The Revenant

You don't need to know the definition of revenant to enjoy the movie.

Set in the 1820’s, Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Hugh Glass – a mysterious scout leading a group of fur trappers through the wilderness. They are in dangerous territory and surrounded by the Ree, who are ready to attack them to interfere with their hunting, protect their land and maybe more (as we learn later on).

Glass has no match when it comes to knowing the land and navigating these American men to safety, but they are wary of him, since he has been known to live with Native Americans and brings along his Native American son, Hawk (Forest Goodluck).

One member of the party, John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), is quite vocal about his opposition to Hawk’s presence and Hugh’s important role, but the group’s leader, Captain Andrew Henry (Domnhall Gleeson), realizes they have no hope of returning to camp alive and/or with furs if they don’t work with Glass.

After a vicious bear attack leaves Glass incapacitated and near death, and the Ree close in on their trail, Captain Henry offers a special reward to those who will see Glass and Hawk to safety. Oddly, Fitzgerald agrees to take on the task, and sees an opportunity to do something wicked.

What is Fitzgerald’s plan?

Can Glass get the revenge he seeks?

Will he even survive after the bear attack?

The Revenant is a brutal movie, but a great one if you dedicate the time.

Without a doubt, DiCaprio is the star of the movie and shows you it would have been a boring slog without him.

For much of The Revenant, Glass is beaten, battered and can barely speak, but DiCaprio is fascinating as we watch the damaged, broken man clawing his way through the forest and the frozen tundra, emitting guttural screams along the way, seething with anger in his eyes as he watches a dastardly horror he cannot stop and witnessing the growing fire within in him.

In this way, The Revenant is much like Cast Away. If DiCaprio can’t find non-vocal ways to engage the audience and move us emotionally, the movie sinks.

Along the way, writer/director Alejandro Inarittu and co-writer Mark Smith (based on the novel by Michael Punke) try to fill in details about Glass’ past and give a sense of his physical state through artsy dream-like sequences, which aren’t as compelling as the rest of the movie. These moments don’t have the urgency to grab our attention, which makes the movie lag a bit.

The team stirs up some wonderful tension as we see the various parties in the forest each trying to accomplish a goal and impacting the others, which makes for an intriguing stew of competing motivations, and turns The Revenant into a bit of a morality tale.

Best of all, Inarittu shoots the movie in awe-inspiring fashion. You get a true sense of the vast forest these men are caught up in, along with the danger around every corner. It’s another reminder how everything in nature wants to kill you (especially bears).

We didn’t even talk about Hardy! While DiCaprio is getting all of the Oscar buzz, Hardy deserves just as much as the conniving, coward bereft of a moral compass. Even though his character is not an imposing man in any way, Hardy adds a touch of evil which makes it believable he could commit the act he does.

The Revenant is rated R for strong frontier combat and violence including gory images, a sexual assault, language and brief nudity.