The Revenant

Plot synopsis:
Set in an indeterminate year of the 1820s, the opening scene shows Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) speaking to his son Hawk (Forrest Goodluck) in an Indian language (Pawnee), telling him that even though he is scared and wants his trouble to be over, he must fight as long as he can grab a breath. As we hear Glass' voice, we see images of Glass with his Pawnee wife and son, his home being set on fire, and him holding his wife in his arms.Glass and Hawk are walking through a river with other men from their hunting party as they stalk elk. They are camped by a river in rural Missouri with other fur-trappers. They are led by their captain, Andrew Henry (Domhnall Gleeson). A naked missing man from their party walks into the settlement and collapses forward with an arrow in his back. Another man is shot in the neck with an arrow and falls into the campfire. The hunting party is attacked by a tribe of local natives who are Arikara Indians, also known as 'Ree'. The men fire back with their rifles. Glass is attacked and nearly choked to death, but one of his men rescues him. A few men gather their furs and materials toward a boat to make their escape. The Arikaras themselves are looking for the chief's daughter, Powaqa, stolen by unknown white men.The men abandon their boat and start to hike overland to Fort Kiowa. Hawk is antagonized by John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) for his race (Hawk is half-Indian on his mother's side), but Glass quickly defends his son and tells him not to retaliate against Fitzgerald.While hunting in the woods, Glass comes across a grizzly bear and her cubs, and he is quickly attacked by the larger bear. The bear claws and bites Glass, throwing him around as Glass tries to defend himself. He manages to shoot the bear, but it doesn't kill her. She attacks again and Glass gets his knife, stabbing it several times as they both tumble down a hill. Glass lands in a gully and the dead bear lands on top of him. The men later find Glass and try to tend to his deep wounds.Meanwhile, the Arikara warriors continue their search for Powaqa. They come across French fur traders and trade the riverside furs for five horses.The men in the hunting party carry Glass on a makeshift stretcher, but he only slows them down. They attempt to carry him up a hill, only for him to slide and bring the other men down. Fitzgerald suggests they need to just kill Glass and put him out of his misery. Henry covers Glass' eyes and almost shoots him in the head, but he cannot bring himself to do it. Henry offers payment of $75 to anyone who will stay behind with Glass. Hawk and Jim Bridger (Will Poulter) volunteer, though Fitzgerald points out that they and Glass will be likely to die. Henry raises the payment offer to $100 so that even Fitzgerald decides to stay with them until Glass expires.Glass is still in great pain and continues to have visions of his wife and the day his home was burnt down.Fitzgerald gets a moment alone with Glass and tries to convince him to let him put him out of his misery so that no one else is slowed down or left waiting to die, including Hawk. As Glass is unable to talk, Fitzgerald suggests Glass should blink if he agrees, knowing that Glass would eventually have to blink, with or without intention to agree to Fitzgerald's offer. Glass holds his eyes open for a long time before closing them, instead of blinking. Fitzgerald intentionally interprets this as blinking and starts to smother Glass. Hawk shows up, seeing Fitzgerald smothering his father. Hawk starts to call Bridger for help, leading to a struggle with Fitzgerald in which the man stabs Hawk in the abdomen, then letting him bleed out as Glass watches helplessly. Fitzgerald gets rid of Hawk's body and tells Bridger he doesn't know where he went.Later that night, Fitzgerald urges Bridger to move on with him, claiming to have seen Ree Indians by the creek. Already having dug a grave for Glass, Fitzgerald forcefully drags him into the hole and partially buries him alive under a pile of dirt as Bridger reluctantly lets him do so.Meanwhile, Henry and the rest of the hunting party have a difficult march by as they head towards Fort Kiowa. As Fitzgerald and Bridger head to meet them, Bridger realizes Fitzgerald was lying about having seen the Ree by the creek. He turns his rifle on Fitzgerald, who takes it from Bridger and turns it on him. He pulls the trigger, but the the unloaded rifle clicks on an empty chamber. They continue to move.Glass awakens and weakly struggles to rise from out of the dirt. He starts crawling his way through the woods to find food and warmth. He finds Hawk's body freezing up from the cold. Glass vows to stay by his son's side. He finds a thick bear pelt to take with him to keep warm. As he continues to move through the woods, he feeds off of roots and old bone