'On est tous des sauvages' ('We are all savages')

Rating: 9/10 (6 March 2016)

Oscar winner for best actor (Leonardo DiCaprio), best director (Alejandro G. Iñárritu, and best cinematography (Emmanual Lubezki), THE REVENANT is an epic production and in truth Nature is the leading character. The film is a visual spectacle, the themes of survival and for love between a father and son are moving, but this is a long song and requires endurance on the part of the viewer for sitting through 156 minutes of repetitious gore and raw natural elements. The film is based in part on a novel by Michael Punke, and the screenplay is by Mark L Smith and Alejandro G. Iñárritu.
The film may be excessively long but the story can be quickly summarized: While exploring the uncharted wilderness in 1823, legendary frontiersman Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) sustains injuries from a brutal bear attack. When his hunting team leaves him for dead, Glass must utilize his survival skills to find a way back home to his beloved family (his son Hawk - Forrest Goodluck – dies on the same trip). Grief-stricken and fueled by vengeance, Glass treks through the wintry terrain to track down John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), the former confidant who betrayed and abandoned him.
The hunting troops are well portrayed by Tom Hardy (very difficult to understand his mumbling accent), Domhnall Gleeson. Will Pouster (a very talented young actor), Forrest Goodluck et al. But the overwhelming power of the film is the depiction of man in Nature and the concept of survival against all odds. For that aspect alone the film is well worth seeing.