Primordial Quest for Meaning...A Transcendental, Beautiful Film

Rating: 10/10 (10 January 2016)

Review: The Revenant Film Viewed Date: 01.08.15 Review Date: 01.11.15
To be honest I had mixed feelings walking in to this film. This is a heavily hyped, publicized film in the man versus nature / survival genre; a genre that takes a bit more determination to view, at least for me.
This film is living art celebrating the vastness and power of nature. Nature is established as a rhythm from the start and continues throughout the entire film, Nature provides a palpable heart beat in every scene and if you concentrate, and consciously seek it out, it is always there.
Every scene change shows nature in a way that rarely witnessed by most: blizzards, waterfalls, sparks dancing against a starry black canvas captivates the audience over and over again. A heightened sense of nature sets the stage to showcase a man pursuing redemption, driving to fulfill is raison d'etre.
Foreshadowing through symbolism pervades many scenes. The most noteworthy for me was the dream sequence where DiCaprio's character wanders through the ruin of a church with the bell in the bell tower still intact swinging back and forth, ringing with a deafening silence because the donger in the bell is missing. For whom does the bell toll in this scene? Does the silence of the dongerless bell negate Donne's prophetic warning? Even in a more sophomoric sense, the lack of the bell donger portends the coming castration of a brutal Frenchman. In another scene we find DiCaprio being born of a horseflesh vagina and then tentatively stepping into the snowy path with a renewed purpose. Although he has experienced rebirth, the beating heart of the natural world continues unperturbed by the small affairs of people.
DiCaprio is an incarnation of the will to survive in order to find personal redemption as well as the respect of his slain wife. An outstanding portrayal and one that will be discussed 50 years from now. This performance just garnered a well deserved Golden Globe.
Hardy cements his place as the most talented actor of our time. From his trudging bow legged walk, to his vacant stares filled with the spirit of animal survival. Hardy brilliantly renders a character who is short on formal education, but long on primal instinct. He brilliantly plays the dark to DiCaprio's light.
Nature is beautiful and brutal. People are beautiful and savage. In man's search for meaning, the great answer swirls somewhere in these truths, but always hovering just out of reach. We can grasp for the meaning of it all, but a true understanding must always be earned through pain, blood and struggle as well as enduring love. This is not a film of revenge, it is a film that tries to shed light on the meaning of redemption and the reason we are all on this earth. It does not give you the answer, but if you close your eyes and suspend your thinking in the face of a strong north wind, you might just get a glimpse of it.