Good old school style western. Reminded me of Jeremiah Johnson. But...

Rating: 8/10 (27 December 2015)

I really enjoyed this movie. And any fan of the older westerns like Jeremiah Johnson will probably also like it. With the cinemas filled with CGI jammed movies with very little story, this movie was really refreshing. The one CGI obvious effect was the bear attack. Don't get me wrong, it was pretty good. And there was no way to do that scene any other way. The acting was pretty good, but as most of the movie Leo crawling and grunting, there is only so much to go by. But I think Leo should get an Oscar just for his performance in such insanely nasty conditions.
This movie isn't filmed in some back lot. It was filmed in the winter in Canada and Argentina. Which brings me to the filmography, probably the best seen in a long time. You can tell that they took great care to use only natural lighting. The lighting and camera work was beautiful. You can feel the dread and cold and dreary weather. Which I read led to a lot of delays, but I think it was well worth it.
The writing was pretty good. I think if they kept parts of the movie closer to the original tale, it would of made for a better movie. Now I know Glass probably exaggerated on his original telling. It had some parts, such as he avoided gangrene by tearing open a rotten log and allowing the maggots to eat the dead flesh. But overall the script wasn't to unbelievable. But.....
****Spoilers below****** There are some parts that just have you going "Oh, come on!". My biggest one, was the scene in the river. Anyone that is remotely familiar with water survival knows you have a few minutes before you pass out and die. And that's under ideal conditions. We don't know how long he was in there, but it was clearly a long time. Yes Glass did go down the river, but he had built a crude raft. Fixing a hole in your throat with gunpowder. I know this is an old western trick to cauterize a wound. But surely it would of simply sealed the hole open and not closed the hole.
My big surprise was after seeing the movie and doing research about the real Glass. Is that the ending is nearly completely false. Not gonna spoil that one, but let's just say it would of been a boring ending.
Overall a pretty good movie. Mostly believable. Beautifully filmed. Nicely acted. And Leo earned my respect for performing in such conditions.