marrow. He attempts to build a fire for added warmth and uses some of his leftover gunpowder to seal the wound in his throat. Nearby, the Indians are getting closer, so Glass rides down the rapids to escape them.Fitzgerald and Bridger are still walking. They come across a burnt-down settlement with bodies sprawled across the ground. One woman emerges from her burnt hut and sees the men. Bridger quietly leaves some food for her.Glass is getting colder and hungrier. He walks into the river and eats a live fish. He walks up a hill and sees a Pawnee Indian feeding off the carcass of a bison. Glass approaches him cautiously and gestures for food. The Indian throws him an organ, which Glass eats ravenously. In the morning, the Indian observes the bear wounds on Glass' body, which are starting to rot. Glass says his men left him for dead and killed his son. The Indian states that his own family were killed by a rival Sioux tribe. He is seeking out more Pawnee.Fitzgerald and Bridger reach the outpost and rejoin their party. Fitzgerald tells Henry that they couldn't save Glass or Hawk, and he collects his payment. Bridger remains quiet but is upset and refuses a bonus pay.Glass and the Indian move forward. They spend the evening sitting and catching snow in their mouths, the first time Glass has looked peaceful in a while. The Indian gathers materials for a quick sweat lodge and places a feverish Glass inside. Glass starts hearing his wife's voice, and then sees himself walking toward Hawk before they embrace in an old church. The Pawnee performs a healing ritual for Glass' wounds.When Glass wakes up, the Pawnee is gone. A sort time later he sees that the Indian has been hanged by the French fur trappers. He infiltrates their camp and witnesses one of the men raping a woman. It is Powaqa (Melaw Nakehk'o). Glass holds the rapist at gunpoint and frees Powaqa. Glass then takes a horse, letting the other horses loose. He rides to a spot in the woods where he builds himself a fire.In the morning, the tribe searching for Powaqa starts to attack. Glass holds them off with his rifle before he mounts his horse and rides away. The tribe follows him on their horses up to a cliff where Glass and his horse fall over the edge. The horse dies, and Glass is injured again. As the night falls and the cold intensifies, he cuts the horse open, removes its organs, and bunks inside its carcass for warmth. When he wakes up, he gets out of the carcass and moves to a snow cave. In there, he carves "Fitzgerald killed my son."Some time later at the outpost, one of the French hunters arrives with Glass' canteen, which Bridger left on the dirt pile after Fitzgerald buried him. Thinking he took it from Hawk, Henry leads a search party through the woods. There, they find Glass, limping towards them. They bring him back to the outpost. Henry finds that Fitzgerald is gone. The French hunter tells him that he heard Fitzgerald was headed to Texas. What's more is that Fitzgerald cleaned out the party's payroll safe. Henry then confronts Bridger with his rifle and beats the young man to the ground and puts him in the stockade.Glass vouches for Bridger's innocence to Henry, stating that he was only following orders. He also tells Henry how he saw Fitzgerald kill his son. Hearing that Fitzgerald is heading for Texas, Glass requests that he seek the man out himself. Henry reluctantly agrees to have Glass join him in the hunt.The two encounter Fitzgerald and split up to get him from opposite sides. Henry finds Fitzgerald first and plans to bring him back to be tried for murder. The two men draw their guns on each other, with Fitzgerald killing Henry. Glass finds Henry's body and puts him back on top of his horse using a branch as a prop. They ride on in view of Fitzgerald, who fires his rifle from a distance. He thinks he's killed Glass, but he just shot Henry's body. Glass gets a shot off and wounds Fitzgerald who runs while Glass pursues. They corner each other in the woods, and Fitzgerald shoots at Glass. Fitzgerald runs down by the creek where Glass finds him and they begin to fight. Fitzgerald nearly stabs Glass, but Glass turns the knife on him. Fitzgerald impales Glass' hand, but Glass overpowers him and nearly finishes him off until Fitzgerald states that killing him won't bring his boy back. On the other side of the creek, Glass sees the Indians that have been pursuing him, now with Powaqa. He decides that revenge is in God's hands, so he pushes Fitzgerald into the water and lets him float over to the Indians. The chief grabs Fitzgerald and kills him with his knife. They spare Glass since Powaqa tells them that Glass freed her.Although he has gotten his revenge, Glass is alone once again, wandering through the cold land. He falls on his knees and sees a vision of his wife once again walking into the light. The final shot is of Glass' eyes filling up with tears.

