Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Best Picture Review - The Revenant


Set in the 1820's, Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his son, Hawk, live on a settlement with other fur trappers. After attack by a native Arikara Indian tribe, a small group of the hunting party escapes into the vast wilderness. Fellow fur trader John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) tried to start trouble by antagonizing Hawk. Glass defends his son and attempts to make peace in the group.  However, things begin to rapidly go downhill for Glass after a nearly fatal bear attack.  Without going into all the details, Glass, boasting a number of injuries and ailments, is eventually left for dead by members of his own hunting party.  His survival does not look promising, but he is quite resourceful.  A final confrontation with Fitzgerald proves the climax of this long and winding tale.

Leonardo DiCaprio, who I have loved for ages now, and Tom Hardy were both fantastic in this film.  While I did thoroughly enjoy certain scenes, I didn't love the movie overall.  It was entirely too long.  Entirely.  Life was a struggle for Glass.  I understood that after one or two scenes.  I didn't need an hour worth of incident after incident to comprehend it was NOT a fun and exciting adventure.  This is a survival story.  This is a revenge story.  This is not a walk in the park for any of the characters involved.  I got it.  I typically like a story based on true events, but this one was a little over the top (particularly the bear scene).  The Revenant is an extremely intense film that just didn't manage to captivate me like it did so many others.  I loved the actors - truly superb.  I just didn't love the movie.  I'm not too surprised because I didn't really care for Alejandro G. Inarritu's Birdman last year either.

My Rating: 3.5 stars

Other Nominations:
Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio), Supporting Actor (Tom Hardy), Cinematography, Costume Design, Directing (Alejandro G. Inarritu), Film Editing, Makeup & Hairstyling, Production Design, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects

Have you seen The Revenant yet?

Andrea :)

1 comment:

  1. I haven't seen it, but I'm looking forward to it! Although a little less since it's so long. I tend to get a little antsy with long movies.

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