The Revenant (dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2015) - EveryFilmIWatch Review

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The Revenant is a film that will be remembered. I watch a lot of good films, in fact most of the films I watch are good. But very, very few of them are so specifically impactful as The Revenant. It has it all: DiCaprio's first Oscar win, Iñárritu collecting his second best director in a row (first time since 1950), Lubezki following suit with back to back-to-back cinematography awards (first time ever), Ryuichi Sakamoto returning after his cancer treatment to produce an iconic soundtrack, a gruelling production tale, stories of crew walk outs and dire weather conditions. These sorts of factors do not a good film (necessarily) make and it’s certainly possible for bad films to win Oscars.

But what really shines through about The Revenant, once all is said and done, is pure craft. The story is simple: Hugh Glass is a fur trapper abandoned to die after being severely wounded in a bear attack. A cruel companion of his, John Fitzgerald, also murders his son right before Glass’s helpless gaze. The film then chronicles Glass's journey for revenge, dragging himself (literally) through an icy, treacherous landscape to find Fitzgerald.

The cinematography is beautiful; its emphasis is on naturalistic, unbroken representations of people and places rather than anything flashy for its own sake. Iñárritu is controlled as a director and, parallel to Lubezki's approach, he understands the value in allowing the story to speak for itself: the film has such naturally built quality that he barely relies on a script even, preferring instead to leave the heavy lifting to Messrs DiCaprio, Hardy, Poulter and Gleeson. And he isn’t making a mistake. Tom Hardy, in my opinion, should have taken best supporting actor for his vicious, crazed performance. DiCaprio ascends to a different plane as Glass, communicating much of the film solely through his eyes and various choked grunts. It’s one of those performances, like Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood or Ledger in The Dark Knight, where you can’t see the actor anymore. It’s pure character, pure inhabitancy of the role. This film never ceases to affect me and to remind me of what real cinema can be.

EveryFilmIWatch is multi-channel film review project run by Sebastian Cox, ScriptUp co-founder. Further reviews can be found on Instagram.