THE REVENANT (2015)

Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson, Will Poulter, Forrest Goodluck, Arthur RedCloud, Grace Dove Syme, Paul Anderson, Lukas Haas, Brendan Fletcher, Krisoffer Joner, Brad Carter, Melaw Nakehk'o

MPAA Rating: (for strong frontier combat and violence including gory images, a sexual assault, language and brief nudity)

RunningTime: 2:36

ReleaseDate: 12/25/15 (limited); 1/8/16 (wide)

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Review by Mark Dujsik | December 24, 2015

TheRevenantspins a tale of pain, suffering, and despair. It's a movie that is almostcompletely dedicated to communicating those qualities, presenting a world inwhich relief from misery is only temporary. At every turn—down any river,behind any tree, up any hill, over any cliff—lies yet another deathlychallenge for our protagonist, a man whose every waking moment of agony ishaunted by the anguish of his past.

Perhapsthe strangest thing about the movie is that its depiction of survival againstall odds isn't enough for it. This isn't exactly a one-note affair, because themovie does hit a second note, which has been hinted at through most of thestory, during the final act. It's the old desire for revenge that drives thisman as he makes his way through a deadly, untamed frontier.

Themovie is such a grueling experience that it's easy to feel a little betrayed bythe contrived simplicity of its ultimate goal. The character endures more injuryand torture than seems humanly possible, and at the end of his journey, there isonly the hollow promise of retribution. That's all there is to it, and thatmeans there's a certain emptiness at the heart of these trials.

Themovie's story is based on the true one of Hugh Glass, a scout for a group ofpelt traders who, in 1823 in a region of what is today South Dakota, was leftfor dead by the rest of his party and crawled over 200 miles to civilization.It's one of those pieces of folklore that barely requires any dramatic license,although it's also understandable that an account would indulge in somemodifications. These tales pass from generation to generation with minoralterations that become significant ones (This version, for example, has takenMichael Punke's novel of the same name as its primary inspiration). Here, we geta relentless portrayal of the physical damage that Glass endured—some of itfounded in fact and other parts invented, albeit with a sturdy foundation in theparticulars of surviving in the wilderness.

Glassis played by Leonardo DiCaprio as a resourceful, clever, and loyal man who comesto suffer with a quiet yet ferocious intensity. Suffer he does, too. The movieopens with an attack on the party of traders, led by Andrew Henry (DomhnallGleeson), by a band of Native Americans who are searching for a woman from theirtribe who has been kidnapped.

Almostimmediately from the start, we get a sense of director Alejandro G. Iñárritu'sintentions with the material. The point is to accentuate the immediacy andintimacy of story's various travails. With the aid of cinematographer EmmanuelLubezki, Iñárritu's camera moves freely through the scene of the ambush inlengthy one-takes, getting in close to a one, particular doomed individual(either a face or a part of the body that will be struck by an arrow or abullet) before moving on to another. There is no denying the movie's significanttechnical merits. There are sequences of virtuoso staging and camera work ondisplay here.

Thenext substantial sequence pits Glass against a mother grizzly bear when thescout finds himself in between the animal and her cubs. The resulting extendedmauling (another impressive one-take) is sickening in its detail, as a fairlyconvincing computer-generated beast rips at flesh and crushes bones under itsweight.

Theencounter leaves Glass nearly dead, and after the terrain makes carrying Glassany farther impossible, Henry requests volunteers to care for the scout until heexpires. John Fitzgerald (a very good Tom Hardy, whose character finds an almostphilosophical rationale for his cowardice), Jim Bridger (Will Poulter), andGlass' son Hawk (Forrest Goodluck) agree to the duty, but Fitzgerald's own senseof survival leads to violent results. The broken Glass is buried alive but freeshimself from his grave, beginning a long and arduous trek to avenge the wrongscommitted against him.

To gointo much further detail would be unfair, since the screenplay by Mark L. Smithand Iñárritu is founded on the notion of constantly creating new obstacles forGlass to overcome. It becomes exhausting, which is partially the point, and thenit grows a little tiresome. The individual obstacles may change, but the basicstructure—of heightened stakes followed by brief respites—never ebbs. Themovie's attempts to expand on Glass' as a character, through nightmarishflashbacks to the killing of his wife (Grace Dove Syme), are hardly illuminatingand, instead, end up feeling like an easy way to convert the character'sphysical pain into the realm of the otherworldly. It's almost as if it is notenough that we watch as the man suffers and suffers again. His past, hispresent, and his eternity are founded on suffering.

In away, then, the movie achieves its goal with a sense of absolute determination,but to what end does it do so? There is no counterpoint to its view of miserylatching on to more misery as a way to reconcile that the world is a miserableplace. The exploration of misery in TheRevenant is expansive and formally pristine, but one can't help but feelthat the movie's primary aim is also the cause of why its thematic scope turnsout to be so limited.

Copyright © 2015 by Mark Dujsik. Allrights reserved.

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