The Lost Reviews Part 1 : The Revenant (2015)

Summary :
While exploring the uncharted wilderness in 1823, legendary frontiersman Hugh Glass sustains injuries from a brutal bear attack. When his hunting team leaves him for dead, Glass must utilize his survival skills to find a way back home while avoiding natives on their own hunt. Grief-stricken and fueled by vengeance, Glass treks through the wintry terrain to track down John Fitzgerald, the former confidant who betrayed and abandoned him.

Genre : Adventure/Drama
Country :USA/Canada/Taiwan

Cast :
Leonardo DiCaprio : Hugh Glass
Tom Hardy : John Fitzgerald
Will Poulter : Bridger
Domhnall Gleeson : Captain Andrew Henry

Director : Alejandro G. Inarritu

My opinion :

It's about time I gave my opinion on a number of films I've watched a while ago. I didn't have the time for that yet. Or was it just because I didn't feel like writing about them? It's not because they were aweful and totally crap. Far from. But quite simply because they were already extensively praised by other movie buffs. So here it is. A short and modest opinion.

"I ain't afraid to die anymore. I'd done it already."

You have movies with bloody scenes so exaggerated that it actually becomes laughable. Take for example "The hateful Eight". Liters of blood spatter around in this film. It's not really meant to be funny but it isn't shocking either after a while. The key moment in "The Revenant" however, is so incredibly realistic and bloody painful to behold. A dashing exploit of CGI and choreography. The interplay between DiCaprio and the computer animated bear had to be meticulously coordinated. I think this required some scrupulous work, resulting in an impressive battle scene. Had it been a real-life, trained bear, I'd give this bear an Oscar.

Now Leonardo DiCaprio snatched the coveted statuette away from the bear. In my opinion Leo deserved it, but not specifically for this film. I have no doubt that the circumstances this film was made in, must have been heavy and mostly inhuman. The extreme cold in the icy landscape over there in the far north and the difficult primitive conditions of life for these trappers weren't faked images. But for DiCaprio there wasn't much acting involved during the largest part of the film. Mostly it was just groaning with a lot of splashing spittle. Although he did this in a very convincing way. His facial expression showed his feelings. No need for heaps of words. So he's not a chatterbox as in "The Wolf of Wall Street". That's the movie he deserved an Oscar for, in my opinion.

"The Revenant" is the ultimate survival film. A brilliant film about the struggle between man and nature. A beautiful film, full of fascinating images, that slowly takes the form of a revenge movie. The revenge Hugh Glass wants, is the thread running through this film. A film about a profound willpower and perseverance. A survival film that easily surpasses essentially all other similar films. The scene with the horse is pretty hallucinating and a pinnacle of inventiveness when it comes to survival skills. This film being based on a true story, makes it all the more impressive. In my opinion this film can be added to the list of other legendary films.