Synopsis
(n. One who has returned, as if from the dead.)
In the 1820s, a frontiersman, Hugh Glass, sets out on a path of vengeance against those who left him for dead after a bear mauling.
2015 Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu
In the 1820s, a frontiersman, Hugh Glass, sets out on a path of vengeance against those who left him for dead after a bear mauling.
Leonardo DiCaprio Tom Hardy Domhnall Gleeson Will Poulter Forrest Goodluck Duane Howard Arthur RedCloud Melaw Nakehk'o Grace Dove Lukas Haas Paul Anderson Kristoffer Joner Joshua Burge Fabrice Adde Christopher Rosamond Robert Moloney Brendan Fletcher Tyson Wood McCaleb Burnett Vincent Leclerc Stephane Legault Emmanuel Bilodeau Cole Vandale Tom Guiry Scott Olynek Amelia Crow Show Peter Strand Rumpel Timothy Lyle Kory Grim Show All…
Steve Golin Alejandro González Iñárritu Arnon Milchan James W. Skotchdopole Keith Redmon Mary Parent Douglas Jones Nicolás Giacobone Scott Robertson Alexander Dinelaris Alex G. Scott
Eric A. Kohler Jennifer Silver Allan Magled Ryan Wiederkehr Ivy Agregan Asregadoo Arundi Richard McBride Elizabeth Leslie Marie Rheinschild-Jordan Matt Shumway Jason Smith Peter Nofz
Vincent Guisetti Catherine Harper Dino Dimuro Lon Bender Randy Thom Nancy MacLeod Jon Title Geordy Sincavage Rick Owens Gregg Barbanell D. Chris Smith Frank A. Montaño Jon Taylor Bill R. Dean Mark Larry Hector C. Gika Stephen P. Robinson Andrea Gard Adam Kopald Dave McMoyler Martín Hernández Chris Duesterdiek Frank Rinella
Sian Grigg Graham Johnston Maiko 'Mo' Gomyo Audrey Doyle Duncan Jarman Jessica Shannon Brandi Boulet
Monarchy Enterprises S.a.r.l. Regency Enterprises Appian Way CatchPlay Anonymous Content New Regency Pictures Hong Kong Alpha Motion Pictures Co. M Productions RatPac Entertainment
The Revenant - Hồn Ma Báo Thù, レヴェナント: 蘇えりし者, レヴェナント 蘇えりし者, O Regresso, العائد, Завръщането, El renascut, REVENANT Zmrtvýchvstání, The Revenant – Der Rückkehrer, The Revenant - Der Rückkehrer, Η Επιστροφή, El renacido, Revenant: El renacido, Mees, kes jäi ellu, گور برخاسته, Le revenant, האיש שנולד מחדש, द रेवनेंट, Povratnik, A visszatérő, Revenant - Redivivo, レヴェナント:蘇えりし者, გადარჩენილი, 레버넌트: 죽음에서 돌아온 자, Hju Glaso legenda, Cilvēks, kurš izdzīvoja, Zjawa, The Revenant: O Renascido, The Revenant: Legenda lui Hugh Glass, Выживший, Revenant: Zmŕtvychvstanie, Повратник, เดอะ เรเวแนนท์ ต้องรอด, Diriliş, 神鬼猎人, Легенда Г’ю Гласса, Người về từ cõi chết, 荒野猎人, 復仇勇者, 神鬼獵人
If Leonard DiCaprio doesn't win The Oscar; I will be more done than a white girl that went to Starbuck just to find out that they were all out of triple espresso mochaccino lattes.
60/100
The Revenant, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, is a masterclass in portraying a sense of an untamed yet euphoric setting. Its grimy and increasingly mythical landscape contrast with serene Digital images, showcasing a vast environment with a conflicted aura of inhospitable wilderness and the tantalizing search for greed and power. With Emmanuel Lubezki at the helm as DP, and armed with the Arri Alexa 65, the result is a gigantic adventure with a scope as wide as its constant lens choice, but sadly miscalculated when it comes to core story components.
Its ultimately disappointing to think, after all the horror stories involved in production, that something so misguided can result from such obvious turmoil, but most of the issues…
Another look allowed me to focus more on the alternate reading that's suggested by the title. (Spoilers ahead.)
You could make the case that Glass dies shortly after he lies down next to the body of his dead son. (There's a particularly potent cutaway shot to the sun piercing through the cloudy sky.) From that point on, Glass is a specter haunting this land and the people in it - he resists "letting go" and following his wife and son into the afterlife because he instead chooses revenge. And as long as he does so, as long as he ignores their calling to him in those visions, he's cursed to live in this in-between space (hence his ability to survive…
The pulpy, punchy 100-minute version of this is probably good but because Iñárritu (already well known for mistaking ruthlessly punishing his characters for meaning/depth & overexplaining very simple, college-level sentiments in the most obvious melodramatic way imaginable) thinks of himself as a Malick or Tarkovsky... He's above genre movie-making, he's an Artiste, and so he pads things out with an hour of revenge is bad cuz God or something & trees don't give up so neither will leo cuz nature... is like... inherently violent but also not cuz it's so beautiful but ALSO UGLY ya idk here are some more trees lol. Feels like a first-year film student was handed $100 million, essentially.
And for a film being marketed as brutal and…
Hey I'm making a movie called The Revenant and it's really good because it's about like survival and man vs nature and stuff and it's going to have really good cinematography by that guy who did the dinosaur movie and it'll be artistic because I'll cut to shots of nature when there's intense stuff happening to show how epic nature is like omg and I'm going to shoot it in long takes because all the best directors do it and I'm one of those great directors like Tarkovsky because I'm going to have the mother levitating like in Mirror and it'll be really dreamlike and cool because the camera isn't on a tripod and it's like that guy who did…
I'm probably not supposed to think this is as much fun as I do, but I find the combination of grisly violence, incredible and frequently comic portent, and for the most part oppressively immaculate technical craft wildly exciting even while I compute how needlessly it strains for seriousness. So yeah, I was the guy behind you in the theater who cackled every time an arrow suddenly popped through a dude's throat or any given living body was otherwise subjected to some absurd, visceral abuse. And I enjoyed (at least until its stupid final moments) that this doesn't really bother with useless handwringing over the morality of revenge. Strip a half-hour of cold people glaring and freezing out of this and you'd have a hell of an action movie.