Beautifully Filmed but REALLY Confusing!

Rating: 7/10 (3 January 2016)

I just got back from seeing The Revenant. Took my friend Helen to see it- we're both poor so we had to see a matinée and pool our money together. The movie is a total question mark. We both kept saying out loud "What's going on???" To audible groans from our fellow audience members. At one point, Helen got up and said "They're going to kill Leo- might as well leave now." It was the scene where they put cloth over his eyes after that bear attack. I convinced her to stay.
Leonardo DiCaprio plays a 1800s frontiersman in the rural wilderness, who's a fur trader. When their camp is attacked by vicious Indians (Native Americans), they fight and then flee.
Then a bear attacks DiCaprio and in a gruesome 10 minutes we witness lot's of blood and screaming. I had to cover my eyes, and Helen went to the bathroom during this horrid turning of events.
Now it starts getting confusing. Leo's gang finds him, and because he knows where they're going- they agree to carry him around on a stretcher. But Tom Hardy, the evil one of the bunch, doesn't like this. He's a power hungry mongrel. He insists they leave him for dead. But DiCaprio's companion, someone who looks Native American too, pleas they don't do that. But somehow- Leo gets abandoned, and the Native American friend is killed by Hardy.
Leo then discovers the dead body of his friend- and pursues to cross the wilderness on his own. He befriends the Native Americans, saves a woman from being raped, hooks up with ANOTHER Native American who looks like his dead friend - and then has to hide in a dead horse because the bad guys return. Then he finally gets back to camp, and seeks revenge on Hardy. There's a final battle between them, and he finally kills Hardy.
Then he breathes heavily in the snow- see's a "spirit" of his dead friend, and the camera blacks out before we know if he dies or not. Just like the director did with his previous film, Birdman.
Helen and I agree that while the movie was visually stunning, it didn't make much sense. There was no character development. Leonardo Dicaprio spends most of the movie mumbling. "I couldn't understand what he was saying", Helen added. "He's supposed to be a fur trader. As a salesman, he wasn't very customer focused. I like to hear what my salesman says to me." We laughed at this, knowing it was a joke. But seriously- who was DiCaprio's character? There's no backstory. Hardy was also poorly written. Just evil to be evil.
Everyone says Leo is winning an Oscar for this, and he does have some scenes of intensity (his big Bear scene, his reflection in the cabin towards the end)- but it's nuanced and not very showy. Hard to win when you're too subdued.
And the whole Native American war didn't make a lick of sense either. What was the purpose for their battle? What benefit did either team get? They were stuck in the middle of a cold, heartless deadline. Why not make peace and work together?
FINAL GRADE: C for Confusing!