The Revenant (15.)
Directed by Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.
Starring Leonardo Di Caprio, Tom Hardy, Will Poulter, Domhnall Gleeson, Forest Goodluck and Lukas Haas. 156 mins
Inarritu may be the only person ever to get an Oscar for lightening up. Prior to Birdman, a comedy that wasn't exactly a laugh barrel, he had made his name with four surpassingly bleak films (Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel, Biutiful.) Normal service is resumed with The Revenant, which is theoretically a western tale of revenge and survival but is, in practice, a gruelling assault course for both characters and audience. While DiCaprio's character Hugh Glass spends the two and half hours being beaten, shot at and assaulted by a bear, all in the freezing, snow covered Missouri wastes chasing after his nemesis Fitzgerald (Hardy), the audience winces its way through a ferocious visceral assault.
Inarritu seems to be engaged in a contest with fellow Mexican Alfonso Cuaron to see who can come up with the most remarkable how-did-they-do-that shots. The Revenant contains at least two scenes that you won't have seen the like of before (unless you see the trailer of course.) The opening scene – a group of trappers being attacked by Native Americans shot in long, fluid, seemingly continuous shots that see the camera swoop between flying arrows and desperate man to man struggles – is an affront to the senses, like the Omaha beach landing at the start of Saving Private Ryan. Later there is a real time sequence where DiCaprio is attacked by a grizzly bear that lasts for two to three minutes. It's remarkable virtuoso stuff but, much like Cuaron's Children Of Men, you may wonder if the Making Of feature might not be more interesting than the film itself. The Revenant is ultimately an empty box of tricks, though it is a very impressive box.
Glass has already done his Dancing with Wolves, fathering half breed child Hawk (Goodluck.) As a result much of his dialogue is subtitled Pawnee and Arikara. When it isn't subtitled, most of what comes out of his mouth is grunts, wheezes and pained exhalations. Hardy isn't much more coherent, mumbling and muttering through his bad guy role and generally trying to keep himself to himself. Everybody in this film seems to be locked into their own little survival trip, none of which has any greater relevance, other than to express the brutality with which the west was won and the United States formed.
The Revenant is a film that should inspire both awe and derision in equal part. It is a technical wonder and a miracle to behold but it is also grandiose and solemn, and its visual and narrative excesses do become ridiculous. As Leo blunders on into one calamity after the next, each one more horrific than the last, there does come to be a certain gruesome slapstick to it, like a feral Mr Bean. Surely, I wasn't the only one who had to suppress a snigger when Leo is being relentlessly abused by that bear or was reminded of a certain scene in Borowczyk's The Beast.
Directed by Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.
Starring Leonardo Di Caprio, Tom Hardy, Will Poulter, Domhnall Gleeson, Forest Goodluck and Lukas Haas. 156 mins
Inarritu may be the only person ever to get an Oscar for lightening up. Prior to Birdman, a comedy that wasn't exactly a laugh barrel, he had made his name with four surpassingly bleak films (Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel, Biutiful.) Normal service is resumed with The Revenant, which is theoretically a western tale of revenge and survival but is, in practice, a gruelling assault course for both characters and audience. While DiCaprio's character Hugh Glass spends the two and half hours being beaten, shot at and assaulted by a bear, all in the freezing, snow covered Missouri wastes chasing after his nemesis Fitzgerald (Hardy), the audience winces its way through a ferocious visceral assault.
Inarritu seems to be engaged in a contest with fellow Mexican Alfonso Cuaron to see who can come up with the most remarkable how-did-they-do-that shots. The Revenant contains at least two scenes that you won't have seen the like of before (unless you see the trailer of course.) The opening scene – a group of trappers being attacked by Native Americans shot in long, fluid, seemingly continuous shots that see the camera swoop between flying arrows and desperate man to man struggles – is an affront to the senses, like the Omaha beach landing at the start of Saving Private Ryan. Later there is a real time sequence where DiCaprio is attacked by a grizzly bear that lasts for two to three minutes. It's remarkable virtuoso stuff but, much like Cuaron's Children Of Men, you may wonder if the Making Of feature might not be more interesting than the film itself. The Revenant is ultimately an empty box of tricks, though it is a very impressive box.
Glass has already done his Dancing with Wolves, fathering half breed child Hawk (Goodluck.) As a result much of his dialogue is subtitled Pawnee and Arikara. When it isn't subtitled, most of what comes out of his mouth is grunts, wheezes and pained exhalations. Hardy isn't much more coherent, mumbling and muttering through his bad guy role and generally trying to keep himself to himself. Everybody in this film seems to be locked into their own little survival trip, none of which has any greater relevance, other than to express the brutality with which the west was won and the United States formed.
The Revenant is a film that should inspire both awe and derision in equal part. It is a technical wonder and a miracle to behold but it is also grandiose and solemn, and its visual and narrative excesses do become ridiculous. As Leo blunders on into one calamity after the next, each one more horrific than the last, there does come to be a certain gruesome slapstick to it, like a feral Mr Bean. Surely, I wasn't the only one who had to suppress a snigger when Leo is being relentlessly abused by that bear or was reminded of a certain scene in Borowczyk's The Beast.
