A modern definition of the Epic genre

Rating: 9/10 (25 January 2016)

The initial scene of The Revenant sets the tone of the following film perfectly. The almost unbelievable natural beauty of the Canadian landscape is harshly juxtaposed against the cruel artificiality of the historical rifles which slowly move into the shot. Iñárritu perhaps intended to represent the brutal tainting of Native American time during the Frontier period. DiCaprio corroborated this concept whilst accepting his Golden Globe win - briefly discussing the world's indigenous peoples and calling on people to protect the environment from man-made interests.
One major disappointment was the title of the movie being perhaps the biggest spoiler of all. Anyone with a dictionary or an extensive vocabulary can, after about 20 minutes into the movie, make a likely correct prediction about the ending of the movie.
In terms of the cast, Tom Hardy further demonstrates his immense versatility when it comes to characters - his portrayal of Fitzgerald differs massively from his performance in 2011 Cold War Drama Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Despite this, one minor downfall I personally noticed was that it was, for myself, at some points very difficult to understand some of Hardy's voice. However, the muttering accent of Hardy's character arguably assists in the development of Hardy's character, Fitzgerald. Leo DiCaprio gave an stellar performance, his impressive prowess as an actor was proved by his ability to demonstrate emotion despite his lack of dialogue (due to his character being solitary for the majority of the storyline). This is perhaps best demonstrated in an early scene, in which Tom Hardy's character is murdering Hawk (DiCaprio's character's son) in front of a bed ridden DiCaprio. DiCaprio represents immense emotion despite the fact that he is essentially paralysed as a result of the bear attack.
Overall, The Revenant is a stunning film, with visuals and a storyline clearly furnishing it's categorisation in the Epic genre. The movie furnishes a crucial visual representation of an environmental issue of ever-increasing importance, perhaps safeguarding The Revenant's position as a modern Frontier-film classic.