Frequently breathtaking tale of survival

Rating: 8/10 (9 January 2016)

Although it took home the Best Picture gong last year and I personally found it an immersing and wonderfully bizarre experience, Birdman Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) was far from the year's most satisfying movie. Still, director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu demonstrated enough desire to take the movie-going experience to the next level (with unfathomably long takes masterminded by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki) to have me excited about his next project, and the revelation that it was to be set in 1820's America around the legendary story of Hugh Glass had me foaming at the gills. While The Revenant is not the masterpiece I was hoping for, it is a gruelling, brutal and frequently breathtaking tale of survival.
Glass's story has been altered to fit a more conventional narrative, and the opening scenes introduce us, Terrence Malick-style, to his Pawnee wife (Grace Dove) and son Hawk (Forrest Goodluck), in flashback. These floaty, dream-like moments quickly give way to the harshness of the Louisiana wilderness where Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his son are working as part of a fur-trapper party under the command of Captain Henry (Domhnall Glesson). While Glass hunts for pelts, the rest of the party are set upon by hostile Arikara Indians, who slaughter a third of the men before the ragged group, with Glass, escape down river. This opening scene, as teased in the trailer, is the film's Omaha Beach, and is captured by Lubezki's never-still camera, constantly swirling from one act of brutality to the next.
We jump on the back of the horse and off again, follow men as they kill and then be killed, under water and onto a boat, and then we are left to catch our breath. Combined with the eerie score, it makes for a delirious and awe-aspiring set-piece. As the group decide just how to get back to camp with their lives, they touch land again where Glass is set upon by a grizzly bear, in what is surely cinema's most convincing moment of man vs. nature. The attack has been compared to a rape, and as Glass screams for his life while being brutally and helplessly torn apart by the giant beast, it's hard to avoid the comparison. Found by his group, he is left in the care of the unhinged John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) and youngster Jim Bridger (Will Pouler). Betrayed and left for dead, Glass must drag his broken body across 200 miles of wilderness for revenge.
The famously difficult shoot, in which the crew were given the task of shooting chronologically on location using natural lighting, all in the harshest of environments, certainly benefits the film. The exhaustion is etched on the character's faces, with DiCaprio in particular carrying the film on his shredded back as he sucks marrow from a long-dead animal carcass and snuggles up inside the body of a horse for warmth. The film doesn't so much celebrate the strength of human will when faced with impossible odds, but marvel at how much the human body can withstand in the most unwelcome of locations. Through Lubezki's lens, the wilderness has never been a more fearsome foe, but also rarely quite as beautiful. Both DiCaprio and Lubezki are surely odds on favourites come Oscar time - the former a talent deserving of Academy recognition and the latter looking for his third triumph in as many years.
However, the film is not without its flaws. The tweeks to Glass's real-life story (or what is known of it) mean that Inarritu has opted for a more conventional revenge flick that side-steps any deeper questions that may arise about America's dark history, and fails to add any real dimension to the other races caught up in the action. The Arikara's certainly have a reason for their relentless pursuit, but no explanation is given to why this group is so hostile. The same can be said for the team of French trappers, who appear briefly and serve as little more than a plot device. Near the end of its 150 minute running time, it ponders the purpose of revenge like a thousand movies before it but fails to say anything new. Yet, while it arguably fails thematically, The Revenant is at its best when its showing off, delivering a couple of key set-pieces that throw you head-first into the mayhem like nothing else I've seen, backed by impressive performances by DiCaprio and a mumbling Hardy.