THE REVENANT: A Review

Last night I had the pleasure of watching Alejandro Inarritu's latest masterpiece, THE REVENANT. Many critics are saying that if Leonardo DiCaprio doesn't get an Oscar for this film he will likely never receive one. Friends of mine know I've been saying this for the past month and last night's viewing confirmed my suspicions. But I am getting ahead of myself, first we should discuss what this movie is about. I know that I wasn't exactly sure based on the trailer or title, so here's some background. I had no idea what the term "revenant" was until this morning, so here it is: a visible ghost or spirit that has returned from the grave for its revenge. So there you have it, that's what this film is really about, revenge. DiCaprio is acting as a guide to a group gathering pelts for trade when he is attacked by a bear and brought near to death. The captian is adament that they must try their best keep him alive as long as possible and when the time comes they should give him the proper burial. Tom Hardy's character, Vince Fitzgerald sees the inconvience of this and ultimately leaves DiCaprio behind (I will not give too many details). I fear that some people may not find the ending of this film to be up to their expectations, but when you consider the truly important details and story of this film you can see that the film's ending is more than fitting.

Now let's talk about the acting. DiCaprio's acting in this film was one of the most anticipated performances of the year and rightfully so, because this was one of his groundbreaking performances. This film was challenging in all capacities: mentally, physically, emotionally, even intellectually. DiCaprio speaks a Native American language in the film, and is forced into physically demanding situations. Notably, the myraid times he is forced to crawl, using only his arms, through the snow. The reality of this is realized in times when the camera is actually being fogged by DiCaprio's breath because it is so cold where they are filming. But what was most impressive about DiCaprio's acting was what was in his eyes. For a large portion of the film he had no dialogue either because he was so ill and battered he could not or because he was acting as a lone traveller. During these times you could see exactly what emotions were being felt without the use of any real exposition or dialogue. After the film I turned to my friend and just said, "I need to sit here for a little while, give me some time". Not because I ate too much popcorn or was hoping for a post-credits scene, but because my anxiety was so much all over the place that I literally needed time to recover. I award that to DiCaprio's acting. I felt what he felt. This became even more real when I literally could not sleep last night because of my anxiety level.

The most surprising performance was Tom Hardy's. He played the perfect sociopath who when it came time, only feared for his own fate. I've never been so disgusted by Hardy as I was in this film. I wasn't watching Tom Hardy and that was what made the performance for me. So many times you watch a film and you're watching the actor, but in this case I felt like I was watching the character and that is so important to acting and a piece that most people miss out on because so many actors are type-casted. But when you think about it, that is one of the great things about Hardy, he can play a wide variety of characters, he is versitle.

Finally I can talk about the cinematography! Aside from DiCaprio's performance I was most excited about the cinematography of this film. Last year's Oscar films were all about testing camera movements, evident in BIRDMAN. This year we have, wait for it.... ALL NATURAL LIGHTING. As someone who as gone to film school and currently works in a studio with hundreds of lights, I can fully appreciate how amazing this is. Let me explain, cameras are built in such a way that the more control you have over how much light is being processed through the lens, the clearer your picture is going to be, so the absence of that endless control, leaves the genius up to the cinematographer and his or her ability to understand natural lighting. He or she must also understand the capabilities of the camera. I was slightly worried, but intrigued to see how this would work for this film. However, after 10 seconds all of my fears were wiped away. This is one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen.

I briefly mentioned the story in my intoductory paragraph, but let's talk about it a little more before I wrap this beast of a review up. THE REVENANT was rich with plot and sub-plot, adding up to two and a half hours of pure writing genius. Some of the film felt like Terrance Malik's "Tree of Life" with its obsecure flashback's and dream sequences and there were definately times when I thought to myself, how did the screenwriter even write this scene! But every bit of it was important and I couldn't imagine cutting anything out. Let me remind you for the second time in this review though, I did go to film school and I tend to eat up the artsy obsecurity like what was present in this film. Because of this I would not recommend this film to anyone. It is a lot to stomach and to take in, but for those of you who love "this sort of thing" please watch this film, it'll change the way you look at life.

Let me explain the last sentence I wrote. This film required its characters to be brave and strong in some of the most difficult circumstances one could ever imagine. One of the overarching themes of the film came from a metaphor of a tree. This is a very popular metaphor used in the psychology world, especially for those suffering from anxiety. This particular metaphor has greatly helped me in my life, as I struggle with high levels of anxiety every day. Basically the idea is that in life you need to be like a tree because in the biggest storm a tree can be swinging all around, but the base of a tree's trunk stays rooted and grounded. In life we need to be like this tree and let the world throw us curveballs and enjoy the ride, as long as we let ourselves stay grounded, we will come out alright.

PLEASE RUN, do not walk, RUN TO YOUR NEAREST THEATRE AND WATCH THIS FILM. But like I said, be wary, it is a lot to stomach and may not be for everyone.

#review #DiCaprio