Tags: revenge, suspenseful, murder, violence, flashback

Review:
Take the direction of Alejandro González Iñárritu, combine it with the stunning cinematography of Emmanuel Lubezki and toss in Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy for their acting charms and what do you get?
An extraordinary and masterful film.Fresh off of 'Birdman,' Iñárritu moved straight on to 'The Revenant,' a western-epic inspired by the true-life experiences of frontiersman Hugh Glass in the winter-struck landscape of 1820s America.
Supporting this is the score from the relatively unknown composers, believe me, when the sudden orchestral boom strikes your eardrums, it's mesmerising.The makeup, the direction, the editing, the visual aesthetics, and of course the performances from a hopefully soon-to-be Oscar winning DiCaprio, 'The Revenant' is a visual treat for those who appreciate cinema and for those who wish to just get absorbed by the immense landscapes and poetic justice Iñárritu has given it.
This is not to discount the incredible performances of DiCaprio and Hardy (DiCaprio finally getting his well-overdue Oscar), but it's hard to imagine the movie being so impactful had another director been at the helm.
I'm not sure what parts of the story were embellished or Hollywoodized, but this film sucks you into this world and puts you right alongside this fatally wounded man desperate to survive.
As far as performances and cinematography goes, The Revenant is flawless.What prevents this from getting a perfect 10 is one particular storyline that I didn't think was needed, and it involves the wife of Hugh Glass.
As soon as possible.Simply put, it is an excellent story of family, revenge, survival, and nature.The Revenant is one of the most beautifully-shot films I have ever seen.
If all films were shot similarly to how the Revenant is, then the movie industry would drastically improve.The entire cast did a phenomenal job and they all deserve recognition for their performances; however, if Leonardo DiCaprio doesn't win an Oscar for his breathtaking portrayal of Glass then that will be the single biggest injustice of the year.Do not miss the opportunity to see this masterpiece on the big screen!UPDATE: I've read an unnerving amount of other user's reviews complaining about the plot.
I can understand that the plot may seem a little basic or perhaps lacking at times; however, the plot is not what makes this film so excellent, and I feel as though those who failed to recognise this have seriously missed out.
In the same way that Iñárritu's "Birdman" (this time last year) was unarguably a brilliant but not very mainstream film, so I think the Oscar buzz will attract a big audience to this movie who may find it a struggle to really enjoy.
It is also extremely violent but, unlike "The Hateful Eight" (another film I saw this week that was unremittingly bleak) the violence is much more gritty, realistic and visceral making the drama a lot more compelling.DiCaprio plays "Hugh Glass", an historical figure who was a legendary fur-trapper in the early 1800's and the central figure in this bear-related yarn.
Although the story has been re-embroidered over the years, the 'facts' align with the film's basic story (there's a good "Daily Telegraph" article outlining this - see the link on bob-the-movie-man.com).Attacked and pursuing by local natives, Glass's party is striking across woodland when he is viciously attacked by a 500lb Grizzly bear.
