Worth ALL The Hype!

Rating: 8/10 (6 February 2018)

A note to light-hearted movie goers: The Revenant is not for you.
Life pits it's will on Hugh Glass, the real-life tracker & fur trapper played excellently by Leonardo DiCaprio. And director Alejandro G. Iñárritu damn near tortures his cast & audience in telling the story of Glass' revenge against the people, headed by John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), who done him wrong. Set in the untamed West of 1823, this is one brutal epic piece of film making. The visionary result is so relentlessly raw some of the actors referred to the filming as a living hell and watching the movie, you can feel their pain.
The movie doesn't take long to get started and you can barely even get your bearings of what's going on before Glass and his expedition are attacked by Arikara Indians and as mayhem ensues, Glass strives to protect his half-Pawnee son, Hawk. But that is all tame in comparison for what is about to come. I am, of course, talking about the infamous fight scene where a mother grizzly (protecting her cubs) lays into Glass like a demon possessed. Make no mistake - this scene is as brutal as it comes and while you know that it's all "film trickery", it still doesn't stop you from believing it's real when you're actually watching it unfold.
The whole movie, though, and not just that scene, is a visceral punch in the gut. You could gripe about the excess carnage and lack of philosophical substance, but surviving nature is Iñárritu's subject here, and he delivers with brilliance. And then there's DiCaprio. Hidden behind a grotty beard, his words are mostly reduced to grunts, but he nonetheless provides a portrait of a man in full. It's a virtuoso performance, thrilling in its brute force and is well deserving of his Oscar nomination & win
The Revenant is one of those movies that justifies it's hype, award nominations and wins. Definitely a must see film.