The art of suffering, pain and loss

Rating: Null/10 (2 June 2016)

Alejandro G. Iñárritu has always been a bit of hit and miss director for me. I've always admired his vision, his willingness to push the art form and his unmistakable style. But his stories and characters have always left me wanting, just a little bit. They've always felt like they're experiments first and fulfilling experiences second.
Not so with this film. This film blew me away from the very first second and simply get blowing. The vast cold landscape of Northern USA opens in front of your eyes in rich shades of dark brown, grey and green. No artificial lighting was used to film this epic and yet it's all so rich and detailed, and all the more real for it. And the camera-work is equally as impressive. It moves seamlessly with the character, sweeping low and high as needed, like on wings. And it's not afraid to hold a shot. There are a lot of long takes, like you, the viewer, are part of the story and cautiously approaching certain scenes and sights, afraid of what you'll find. Visually one of the most impressive and beautiful films I've seen in a long while.
The story is somewhat loosely based on the real life events that took place in the early 1800s. Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a fur trapper and a scout working for a trapper company led by Captain Andrew Henry (Domhnall Gleeson). The company is forced to flee after being ambushed by Native Americans, but in the midst of their flight Glass is savagely mauled by a mother bear and shortly after left for dead by John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), a trapper very much interested in his own personal survival. The film then follow Glass's slow and painful journey across the wilderness as he tries to reach this one man, who condemned him to a cold death in the middle of nowhere.
DiCaprio won his first Academy Award for this role and I say it's well-earned. He spends much of the film mutely struggling to put one foot in front of the other, erratically interrupted by stilled grunts of pain, but yet you still know exactly what's playing in his mind with every step. The feelings of betrayal and need for vengeance, the flickering and undying spark of life, the resolve to never stop moving. It's all there, behind his eyes, across his stained and bloodied face.
Not to say that the rest of the cast in in any way untalented, but it's very much DiCaprio's show. And when he finally reaches the end of his journey and locks eyes with his quarry. A chilling moment.
It's not a film for everyone. It very much earns its R rating, containing strong and disturbing scenes. But it's beautiful in execution, from the visuals to the acting to the music and the story. Very much my favourite movie thus far from 2015.