Thus is set up a classic revenge movie, with Glass determined to stay alive to enact that revenge despite the enormous odds stacked against him.This is surely DiCaprio's year for his elusive Oscar as he turns in a cripplingly painful performance.
"The Revenant" is probably the most beautiful movie I have seen for a long time.
Mainly the story (it is a very simple revenge story line) and the dialog (it is basically not existent :D).When I first left the movie I was still blown away by all the great things I mentioned above (I was thinking about a 10/10 rating), but the longer I was outside the movie the more I recognized that "The Revenant" is a film that is incredible entertaining whilst sitting in the cinema, but also a movie I quickly forgot about when being at home again.Still, the movie is definitely a must-see.
It showed gorgeous, naturally-lit cinematography, dynamic directing, a historical depiction of the early 19th century savagery, and what seemed to be quite a visceral performance by Leonardo DiCaprio.I thought that, with Iñárritu's name attached to it, this would be a much deeper film than what I ended up watching, at least in its depictions of history, first nations, and in its ability to exploit classic themes such as revenge and survival.Without saying that "The Revenant" is an empty shell (although a gorgeous one), Iñárritu's film fails to impress when it comes to depth, thanks to a linear and predictable narrative structure, one dimensional characters, and a revenge plot that never manages to be compelling to the audience.DiCaprio offers a demanding, physical performance with very little dialogue, but his character, always in survival mode, never reached me emotionally.
Like "Birdman", the movie contains several long shots filmed in a naturalistic style to create a sense of realism.
If this wasn't such a fantastic piece of storytelling, I would be interrupting every three minutes to ask "how the hell did they make that shot?" Even if you know a lot about special effects, this film will have you scratching your head all the time.There are shots that start as close ups, go super wide, half way up a mountain and then close to something else miles away.
Instead of that jerky, overdone, getting us all motion sick, hand-held camera, there is a wide angle system which sucks you into the action in a way we haven't see before.It doesn't matter if you don't like DiCaprio or dislike "that type" of movies.
The scenes with Tom Hardy were long awaited but overall the film served its purpose...getting Di Caprio his long awaited Oscar..
I suspect that it was for The Wolf of Wall Street and not this orgy of grunts and crawling out of dead horses and freezing rivers.I might have given The Revenant a better rating for the cinematography as the movie lovingly portrays the Canadian Rockies.
Misread in some places with a strictly "feminist" critique, exegesis of Miller's film can fly marxian or libertarian – it hardly matters as the solution to the chaos of dictatorship the director provided with Furiosa's victory was both egalitarianism and freedom.In The Revenant, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu attempts something more subtle: with one stroke of his pen, by giving protagonist Hugh Glass a native wife and son, he weds an early icon of American Exceptionalism into a matrimony of Old World and New. It was not long after Glass's travails that ambitious frontier writers grew his legend, and by the end of the 19th century Glass had entered a pantheon of American folklore heroes from the wholly fictitious Paul Bunyon, to the richly documented Davy Crockett.
On his recovery and "revenge" mission, his sustenance is derived from animism; his survival from a native conciliation with the harsh environment.I believe in The Revenant the film-maker wants his audience to extrapolate the sources and resources of Glass's survival and consider the role that native peoples had in the formation and growth of a nation, to ponder and accept the importance that native people's beliefs and practices had and still have in creating a harmonious balance between a natural world that is and will always be capable of demolishing the best plans and inventions of men, and the harnessing of that world in the name of advancement.
I do feel the wonderful performances, majestic cinematography, and riveting action in The Revenant are all subordinate to what the director would like us to entertain about the survival and "revenge" of Hugh Glass..
The way the movie was filmed was astonishing, the actors were great and the story was good as well.
The film was shot using only natural light so all of the scenes in the movie look authentic.
I felt like it was a good story but the acting and the visuals of the movie really carried it.
