Pain and Glory

Rating: 6/10 (19 January 2016)

The Revenant is based on true incidents. It is a rough hewn and visceral film of survival and revenge.
Leonardo DiCaprio plays Hugh Glass a member of a fur trapping expedition escaping native Indians and who is viciously attacked by a grizzly bear. Gravely injured, a small party is left behind to care for him which includes his half Indian son and callous John Fitzgerald played by Tom Hardy who dislikes Glass and especially his son.
After some time Fitzgerald leaves Glass for dead and kills his son and goes off to rejoin the main party. Glass does not die and wants vengeance.
The film was shot in natural light and has wonderful cinematography, the CGI bear attack was very well done. Director Alejandro Iñárritu is on a high after his best Director Oscar win for Birdman last year.
However looking at this, I just felt it was a well made, sturdy but overwrought and lengthy revenge flick. In fact with a heavily male cast I regarded this film as a box office risk, one of the only major female characters that it does have is seen to be getting raped.
This is a gruelling picture of survival in harsh conditions but strangely empty despite the pained performances from DiCaprio and Hardy.
I actually found when Captain Andrew Henry (Domhnall Gleeson) set out to apprehend Fitzgerald at the end rather laughable as it was so incompetently done. Not only was Fitzgerald allowed to escape from the fort as he was not guarded, nor was the money which was also stolen by him but he does not take a garrison with him when searching for Fitzgerald. It was a rather blunt attempt by the script to have a final fact to face showdown by the two protagonists.