Monday, 15 February 2016

The Revenant Review

"As long as you can still grab a breath, you fight. You breathe... Keep fighting"



When director Alejandro G. Inarritu blew away critics and film audiences alike with last years best picture winner Birdman, audiences highly anticipated what would be the next project of the inventive and interesting film-maker. One of the major things that set Birdman apart from other films nominated that year and what it is perhaps best remembered for one year on is its powerful use of interesting camera techniques, particularly the extensive use of the long tracking shot, which through clever editing gave the film the appearance that only one long shot is used throughout. But what makes the film truly fantastic and rewatchable in my opinion is its strong dialogue, script, characters and story, and is made greater from these elements rather than it being nothing but a hollow presentation of a unique film making technique. The visuals, editing and film making all cooperate to compliment the strong material at hand. Whilst Inarritu's follow up, the western epic The Revenant, is a fantastic piece of film making and a great film overall, it does seem to suffer from slight style over substance, and what really shines more than the story at hand is the directors impressive presentation of the setting, the visuals and the technical intricacies of film making. I will be going over the film in depth in the next few paragraphs, so bear in mind (pun intended) that there will be many spoilers from this moment on.

Like The Hateful Eight earlier this year, this film is also set in the colder reaches of 1800's America. Set in 1823 Montana, the film is loosely inspired on a folk tale surrounding the real life of frontiersman, explorer and fur trapper Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio), and is predominantly about his survival of a brutal bear attack, his betrayal and abandonment by his colleagues and his attempt to stay alive in the harsh Louisiana Purchase wilderness. Whilst this story was used for inspiration, many of the elements including the elements of revenge and family are fictional. The film opens, like Birdman, with a culmination of vivid, surreal and beautiful imagery, showing a little of the history of the Glass character, his romance with a native American and a sort of mantra that the character lives by; that whilst you're breathing you need to fight to stay alive. This is an overarching theme throughout the entire movie and whilst a little heavy handed in its delivery, these Inarritu dream sequences are always wonderfully shot and in this case it really brings a lot of atmosphere to the first minute of the film, and sets the tone very well.


It then shifts to later on in time to a brutal surprise attack on the Rocky Mountain Fur Company trappers by the Arikara Native Americans, and has an incredibly impressive long tracking shot of the surviving Frontiersman escaping to their boat in a wonderful piece of choreographed madness and technical mastery that in my opinion is the second best scene in the entire film. This moment is very hard to not get drawn into, and you get a real sense of the brutality of this period in American history. The mise en scene in particular is made incredibly realistic in contrast to other westerns that are produced, with the blood and mud and dirt appearing terribly real with the desaturated look of the film. The sense of misery is incredibly realistically conveyed, more so than any other film I've probably seen since Saving Private Ryan.

The stand out scene of the film comes shortly after this, when Glass is attacked by a bear. This acts as the pivotal inciting moment in the films plot. The scene is visceral, violent and shocking, with the bear given a surprisingly realistic motive in the attack rather than just being the monster necessary to advance the plot, and in fact is actually provided with a lot more sympathy than I expected to see. I think in a way this adds to the drama, and can favourably be compared to Ang Lee's masterpiece Life of Pi, which also portrayed wild animal predators in a similar fashion. This scene is played out simply as two animals fighting on screen, both mirroring each other in their sacrifices to protect their off-spring. More so than the monster that is Tom Hardy's amoral Fitzgerald, the bear is an antagonistic force that is simplistic and acts as a symbolic force of nature against the frontiersmen and their destruction of the natural American wilderness. The attack is gruesome and realistic, and sure to make you wince whilst viewing, and has rightly been given the critical attention that it deserves. Whilst being almost wholly computer generated, the bear looks incredibly convincing and meshes brilliantly with the hyper realistic landscape that Innaritu constructs.


After the attack Glass is mortally wounded, and as the other frontiersmen can't continue on their way carrying his body on a stretcher, Fitzgerald (Hardy) the young Jim Bridger (Will Poulter) and Glass's half-native son Hawk (Forrest Goodluck) stay behind to look after Glass with promise of a large reward, and are told to look after him or give him a proper burial in the likely circumstance that he dies. In a particularly brutal speech Fitzgerald decides that it is best for all of them if they murder Glass, and in trying to ends up murdering Hawk. He then convinces the unknowing Bridger to abandon Glass half dead on the assumption that he will die from his wounds and so they can escape from an imaginary attack from the natives. Left for dead, the rest of the film essentially follows Glass's incredible struggle to stay alive, heal his wounds and travel back to the settlement to get his revenge on Fitzgerald, whilst also having a spiritual journey in finding himself.

The acting in the film is consistent and well played, and one of the best elements of the entire film. Leonardo DiCaprio shines in the leading role, and whilst it can be argued that his performance isn't outstanding or vastly different from some of his other performances, he really gets into the role and his acting is strong. Not many other leading actors can portray pain and sheer misery like DiCaprio, and watching him MacGuyvering his way through the wilderness is heightened by his ability to physically portray the hardships and brutal injuries of the character, in a way that I don't think many actors would be able to pull off. Even stronger in the film however is Tom Hardy, who completely embodies the monstrous and vile character of Fitzgerald that only an actor of his calibre can do. Essentially in films like this there are two different kinds of actors; those who act the part that they are given and those who become the part and make it more than it was ever written to be. Whilst Leonardo DiCaprio plays his role incredibly well, he never truly embodies the spirit of the character in the way that Hardy can. From Bane to Ivan Locke to Max Rocketansky to the Kray twins, Hardy has the incredibly rare ability to morph into whatever part he is given, and he really has a field day in this dark and grim role. Will Poulter is also excellent, and really hasn't received enough attention or acclaim for his performance, in which he plays against the older, more experienced actors marvellously.


Technically this film is a marvel, and like Birdman before it Innaritu expertly utilises the interesting filming methods at his disposal to really draw you into the film on a visual and technical level. Shot with all natural lighting, the film looks beautiful, with the location really being emphasised at all moments and the costumes incredibly well designed. Unfortunately for the films sake the visuals and technical elements are really only a filler to the story and script, which despite the key dramatic moments early on thin out during the long second act. Pretty much all of this act is just DiCaprio having a problem with a certain injury and dealing with it, whilst dragging his maimed body towards his end goal. Whilst this is interesting and certainly shot well with a fantastic score, at moments it feels stretched out. It almost seems like there wasn't enough material for the film to be made so scenes feel drawn out, in a way that it almost becomes boring. Whilst the dream like sequences and the fantastic exchanges between Poulter, Hardy and Domnhall Gleeson break up this middle section, the action all seems episodic and you feel yourself waiting impatiently for the final act and the final pay off.

Luckily the pay off is well handled and it really brings back the sheer brutality of the early scenes as Glass tracks down the disgraced and escaped Fitzgerald. This leads to a vicious fight between the two men at the side of a river bank, which can be compared to the bear fight earlier in the film and is really well choreographed and acted, and acts as a great pay off to the long, drawn out and thoughtful odyssey for the Hugh Glass character. Tonally even in these more violent and shocking scenes and the slower more introspective scenes, the film is consistent and stylish in its delivery.

Summary: Whilst certainly not without its faults, particularly in its pacing and the script, the acting is fantastic and the film is well worth a watch for its stunning visuals alone, and is yet another example of Innaritu's mastery of innovative film making techniques

7/10

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