A brutal, emotional, fantastically unique, and ultimately rewarding experience

Rating: 9/10 (8 January 2016)

There are many people in the world, and there are many films in the world. So, it only makes sense that everyone's definition of a good film would vary, and that everyone would watch a film for different reasons. Most people watch movies for fun. To kill a Friday, to be entertained, to laugh a little. Fewer watch films to experience the craft of it all. To follow the Oscars, to admire cinematography and direction, and to take in all the things that make films great. Until I saw "The Revenant," I believed that those were the only two reasons worth discussing, as they were the two most prevalent in our society. But this film is not just for entertainment, nor is it something to watch just to feel smart. The Revenant is viscerally powerful and terrifyingly real, and something entirely new that I've rightfully heard called "visual poetry."
Maybe it's the breathtaking, masterful cinematography - ambitiously and successfully crafted using only natural light - that categorizes this film as such. Perhaps it's the direction, which causes everything about the film to appear so seamlessly realistic that the audience is forced into the world as if we are experiencing its horrors right along with the characters (most unique and effective is Iñárritu's purposeful emphasis on the camera: at three points, Hugh Glass fogs the claustrophobic lens with his breath, and during the perfectly envisioned ending, Glass stares right into the camera, all the pain and suffering he has felt represented in his eyes as they stare, haunted but finally peaceful, straight at the audience). And maybe its the performances, so unbelievably nuanced and emotionally devastating by DiCaprio (gunning for an extremely deserved first Oscar in perhaps a career-best performance), Hardy (in the conversation for a very worthy first nomination in a wonderfully villainous but 3-dimensional role) and Gleeson (proving once again to the world that he's the next DiCarpio by appearing in four Oscar-worthy films in one year). Whatever heavenly combination of sheer craft, storytelling capabilities, and divine intervention brought this revolutionary film to the screen, I am eternally grateful. It is not simple entertainment, although its narrative is riveting. It is not your usual Oscar bait, although any and all Oscar wins would be monumentally deserving. The Revenant is what happens when every aspect of film is brought together perfectly and seamlessly constructed to create one horrifyingly real but astronomically memorable experience.