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    The Revenant

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

    WARNING: This review is hidden because it reveals the content of the film.
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    I’m coming a little late to the party with this one, but that’s what happens when nobody actually pays you to watch movies… you end up having to fit them into your schedule. “The Revenant” is a big movie. It’s lavishly shot, expertly acted, artfully put together. It’s an epic story with sweeping vistas and a tale of revenge that spans huge distances. It’s not my favourite movie of the year, but I think it deserves every Academy Award nomination that it’s received.

    Set in 1823, the film follows hunter/trapper and wilderness guide Henry Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) Grievously wounded in a bear attack, he crawls through the wilderness slowly recuperating his strength. While making his way through dozens of obstacles his objective remains fixed: get to the man responsible for his son’s death (his son played by Forrest Goodluck), a self-serving fur trader named John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy)

    “The Revenant” lasts over two-and-a-half hours. The good news is that it’s time well spent. The premise is simple, but the plot is big. As Glass has to recover his strength, we follow him inching his way towards his nemesis, encountering not just regular wilderness obstacles like lack of food and water, but extreme natural hurdles like snow storms and wild animals. Then there’s a whole other threat, one that’s much more fickle than anything Mother Nature can toss at you: Man. This movie is very much about the conflict between people both on the outside, and inside. It feels like a real story because in the background there are territory disputes between Native American Tribes, conflicts between different fur traders and a full-on War between the Arikara and anyone who stands in their way as they search for one of their own that has been kidnapped. Despite the fact that Glass’ injuries limit his ability to run after the man who wants to slay, I always felt a sense of movement and of urgency. It feels like at any moment death could reveal itself from behind a tree and that death could come in any number of forms. More than once our character has to muster up the strength that he’s been carefully saving up over the course of days just to get out escape the grasps of someone that’s been present persistently in the movie, but out of sight just long enough that you’d forgotten about them.

    There’s a lot of violence here, and not necessarily in the way that you see in an action movie. This is more of a drama that’s peppered with real-world war-like action. It’s very reflective in the way that Glass is forced to face his grief and shape it into something that he can plunge into the heart of the man responsible for causing it. It’s a movie about revenge, but I never felt like it was the kind of revenge I was excitedly looking forward to, because it’s very melancholic in tone throughout. It’s an elegant mix of several different elements. You’ve got a period piece, a war movie, a drama, a revenge story, an art film and a spiritual journey; all of it delivered by great performances (I bet you won’t even recognize Tom Hardy.)

    This is a gorgeous movie, and seeing it at home won’t do it justice. I really appreciated the way the background elements played out while the main story developed and how every character feels genuine. You’re going to think that John Fitzgerald is just a greedy racist jerk and that the human race would be better off with him left tied to a tree for him to freeze to death of be eaten by some random animal, but when you get to know him better, you see that he’s a multi-faceted being. He’s not a good person, but you understand what makes him tick so it makes this revenge business a whole lot more complicated. And that’s applicable to all the major players in this movie. In one way or another they’re seldom all about what you see on the surface.

    I have a pet peeve with the movie. It’s nothing anyone else will feel and not worth docking points from it, but this is my review and if I’m going to be fair, I want to bring it up. I admired the movie, I enjoyed it, but I didn’t get a “fun factor” out of it. Seeing people get shot by arrows while they defend their pelts from Aboriginals on horses, that’s fun because you don’t see that every day. A life and death struggle with a bear, same thing (and that bear attack blows away every other bear attack I’ve ever seen) Beautiful cinematography, revenge … they’re all thing I enjoy seeing, but in the end this movie isn’t the kind that you excitedly get some friends together to watch. It’s a spiralling staircase into hell. It’s downbeat and very much one of those “if you set yourself on a path of vengeance, first dig two graves” kind of film. It’s not that the ending is bad, but the movie has one scene that just hammers in that “you shouldn’t be enjoy this movie, so if you were having fun before, THIS will shut you up and you’ll know how to feel until the credits are over! ” It killed the mood for me. Once again it does not make me think any less of the movie, but I just didn’t want to see that.

    As far as I’m concerned, director Alejandro G. Iñárritu is 2-for-2 with this one and “Birdman” in 2014. It’s a stunning show filled to the brim with greatness. I fully endorse it and I hope you check it out. Even though it’s not “the best movie of the year” for me, that doesn’t man it’s not great, in fact I think it “The Revenant” is one of the best pictures of 2015. (Theatrical version on the big screen, January 14, 2016)

    10
    HelpfulNot helpful  Reply
    adamwatchesmovies@  16.1.2016 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

    This review was amazing. It encapsulates how I viewed the film perfectly. 10/10. Thanks for taking the time write such a well thought-out review!

    HelpfulNot helpful Reply
    macchat@  19.1.2016 age: 50+ 3 reviews

    Thank you for the compliments, and I'm glad you enjoyed the movie as much as I did.

    HelpfulNot helpful Reply
    adamwatchesmovies@  19.1.2016 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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