But then the plot is so predictable you know what is going to happen before it does, so you really just sit back and look at nice scenery and some good acting without needing to follow the story because you know exactly what will happen all the time.
Awesome movie, that will surely get many Oscar awards for best actor (Leonardo DiCaprio), supporting actor (Tom Hardy), cinematography and makeup, best director and best picture, possibly costume design and editing.
The movie is very well built in details, it has memorable scenes (like the one when jumping on the horse from the cliff and surviving in the freezing night that followed) and depicts very well the struggle to survive in harsh natural conditions in frontier areas in those times.
The movie follows a simple revenge/survival story with Leonardo DiCaprio being the focal point of it after being left for dead by his crew in the wilderness.From watching the teaser trailer last year, I could already tell that it would be visually stunning but after watching it I have concluded that it is more than visually stunning it is a visual achievement, there are scenes that will shock you and make yourself wonder how it was shot.
There are many scenes in the movie that are shot in a "Birdman" fashion with the slow tracking shots with long takes however it never feels like Innaritu is milking on Birdman's visual success.
The acting in this movie is also very good and DiCaprio puts on a very captivating performance which could very likely win him an Oscar.
and as everyone said it is a great film I where really looking forward to see it (especially as the trailer is quite good).Well after I have watched it now, I have to say this movie is one of the worst I have ever seen!
If you want two and a half hours of scenery and seeing a man grunting and crawling, you should watch this movie.
There is a giant flaw in current major Hollywood productions; the essential art of telling a good story.We desperately need writers who can produce strong screenplays with plots that develop and hold our interest throughout a film.
We do not need a bunch of scenes tacked together and called a movie.The Revenant being hailed as a great film is a travesty to movie- making.
:/ 1/10 mean u can watch the movie, but if you wanna save few brain cells - better find something better, like American ninja 4 - same plot, different characters!.
As if Hugh needed the posthumous help.Hardy might win an Oscar for his excellent performance as foil and I'm sure Leo will get plenty of hype for grunting his way through 150 minutes.
All it would have taken is a five second shot of a map with any random character saying "here we are, and this is where we are going".Alejandro González Iñárritu's pompous style of long, long takes is completely inappropriate for this material and it took me out of the movie every time he tried to pull it off.
But when Leonardo DiCaprio is starring in a movie, it's like you must watch it and enjoy.
Loosely based on the life of 19th century frontiersman Hugh Glass, The Revenant is a brutal yet visually stunning western with one of Leonardo DiCaprio's best performances yet.
It combines some intense, difficult-to-watch scenes with amazing scenery which makes it one of the most beautiful violent films I've seen.
The 156- minute running time, relentless brutality and limited dialog does take a bit of a commitment to finish, but The Revenant is a masterfully directed film that makes the most of its subject matter's intriguing story..
Leonardo Dicaprio's performance as Hugh Glass is one of little dialogue, but large impact, and may win him an Oscar this year.
The Revenant, the movie that will give Leonardo DiCaprio his first Oscar.
The film follows the theme of the will to survive, bringing the audience to question, What would you do to survive?Leonardo DiCaprio will win his first Oscar for his role as Hugh Glass.
Overall the film was great and will pull in some awards and people like DiCaprio and Iñárritu will be recognized for their work.
As I finish, I would give this movie an 8.8 out of 10 and for one last time I applaud the job Iñárritu did directing and the performance of DiCaprio and Hardy as well as others like Will Poulter and Domhnall Gleeson.
I haven't seen all of Leo's films, but my favorite performances of his were from the movies "The Wolf of Wall Street", "Inception", "Shutter Island", "Blood Diamond" and now my all time favorite performance of his is "The Revenant"; he absolutely dominated this role!
If you struggle to stay enticed by a slow paced film because it doesn't have fast pace action and/or story movement, then I recommend you steer clear of this movie because it's most likely not for you.
