Gorgeously Shot; DiCaprio Suffers for his Awards but Hardy Steals the Show

Rating: 8/10 (24 December 2016)

So Leonardo DiCaprio finally wins an Academy Award for his acting and all he had to do was suffer some of the most extreme filming conditions and choke down some raw meat. I suppose, if nothing else, his dedication to the role is deserving of the praise, even if Tom Hardy completely outshines him in THE REVENANT. The film comes from director Alejandro Iñárritu, who delivered one of my personal favorite films in 2014 with BIRDMAN. It's (very) loosely based on the true tale of fur-trapper Hugh Glass with DiCaprio in the main role. The film is set in the early nineteenth century on the American frontier where Glass and his half-Pawnee son are acting as guides for a team of trappers when they're attacked by a raiding party of Arikara warriors. With many of their men dead and the Arikara on their trail, the men are forced to hike through the wilderness to the closest fort and Glass is the man to get them there. Unfortunately he's attacked by a grizzly bear and left mangled, so the team decides it best to leave a couple of men behind to tend to the fatally injured Glass while they continue on. Once Glass succumbs to his wounds, the men are instructed to give him a proper burial and start for the fort themselves. One of the men (Hardy) who volunteers to remain behind (there was a cash bonus in it for him, you see) gets a little impatient and opts to bury Glass prematurely, killing Glass's son in the process when he interferes. Helplessly witnessing the events, Glass summons his remaining strength to go after the man who murdered his son and sets off on an impossible quest across the freezing wilderness, injured and alone.
THE REVENANT is a sort of film experience. The plot is very simple: a quest for revenge. There aren't exactly a lot of twists and turns to the story; it's very straightforward. It's the experience of watching Glass undergo just an insane amount of trials and tribulations to accomplish his goal that I find so mesmerizing. It is two and a half hours of DiCaprio dragging his dying, mutilated Glass through freezing temperatures while scrounging for heat and food with an angry Arikara war party on his tail. I really want to know how much of this movie was done for real because DiCaprio does some pretty gnarly things for this role. I believe I'd read somewhere that he'd really chowed on some raw fish, scales and all, for the scene where he fishes one out of the river and maybe even the hunk o' bison he very visibly gags down later on. Butwhat about that horse scene? I know Iñárritu was dedicated to capturing realism in the struggle, and that horse looked real enough. I don't know. If it was special effects, congratulations to the SFX crew that put that together because, wow, you could've fooled me. Leonardo DiCaprio must've really wanted that Oscar because, regardless of what's real and what's SFX, he went through some rough times filming this movie. Iñárritu is one of the most artistic modern filmmakers I'm aware of and I'm sure the production was rough on all parties involved to get it right. But it all serves a purpose, as THE REVENANT is one of the most beautiful (and grueling) films you'll find from 2015, a year when big budget CG blockbusters dominated the market. Most visually remarkable films nowadays spend countless hours in front of a green screen; meanwhile, Iñárritu is out in the wilderness using natural light to present an amazing tale of survival.
Well, survival and revenge. Glass isn't just dragging himself back to civilization because he refuses to die in a half-finished hole in the ground. He's hunting the man who murdered his son, and that man is Tom Hardy. Hardy, who maybe should've won that Oscar himself for best supporting actor here, gets the far more interesting character. His man, John Fitzgerald, is at a bad point in his life. All he's got going for himself is the money he stands to make on this fur-trapping expedition and the Arikara threw a wrench into that plan. All he wants is to get the furs back to the fort and get his paycheck and Glass, unlucky as he may have been with that bear attack, is jeopardizing all of it. His motivations are clear though he's far from sympathetic. He's racist toward the natives (and therefore butts heads with Glass's half-Indian son long before their final confrontation) and only worried about his own needs. Once you become accustomed to his mush-mouthed dialogue delivery Hardy steals the show with his performance and I started finding myself more interested in the movie when it cut away from Glass's struggles to check in on Fitzgerald and his scheme. DiCaprio is great in the movie but, no matter what movie or role, I always look at him and see DiCaprio; Hardy is the total opposite, disappearing into whatever role he's performing. THE REVENANT acts as a solid comparison between the two critically-lauded actors and gives me further appreciation for Hardy and his talent. Between the two of them and Iñárritu's filmmaking prowess, THE REVENANT comes highly recommended from me. It can feel its length at times but even when the pace slows there's always something incredible just around the corner to recapture your interest. Moreover, you get a good sense for the blood, sweat, and tears that went into making the film from the entire cast and crew. Give it a watch.