Dakota Legend

Rating: 8/10 (17 January 2016)

Watching "Birdman" for the third time, I viewed it just to appreciate the cinematography. On first viewing I only wanted to immerse myself in what was promised to be a groundbreaking and highly enjoyable trip to the theater; it was, in no small measure. When you spend the entirety of the film looking for a "cut," you aren't absorbing, you are monitoring. Knowing that Inarritu was using the great cinematographer Emmanuel Lubeszki again for "The Revenant," it was a chore not to measure cut lengths, camera movement, and blocking. This was not a distraction, just an affirmation that I would need to see this film again, and again simply for appreciation.
The broad-strokes of this film's plot are centered in truth. Hugh Glass was a figure of legend in South Dakota where I was raised. His story wasn't introduced along with John Henry or Wild Bill Hickok; his was reserved for older students, so that gruesome details and exaggerations could be employed without censorship. I heard of "The Toughest Man in History." The basic story is widely known, Hugh Glass was a frontiersman in the early 19th century who fell victim to a vicious grizzly bear mauling. With cold weather setting in, the members of his hunting party were not keen on hefting a near-corpse 200 miles to their fort-base. Consensus was that he would not recover and he was left with 2 volunteers to see him through to a dignified passing. These volunteers waited in vain for his last stubborn breath, and left him half-buried in the wilderness. The facts of his survival and journey after the matter have been molded by time into something formulaic and unabashedly compelling. If this film takes liberties with the truth, how far off can they be?
This story doesn't build to a finale so much as sustain a continued agony that is bearable to the viewer through character perseverance and beautiful filmmaker craft. Leonardo DiCaprio doesn't demand pity for his situation, he doesn't relent in his drive long enough to evoke sympathetic emotions. From the first mechanically shot battle sequence, we are spectators to this man, and we don't want to leave him. The world that Glass resides in is beyond hostile, and there is very little reason why we should want him to survive so badly, but that feeling is sustained throughout. Revenge becomes a murky motivation until it needs a boost. Tom Hardy as John Fitzgerald gives us plenty of reason to see Glass through to the end and exact it.
Fitzgerald is the soulless volunteer who callously leaves Hugh for dead and sees the world as carrying a debt that is owed to him. The pacing of Glass's survival juxtaposed to Fitzgerald's damnable existence back at base, fuel the audiences involvement in exquisite balance. Anytime you wonder "What is Glass even fighting for anymore?" Hardy steals a scene that demands retribution. Aside from Fitzgerald and the terrain, the local Native American Pawnee tribe are a continued threat, always fast on Glass's heals. As overwhelming as this may seem, there is never a moment where it doesn't feel authentic.
Due to the sustained tension throughout this movie, the climax doesn't pack the punch we are accustomed to. There is an unnecessary use of Dues Ex Machina in the final moments that doesn't hurt the plot, but makes it feel needlessly formulaic. Long-takes blended in with seamless choreography of action make this a prime candidate for Best Picture and Cinematography. Leo's performance is second to none this year. And it should be noted that if Inarritu pulls off an Oscar for directing, it will be the third consecutive Mexican won award, his second in a row. This is a great year for film, and whatever the cast and crew of The Revenant walk away with in February, I begrudge them nothing.