What a fascinating film!

Rating: 9/10 (4 March 2016)

After watching this film on the big screen, my second time overall, I was still in awe of this beautiful looking film. It's SO GORGEOUS, sure the film has it's other strong suits but the direction (Inarittu) and cinematography (Lubezki), two categories it won Oscars in, is so overwhelming I couldn't understand why a certain section of the audience did not find this a good watch. It is a very old school film it has this strong 70's vibe where the story is not told and is left for you to figure out. I watched this with a friend who did not enjoy this as much and suggested that the movie would have been better if DiCaprio's character Hugh Glass narrated in the film and spelled out his ordeals to the audience. I called my friend a pleb because I am a high and mighty jerk like that but on a serious note while a narration would have helped with the casual audience, it would also promote spoon feeding hand holding which has become the norm of today's films. The performances were great and a movie like this falls apart if the performances are not good they are the only thing connecting the audience to the film. Well deserved Oscar for DiCaprio, arguably career best performance from him, Tom Hardy was great too shame no Oscar though, some scenes were so intense I could feel it taking a mental toll on me of which the bear mauling scene was on the forefront. Overall a very visceral movie which used only natural light while filming and will stand the test of time, something which this year's winner Spotlight cannot claim.