THE REVENANT Review

The Fanboy SEO shares his thoughts on the Leonardo DiCaprio-will-finally-win-an-award movie The Revenant which also stars Tom Hardy, Domhall Gleeson and Will Poulter. Directed by Alejandro Inarritu.

Pretty much everything good about The Revenant has been said and/or written already. It’s really now a matter of what the movie made me feel. But just to give you a quick rundown of what you might like about the film read the bullet points below:

• The beautiful visuals, all shot using natural light
• that atmospheric musical score
• the eerie vibe of isolation in a violent time
• DiCaprio’s stellar performance as Hugh Glass
• Tom Hardy’s equally interesting performance as John Fitzgerald

So now that we got those bullet points out of the way it’s time to talk about what’s deeper about The Revenant. I like that there’s this karma system that guides Glass in his journey of retribution and rediscovery. That point in the film where he finally catches up with Fitzgerald has got to be one of the most savage fight scenes (not to be mention beautiful) in recent years yet when the right moment arrives, DiCaprio’s Glass decides to leave it up to karma. I liked that. It’s the human thing to do; acting not out of base emotion but with beliefs.

Inarritu had a deeper message in The Revenant other than “live through a bear attack” and its beautiful. It’s about fighting for life and embracing every second that you’re alive because that’s exactly what his version of Hugh Glass did in between tension filled moments.

Death and the afterlife is also curiously examined in the movie. Inarritu by extension Glass asks the question “what’s there to live when you’ve technically died both inside and out”. Seeing how his son “Hawk” gets shanked by the thug Fitzgerald, it becomes quite clear that destiny has other things in store for Glass; and then he gets subjected to a number of things before making his way back to Fort Kiowa.

Its a subtle (or not-so-subtle) way of saying that life is constant adventure or that life is perilous depending on your outlook. It’s really what you do with your life that matters. Great message right there.

So which is which. Which do I consider the main theme for The Revenant. I’ll leave that up to you dear readers. The film may drag from time to time and suffer from too much embellishment from the actual story but it does a solid in pulling you through some self-evaluation and some much needed motivation; and I just have to link this film to how DiCaprio is when it comes to awards. He’s been chewed up by the bears and yet the guy continues to wow us with his acting skills and now here he is, just like Glass, crawling slowly towards that much-coveted Oscar award.

The Revenant opens February 3 from 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. Pictures