boy… but he took him from me, you understand? He’s afraid. He knows how far I came to find him. ‘

In his first role since The Wolf of Wall Street in 2013, Leonardo DiCaprio stars in director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s awards-worthy 2015 epic Western as 1820s frontiersman Hugh Glass. While out on a hazardous hunting expedition, he is mauled by a bear but recovers and sets off for vengeance against the evil betrayer John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) who kills his friend and leaves him to die.

Like the very different The Danish Girl, it is based (in part) on a novel (by Michael Punke) that adapts real events. Iñárritu and Mark L Smith write the robust and manly screenplay. It’s more of a plotting job, since there’s very little dialogue. It’s virtually a silent movie, accompanied with a great soundtrack.

The film is incredibly good looking, visceral, and excitingly directed, with brilliant cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki, marvellous production design (Jack Fisk, Hamish Purdy), incisive editing (Stephen Mirrione) and a thrilling score by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Carsten Nicolai. However, the story is fairly standard and ordinary with a predictable ending that just confirms it’s a film with a lack of surprises. In a generous spirit, we could call it an archetypal story or even a Western homage story.

On the other hand, it’s good to have a Western back on screen again, and DiCaprio makes a fine Western hero, though he has very few lines of dialogue, maybe just 20 in the entire movie, while Hardy is hammy and lightweight as the snarling villain. I don’t want to do talented Brit actors out of work, but I’d rather see Americans in American roles, just like I prefer not to see Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Reese Witherspoon, Gwyneth Paltrow or Renée Zellweger playing English characters, good through they may be.

Domhnall Gleeson and Will Poulter co-star as Andrew Henry and Jim Bridger, and Paul Anderson and Lukas Haas are in there somewhere, but nobody other than the two stars gets much of a look in. It’s a shame the supporting characters aren’t better written and more fully sketched in. In a 156-minute film there’s room for a whole panorama of major characters and lots of character development but this isn’t that kind of film. It’s lean and spare, and taut, even in 156 minutes.

The astounding bear attack is realised in what must be an outstanding achievement in character animation in a live action production and should expect awards for it. It’s a nail-biter and an eye-opener, and the one thing that movie will be remembered for. Just when you think it’s all over, it just starts up to terrify you all over again. The bear is a great monster! Eventually, it will be celebrated as one of the most memorable scenes in movie history. But the trouble with this sequence is that it is so ‘real’ it leaves you thinking there’s no way the hero could have survived it.

And it is an awards-type movie. It has four Golden Globe nominations for 2016, including Best Film, Director, Actor and Score. Aside from Best Film, it’s welcome to pick up what prizes it can, but the two awards I definitely wouldn’t give it are Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor.

Mexican director González Iñárritu won the Academy Award for Best Director for the rather over-rated Birdman in 2015.

It’s robust stuff, rated R for strong frontier combat and violence including gory images, a sexual assault, strong language and brief nudity.

It was shot chronologically on a long 80-day schedule due to the cold weather conditions, the remoteness of the locations and the plan to shoot only with natural light for maximum realism. As summer approached, the snow melted during the location shoot in Canada and the production was relocated to southern Argentina, where there were similar wintry conditions.

The 1971 Man in the Wilderness with Richard Harris and John Huston was also loosely based on Hugh Glass’s story.

It is the third time that Jacob Tomuri has worked as Tom Hardy’s stunt double, after Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) and Legend (2015).

The Revenant won a fleet of 2016 Golden Globes: awards for director Alejandro González Iñárritu and star Leonardo DiCaprio and the top award – best dramatic motion picture. It’s DiCaprio’s third Golden Globe win after The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) and The Aviator (2004).

On 14 February 2016 at the British Academy Film Awards, The Revenant was named Best Film, with Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu winning Best Director and Leonardo DiCaprio receiving the award for Best Leading Actor. Emmanuel Lubezki won for Best Cinematography – his fourth BAFTA and third win in a row – and the film also won for Best Sound.

The Revenant led the race for the 2016 Oscars with a whopping 12 nominations including Best Picture, Best Director (Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu), Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Best Supporting Actor (Tom Hardy), with Mad Max: Fury Road scoring 10 and The Martian seven.

On 28 February 2016, Iñárritu and DiCaprio won Best Director and Best Actor Oscars, with a third Oscar going to Lubezki for Best Achievement in Cinematography.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Movie Review 

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