A Western Odyssey or (How Leo Learned To Stop Worrying And Love His Oscar)

Rating: 10/10 (22 December 2015)

Odyssey in literature equals to the calvary of homecoming. Odyssey means fulfillment either by knowledge, sacrifice or mercy. There are great examples of fulfillment by knowledge in 2001: A Space Odyssey as well as we can find heroic sacrifice and redemption by vengeance in Gladiator, however in Homer's Odyssey the latter fulfillment is achieved by justice and mercy.
Alejandro González Iñárritu's The Revenant takes a great courage from the real life Odysseus' trials and tribulations based on the novel of the same name. Needless to say, Iñárritu reaches higher than the novel by envisioning a cinematically unique and unsettlingly fulfilling experience alongside with the exceptional imagination of cinematographer Emmanuel 'Chivo' Lubezki and a huge amount of excellent performances from a most talented cast.
From the characters, there are three prominently mentionable. Domhnall Gleeson is brilliantly temperate in order for the two main characters to deepen their opposition with each other. Tom Hardy serves as the picture's main antagonist with whom Leonardo DiCaprio's Hugh Glass is forced to confront followed by a tragic decision in the part of Hardy who kills Glass' half-blood Indian son while his father is watching the act impotently lying wounded by a previous attack of a bear. This great inner and outer duel of the two is slowly but constantly reaching its peak as Hardy's Fitzgerald learns to deal with his deed, while Leo's Glass learns a much greater deal.
Hugh Glass does not only seek revenge. He seeks justice. Frontier justice. Glass learns to survive in the wild as was he viciously left for dead and devastated. He is forced to flee from the past and the wild in order to fulfill his destiny in killing Fitzgerald. Such an unprecedented Odyssey we can experience as Glass learns mercy on his journey as well as sacrifice and justice! Leonardo DiCaprio solidly delivers his greatest and most memorable performance in his career. He captures and evolves on every aspect of his character which is absolutely Oscar-worthy.
The scenery is marvelous. The costume design is most convincing. The makeup artists did an amazing job. The editing and mixing are no less award-worthy than the beautiful visuals and the masterful vision of Chivo. The long takes are breathtakingly intense from start to finish, from the opening Indian attack sequence that leaves us uncertain who to root for, through to a naturalist and unbelievably convincing depiction of the bear attack, to the brutally mesmerizing and well- executed final confrontation between Fitzgerald and Glass. These two actors both deserve their praise for their most committed performances as they make us believe that on the screen it is not Hardy and Leo fighting, but two hopeless, barbaric, opposing elements who learn to rise and fall in the wild.
All those thought-provoking visual and external oppositions claim for re-watching owing to the film's splendid screenplay in which the conflicts (American-Indian; Fitzgerald-Glass; conflict of elements) are so layered that from the first viewing one may not be able to fully process what they might have just experienced.