Hugh Glass has a bad day

Rating: 7/10 (8 May 2016)

Released in late 2015, "The Revenant" stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Hugh Glass, a man who in real life survives a mauling by a grizzly bear and makes his way crawling and stumbling 200 miles to Fort Kiowa, in South Dakota, after being abandoned without supplies or weapons by fellow explorers and fur traders during General Ashley's expedition of 1823. Vengeful, Glass then sets out to confront his trapping partners who left him to die. The movie's loosely based on these events, but the locations are far removed from the Missouri River area of South Dakota, which makes for a more scenic experience in light of the locations being spectacular.
The story was first made into a movie as 1971's "Man in the Wilderness" starring Richard Harris and John Huston. Whereas that movie has the better story "The Revenant" has the better filmmaking. It's not just that it's a more expensive production with outstanding location shooting and quality actors, but also the modern filmmaking technique is superlative. If you like wilderness survival/adventure movies then "The Revenant" is a must. While the film runs over two and a half hours it kept my attention throughout and didn't seem that long. It's thoroughly realistic except that it's marred by Road Runner-like sequences (you'll know what I mean).
The film runs 156 minutes and was shot in Alberta, British Columbia, Montana, Arizona, Mexico and Argentina.
GRADE: B