Direction:
Alejandro Iñarritu; Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardt, Will Poulter; Story: Based on The
Revenant by Michael Punke; Screenplay: Mark Smith, Alejandro G. Iñarritu;
Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki; Editing: Stephen Mirrione; Music: Ryuichi
Sakamoto, Alva Noto; Producers: Arnon Milchan, Steve Golin, et al; Genre: Epic
Drama; Location: 18th Century Louisiana; Distributor: 20th Century Fox; Running
Time: 156 minutes.
Technical assessment: 4
Moral assessment: 3.5
CINEMA Rating: V18
The
film opens with Hugh Glass (DiCaprio) telling his half-breed son not to give up as
long as he is breathing. Through a collage of images, we see how he loses his
wife and cares for his young son, Hawk. A few years later, Glass and a teenage
Hawk are part of team hunting for pelts in the Louisiana wilderness until they
are ambushed by Native Americans searching for the chief’s kidnapped daughter.
With only 10 men remaining, the party relies on Glass’ expertise and experience
to lead them to safety. However, when Glass is brutally mauled by a grizzly
bear, the team captain is forced to leave him behind in order for them to be
able to safely return to camp. Hawk, Bridger (Poulter) and Fitzgerald (Hardy) volunteer to stay
behind, care for Glass and give him a proper burial when the time comes. However, Fitzgerald, being hostile to both
father and son, convinces the injured Glass to be killed so that the three of
them can move on. When he smothers Glass, Hawk arrives thinking his father is
being murdered and tries to call for help. But Fitzgerald stabs him to death as
Glass watches helplessly. Fitzgerald convinces the young Bridger that Hawk has
gone missing and they should leave Glass to die. Glass slowly recovers from his
injuries and makes a resolve to make Fitzgerald pay for the murder of his son.
There
is a poetic mix of calm and brutality in director Iñarritu’s art. He brings out
the core of human struggle with calm precision that it chokes you out of your
emotions. The Revenant is divinely
genius. Cinematography is majestic and intuitive. It combines the arresting
beauty of the Old World and the dynamism of the scene in images that you see
and don’t see. Sound design is meticulously laid out, resulting in a rich
dramatization. The storytelling, although a little longer than necessary,
manages to pierce through the soul. But the main success of the movie is
DiCaprio’s Glass. He attacks the character with so much commitment and
intensity so that every pain, every heartbreak, and every rage is felt by the
audience. But more importantly, each element, although a stand out by itself,
works cohesively to tell the story and does not draw attention to itself. The
Revenant is a movie that will surely be a classic for film studies in the
future.
The
strongest message of the film is told at the very beginning: “as long as you
can breathe, you fight”. This is man’s indomitable spirit to stay alive. There
are several motivations to do so: self-preservation, protecting a loved one,
seeking justice and rectification and hunger for revenge. The film took us to
all of them, perhaps one more prominently that the other. That determination to
hang on, the courage to fight and the will to live takes heart, mind and soul
and the deep sense of spirituality that allows man to transcend every inch of
physical and emotional pain. While it does not explicitly acknowledge God,
images of the Church, reference to conscience through inner voices and the
words that Glass remembers before he decides not to kill Fitzgerald implicitly
suggest His presence. Other sub themes worth discussing are respect for
environment and culture, love for family, friendship and loyalty. However, the
film graphically presents interracial war, sexual assault, and death, that
younger audience will feel disturbed. Hence, CINEMA recommends the film to more
mature viewers.
