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The Revenant (2015)

The Revenant review

The basic storyline seems pretty ordinary though, but the execution is simply exceptional from all perspectives of filmmaking. 

written by Souranath Banerjee

My Ratings: 4.4/5.

Alejandro González Iñárritu claimed the Oscar last year in the ‘Best Achievement in Directing‘ category for his film Birdman, and winning the ‘Best Motion Picture of the Year‘ and ‘Best Original Screenplay‘ awards as well!

So not surprisingly, there is an immense amount of expectation for revenant-poster1Mr. Iñárritu’s latest film The Revenant, and then again, when the ever-impressive Leonardo DiCaprio is in the lead, tagging with him all that debate about – can this be finally Leonardo’s Oscar moment or not?

And on top of that, the film is shot by ace cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki who has already won two Oscars for his brilliant camera work in films Birdman and Gravity. He should have also won for two of his previous films The Tree of Life and Children of Men but again that’s another debate for another time.

So coming back to The Revenant, a thrilling revenge saga dated way revenant-poster2back in 1823, a dangerous time for the American fur traders and trappers who not only had to survive the treacherous climate but also the Indians for whom they were guests not particularly welcomed.

‘I ain’t afraid to die anymore. I’d done it already.’

Leonardo DiCaprio playing the part of Hugh Glass (the film is inspired by his real life endeavors), who was a frontiersman on a fur trading expedition, an explorer in the true sense of the word, a survivor who came back from dead and most importantly, a man with vengeance on his mind.

‘He’s afraid. He knows how far I came to find him.’

And Tom Hardy on the other hand, playing the intense yet crooked character of John Fitzgerald, who in a way was the real reason of Hugh Glass’s will to survive!

Superlative performances by both DiCaprio (through minimal use of revenant-poster3dialogues) and Tom Hardy; and aptly supported by the likes of Kristoffer JonerLukas HaasDomhnall GleesonWill Poulter and Forrest Goodluck.

Composers Ryuichi Sakamot and Carsten Nicolai does justice to the stunning visuals and Stephen Mirrione does a fair job with the edit.

Often vicious and violent (specially the bear attack scene), The Revenant was shot in twelve different locations and three different countries, chronologically for as long as 80 days and that too almost entirely using natural light!

A 2 hours and 36 minutes of cinematic bliss not to be missed under any circumstances.

P.S. – For the record, Leonardo sleeping in an actual gutted carcass of a horse is not true, the carcass was a prosthetic one. Though Leo did eat a bison liver for real to capture the authenticity of that shot!

Poster courtesy: www.impawards.comwww.revenantmovie.com