Nasty, brutish and long

Rating: 6/10 (10 March 2016)

Based on a book of the same name by Michael Punke, this is the tale of frontiersman Hugh Glass and his battle against the harsh climate of the Montana and South Dakota in order to exact revenge.
A revenant in European folklore is a corpse rising from the dead and terrifying the living and Leonardo DiCaprio's performance is outstanding as his journey has him straddling the border between alive and dead. The acting here is largely physical and as he jumps in the icy water, is buried alive and eats raw meat, his suffering is incredibly vicarious to the view. It is a film of both survival and revenge; in essence they are both interrelated as it is his desire to avenge his son's death which is keeping him alive.
The cinematography from Emmanuel Lubezki is just stunning as the entire film is shot in natural light and most of it in that "golden hour" shortly before sunset. The landscape is visceral and you can almost feel the chill of the Midwestern air through the cinema screen. And though the grizzly bear scene may well be artificial compared to the rest of the film it was certainly no less intense.
But in a strange way, the problem with The Revenant may well be its photography. The film is in love with the scenery so much that it becomes an art installation at times and the overlong run-time can possibly be blamed on this. I also had issues deciphering Tom Hardy's American accented dialogue on occasion and this is a problem in a film where relatively few lines are said. There is also an awkward spirituality aspect to the film which appeared to be crow-barred in simply because the film is set in Native Indian territory.
It is a terrific cinematic experience visually and this will probably get Leonardo DiCaprio his Best Actor Oscar. However, it is certainly not the best film of the year. To misquote Thomas Hobbes, The Revenant is nasty, brutish and long.