For those who don't mind if a movie is slow paced because it has a phenomenal story build-up and admirable character development, then I'd recommend the watch!8/10.
This is my review of The Revenant (spoiler free).Cast: six time Academy Award nominee Leonardo DiCaprio, Academy Award nominee Tom Hardy*, Domhnall Gleeson and Will Poulter.Plot: Hugh Glass (DiCaprio)is a frontiersman out an adventure with his team in their fight for survival in the bitter landscape.
It heavily relies on its visceral power, filmmaking technique, committed performances from its actors, and the majestic beauty of its setting to overcome its simplistic story."The Revenant" starts out strong with one of the most well shot and immensely gripping scenes of the year in which Indians attack the fur trappers.
Finally the film felt so self-indulgent in its own style of natural light filmmaking that it seemed like the filmmakers stretched shots and sequences for too long just to show off their prowess.In conclusion, "The Revenant" is a well-acted, masterfully shot, slow moving revenge/survival art house film with amazing scenery.
Sure in the 2015 version the cinematography is better and the fight scenes more gruesome but the story line is still the same.And for not doing any of his stunts DiCaprio is nominated for an Oscar for looking wild thanks for the great makeup artists.
If you have been watching Iñárritu's films such as Babel, Biutiful, Birdman and The Revenant, you will know what I mean.
But unfortunately, beauty is only skin deep, and if one manages to look past the the cinematography, he/she will find that the story is nothing special, in fact, compared to the praise this movie is receiving, it feels like it is a fraud.
Also, in about 2-3 years of time, nobody is going to talk about this movie unless the topic is not the fact that DiCaprio still did not received an Oscar yet.
I think this movie is really overrated.The photography is great and the acting is good (i liked the Tom Hardy performance, and I liked the Di Caprio one too, although I think he did better performances in other movies).The plot is really inconsistent and not coherent at all, I do not want to spoiler it but the first part of the movie is well built and believable, the second part feels fake, the behaviour of the captain has no sense and the final sequence remember more a super heroes movie than a "true story" one...I don't wonder at all that the second part of the movie (and of the book), the revenge one, totally divert from the real fact that inspired the book..
Innaritu directs every single shot with a self-conscious sense of self- importance, as if he's pausing to say to the audience, "Just wait and see how impressed you are going to be with my directorial skill." Too bad it all adds up to such a boring, one-note slog.DiCaprio will win what everyone seems to think is a long overdue Oscar for this performance, despite the fact that he's given the same performance in his last ten movies and he's asked to do no more in this one than grunt, moan, and grimace his way through it.
There were many times during this film that I felt like I was watching a Malick film, which makes sense since Lubezki shot The New World, which feels similar to The Revenant.
I've read a lot of negative reviews for this film, and I'm not sure what people expect, but we all need to agree that Leonardo DiCaprio's performance was outstanding and he deserved to finally get that Oscar!
I'm a little disappointed that the bear didn't win one for Best Supporting Actor lol.As for this film, right from the start - 2 mins in - you realize the outstanding cinematography and editing.Tom Hardy's performance was also outstanding as was the writing for this film.If you haven't seen this film and are concerned by the negative reviews, do yourself a favor and watch it with an open mind and come to your own conclusion...
The film "inspired by true events" is the survival and revenge story of fur trapper Hugh Glass, as played by Leonardo DiCaprio, who was severely mauled by a bear and after some efforts by his companions to save him, is eventually left in the wilderness to die.
Revenant may possibly be the best directed movie and it is likely that Inarritu will win the Oscar.
And I'm not talking about Leonardo DiCaprio here (who gives a no-holds-barred, crazy good performance and I'd love to see him win an Oscar for this film) - the star of this film is not a person: it IS nature, plain and simple.The revenge plot - which feels almost like an afterthought or a ploy to give the film a certain structure and a proper ending - is not really the film's main theme or strongest aspect, and it certainly isn't the reason that made this film so compelling to watch for me.