Masterful, but Not for the Faint of Heart

Rating: 9/10 (17 July 2016)

Academy Award winning director Alejandro Inarittu delivered a powerful new film with his vision on the tale of frontiersman, Hugh Glass, and his harrowing survival. The man who survived a savage mauling by a wild grizzly bear and left for dead by his fellow fur traders, but managed to crawl to civilization and formulated revenge against two of his former comrades.
In the pivotal role of Glass is a primarily mute Leonardo DiCaprio who finally took home his overdue Academy Award for Best Actor. The transformations that DiCaprio undergoes is fiercely harsh as the film spins its tale; going from a fur trapper into a man hellbent on avenging the wrongs done to him. The mauling scene is the most excruciating moment to watch as DiCaprio is being tossed around and torn apart (five hours of convincing makeup) like a rag doll. Those who doubt the power of the performance have either not seen the film or did and just weren't convinced based on their observations.
Pulling an excellent sinister performance as fellow explorer Fitzgerald is Tom Hardy. He plays a man who is unconcerned of the well-being of others except his own survival. Though historically the whole expedition agrees to leave Glass to die, in the film the filmmakers place the blame for the decision on Hardy's Fitzgerald as to play up the drama. We do anxiously await for Fitzgerald to get what is coming to him, but we do find him a fascinating character thanks to Hardy's charisma.
The filming locations make the viewer feel the isolation of the story's players. The incidents all took place in the wilds of South Dakota which was "no man's land" back in the 1820s. Nothing but snow and ice surround the determined Hugh Glass as he travels to Fort Kiowa, braving the brutal winter temperatures. It's a terrifying thought to how lost one could get if you don't know the way.