The Revenant (B+) Movie Review
The Revenant stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Hugh Glass, a legendary frontiersman, who gets mauled by a bear and left for dead by his crew, led by the evil Fitzgerald, played by Tom Hardy. He must trek back to civilization, through icy waters and dangerous Native American territory, to get revenge on Fitzgerald, who also killed his son.
Hot off of his Oscar wins for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay last year (among other awards), Alejandro G. Inarritu is back with The Revenant. It's significantly less zippy and fun than his last outing (as you can probably tell from the summary or trailer), and it's frankly not as good. But what we get with The Revenant is a strongly acted, beautifully filmed tale of revenge that is compelling, if uneven.
Inarritu has an obvious bold vision for the film. This two-and-a-half-hour revenge tale is brutal, unforgiving, but utterly transporting. Everything about The Revenant fits so perfectly into its time period, the 1820s. The film feels authentic. And if you've heard anything about The Revenant, you probably also have heard that it was shot on location and it was a very difficult shoot.
The film benefits from the mixture of Emmanuel Lubezki's breathtaking cinematography and Ryuichi Sakamoto's haunting score. This could be Lubezki's third Oscar in a row if he wins this year, and something tells me he might. Lubezki masterfully uses wide shots to emphasize Glass' loneliness, and he weaves in some impressive long takes and stunning nature shots. Ryuichi Sakamoto's score may just be the best of the year. It's broody, angsty, and stirring.
DiCaprio is good here, but I feel his performance is a bit overhyped. What to expect is a lot yelling, crying, and heavy breathing. I think that the brave lengths he went through to make the film look and feel authentic (such as eating a bison's raw liver) are impressive, but don't necessarily warrant an Academy Award. It's not his best performance, and may not be the best male performance of the year, but it's solid and admirable. Tom Hardy gives a great supporting performance as John Fitzgerald, evil mastermind. It's fun to watch Tom Hardy get so cruel and it's clear that he's having a good time doing so.
But where it succeeds as a survival tale, it often doesn't work as a film that's very spiritual or existential. It seems like those ideas get bogged down in the endless pummeling of Hugh Glass with various obstacles. The spiritual aspect is never quite as poignant as Inarritu is probably hoping.
The Revenant also gets bogged down a bit in its unnecessarily long run time. It's two hours and thirty seven minutes and although I was entertained, you begin to wonder where the film could possibly be headed. The first hour is spectacular and the last forty five minutes are spectacular, but it begins to feel like Hugh Glass is not making any progress in his journey and we don't even know his destination.
But it's difficult to ignore the scope and ambition of The Revenant. It strives to capture a long gone time in America's history and it does excellently. It's consistently engaging, even if there's an uneven middle. The struggles that Alejandro G. Inarritu and crew went through to make this film feel warranted, as The Revenant is a wonderfully epic and brutal survival tale.
FINAL GRADE: B+
MPAA RATING: R for strong frontier combat and violence including gory imagery, a sexual assault, language and brief nudity
Hot off of his Oscar wins for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay last year (among other awards), Alejandro G. Inarritu is back with The Revenant. It's significantly less zippy and fun than his last outing (as you can probably tell from the summary or trailer), and it's frankly not as good. But what we get with The Revenant is a strongly acted, beautifully filmed tale of revenge that is compelling, if uneven.
Inarritu has an obvious bold vision for the film. This two-and-a-half-hour revenge tale is brutal, unforgiving, but utterly transporting. Everything about The Revenant fits so perfectly into its time period, the 1820s. The film feels authentic. And if you've heard anything about The Revenant, you probably also have heard that it was shot on location and it was a very difficult shoot.
The film benefits from the mixture of Emmanuel Lubezki's breathtaking cinematography and Ryuichi Sakamoto's haunting score. This could be Lubezki's third Oscar in a row if he wins this year, and something tells me he might. Lubezki masterfully uses wide shots to emphasize Glass' loneliness, and he weaves in some impressive long takes and stunning nature shots. Ryuichi Sakamoto's score may just be the best of the year. It's broody, angsty, and stirring.
DiCaprio is good here, but I feel his performance is a bit overhyped. What to expect is a lot yelling, crying, and heavy breathing. I think that the brave lengths he went through to make the film look and feel authentic (such as eating a bison's raw liver) are impressive, but don't necessarily warrant an Academy Award. It's not his best performance, and may not be the best male performance of the year, but it's solid and admirable. Tom Hardy gives a great supporting performance as John Fitzgerald, evil mastermind. It's fun to watch Tom Hardy get so cruel and it's clear that he's having a good time doing so.
But where it succeeds as a survival tale, it often doesn't work as a film that's very spiritual or existential. It seems like those ideas get bogged down in the endless pummeling of Hugh Glass with various obstacles. The spiritual aspect is never quite as poignant as Inarritu is probably hoping.
The Revenant also gets bogged down a bit in its unnecessarily long run time. It's two hours and thirty seven minutes and although I was entertained, you begin to wonder where the film could possibly be headed. The first hour is spectacular and the last forty five minutes are spectacular, but it begins to feel like Hugh Glass is not making any progress in his journey and we don't even know his destination.
But it's difficult to ignore the scope and ambition of The Revenant. It strives to capture a long gone time in America's history and it does excellently. It's consistently engaging, even if there's an uneven middle. The struggles that Alejandro G. Inarritu and crew went through to make this film feel warranted, as The Revenant is a wonderfully epic and brutal survival tale.
FINAL GRADE: B+
MPAA RATING: R for strong frontier combat and violence including gory imagery, a sexual assault, language and brief nudity