A cinematic adventure or a revenge movie drawn out across the great Northlands?

Rating: 7/10 (2 July 2017)

While The Revenant masks it's purpose with the realism of the great wilderness, the movie goer "take away" is not as assuming. "Castaway" is another survival movie framing the human spirit in itself, not staked to the ground in preconceptions. Quite simply, revenge is a strong motivator, as are the ghosts of our past that take us down our personal wells of failure. The experience of the film is the star, as is Tom Hardy's "Fitzgerald" a survivor furrier in soldiers outfit, but separated from honor and morality. His survival leaves him with clear decisions, while honor clouds the others. Leo DiCaprios' Hugh Glass is the understated hero, with a history of no-aggression, but the gumption to survive the unthinkable twice to then go on the mission best served cold, or in the directors case, freezing! It's a true dilemma and understandable on another level that, thankfully, you or I will never have to experience. Much like "saving Private Ryan", we start with a gruesome battle of the times before settling in on the great expanse of the powers that be. Where is honor in fighting someone else war on their terms. How does dignity prevail in war? War is a fight without dignity but war movies are in need of a morality that justifies our entertainment. That's one hell of a dilemma for the audience that I've yet to come to grips with, which is why the script calls for Leo to lose the rifle prior to the final battle. That's when the director lost me....