I wish the bear had of won

Rating: 6/10 (10 February 2016)

So this is the big film that Leonardo DiCaprio is supposed to finally win an Oscar for, well, time will tell I guess but I don't think it's on of the best films I've seen him in and I'll happily not watch this again if I can help it. Not by any stretch of the imagination an awful film but it's loooooong, and not much happens for the bulk of the film. It's absolutely one of those films I had to watch but will happily never watch again.
DiCaprio is part of band of fur trappers, he has an Indian son (sorry, native American son). Much like "Saving Private Ryan" the opening of the film is rammed full of action. The fur trappers come under attack by a native American tribe (Indians). A lot of the fur trappers are killed, some escape - obviously the big names in the cast are the lucky ones; DiCaprio, Hardy, Poulter, Gleeson etc. After escaping the trappers need to head back to their base, unfortunately DiCaprio gets mauled by a grizzly bear and practically killed. It looks like DiCaprio is going to die (a vision we are treated to a lot in this film) so Hardy, Poulter and DiCaprio's son stay to stand watch with the plan to bury him when he passes away and then join the others heading back. Hardy decides to try and speed things up, he tries killing DiCaprio but the Indian son catches him at it and tries to stop which results in him actually being offed by Hardy instead (witnessed by a near dead DiCaprio). Hardy tells Poulter a few lies and convinces him to leave the body so they trundle off. At this point feel free to go make yourself a strong coffee or two, you'll need them and you won't miss much (unless you like trees). Alone and near death DiCaprio drags himself through the frozen wild frontier, he gets chased, shot at, followed, even falls off a cliff and sleeps in his horse (much like Luke Skywalker sleeping in a TaunTaun) on his adventure back home to seek revenge against Hardy for killing his son. There are a lot of flashbacks to try and make the audience feel something for DiCaprio but like the others in the film character development is missing and the flashbacks that there are don't serve to give the characters much depth. Equally there are a lot of long shots of nature and in particularly trees... lots of shots of trees: trees standing still, trees swaying, trees that are big, trees that are small, trees in the dark, trees in the light, trees with snow, some trees with leaves, trees, trees, trees. After each near death experience DiCaprio manages to find strength to continue like a rubbish superhero that just can't die. To cut a long story short he gets back to home base only to find that Hardy has cracked a near impossible safe, stolen a shed load of money from the captain of the trappers base and left to be rich south of the border somewhere warm. Rather than a whole troop of trappers hunting down Hardy to get their money back DiCaprio and Gleeson decide to go alone. They find Hardy, Gleeson dies and DiCaprio engages in a fight to the death with Hardy. The end, thank God for the credits.
The acting in the film is authentic enough although it does sound like Hardy has a mouthful of chewing tobacco inhibiting his speech, for the most part of the film he has the most lines while DiCaprio probably got paid per moan and groan. The pace of the film isn't great, maybe it's a conscious decision to be symbolic of the wide open spaces, but, maybe it's not and I'm just hoping there was a clever decision behind the long/wide shots of trees and more trees. Noticeably the film is dark, I don't mean dark like a good horror/slasher film, I mean dark like dirty and dimly lit. You could probably cut this film up and make a great action packed hour long feature but instead you'll have to sit through the best part of 3 hours of not much happening. It's a case of style over substance for a lot, and the style that stands out if the cinematography, maybe the cameraman should be the Oscar nominee rather than DiCaprio because some of the swooping shots are quite clever. I've mentioned that the opening of the film is like "Saving Private Ryan" and "Star Wars: Empire strikes back"; other comparisons I could make it "Apocalypto" as it's a constant journey (difference being I enjoyed watching that film more than once and despite the language barrier I understood what the characters were saying) and maybe "I spit on your grave" because DiCaprio is tortured constantly yet still manages to pull himself together to seek revenge (albeit he avoids being raped).
So, ratings, I'd struggle to give this more than 6 out of 10. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a film expert but I do have a qualification in film studies so can appreciate some of the work the crew have put into this. However I'm also no fool, this wasn't a fun vehicle for suspension of disbelief and I wasn't entertained and on the edge of my seat at any time - even the bear mauling could have been nastier. Thanks for the experience, but I've done it once and thankfully don't have to do it again. A long film does not always make a good film, I wish the bear had of being successful because then maybe I could have avoided watching trees swaying, trees standing still, tall trees and short trees, trees, trees, trees, trees.