Disappointed - Not credible, needs editing, visually beautiful.

Rating: Null/10 (12 January 2016)

The sheer volume of promotion should have rung warning bells for when a work has quality word of mouth will promote it better than expensive advertising.
Since the entire film is shot on location without artificial lighting and was clearly an endurance test in many ways there is no excuse for not making it credible. In short no human I know of could survive what di Caprio's character, Hugo Glass, lives through.
The film is far too long at some 153 min. and urgently needs editing.
In this setting - the wide open spaces of Canada - more silence would have been appropriate but at times I felt the volume of the theme music was just over-done. We don't need to be told how to feel for it's a visual medium so let us get atmosphere first from the visuals.
The faces of the indigenous actors were wonderful and lent a note of authenticity and really the performances overall were very good. It was the survival of the central character which lacked credibility, not the acting (people die from hypothermia quite quickly when exposed to the elements yet our profoundly wounded and infected hero just keeps going!). Also the two 'wild' scenes made for exciting viewing (not specific as don't wish to spoil).
The plot is fine. It's not a new story, the appropriation of assets from native peoples,along with greed and revenge and that plot was well established.
Overall and in one word, disappointed. Could not sit through it again.