I'm at awe

Rating: 10/10 (12 April 2016)

This is a remarkable and extraordinary film. It raises the filmmaking art to a different level. The direction, cinematography, editing, and sound are exceptional. From the astonishing opening sequence and throughout Inarritu's direction is fluid, surprising and alternately grand and intimate. Much has been made of the cinematography using only natural light, and rightly so. It is stunningly beautiful, and the harsh majesty of the wintertime Pacific Nothwest has never been captured like this. The sound editing was completely immersive and had the sharp clarity and snap of frozen timber. I didn't care that much for Birdman, although it too had some complex and mystifying sequences. But what Innaritu has done here is an whole other experience. Frankly, he and his crew deserve any and all accolades coming their way, even that bonfire of the vanities the Academy Awards. Yeah, he won the Oscar last year. Tough. Technically and artistically this film is peerless.
A simple story of survival and revenge told in straightforward terms with incredible attention to detail and authenticity, it is brutal and direct, just like life in the early 19th Century was brutal and direct. Leonardo Dicaprio does a fine job, ably supported by an unrecognizable Tom Hardy, that brilliant chameleon who here has a different voice and a rural accent that feels exactly 1800's Americana. Hardy goes so deep into character only Daniel Day Lewis could find him.
This movie won't be for everyone. It is harsh and graphic and it is exactly what it purports to be: the story of a man mauled by a grizzly and left for dead who survives and makes his way back hundreds of miles to safety and to exact his revenge; and, how he does that and who and what he meets on the way. Not a lot of story, transformed by the magic of Innaritu's camera moving from majestic long shots to closeups so intimately close they breathe on you. It is grueling, agonizing and harrowing, and it takes its time. Fine by me.
Interestingly, this story has been filmed before as Man in the Wilderness (1971), starring Richard Harris and John Huston. That was a good film. This one is sublime.