Weekend at the Movies | ‘The Revenant’ |
‘The Revenant’ — emerged as a winner at the Golden Globe awards yesterday, so it seems like an opportune time to talk about this trending movie, which I watched this weekend.
One of the year’s most anticipated films and of course the 2016 Oscar darling, was pre- booked and sold out the most theatres around me until last week, raising expectations. Moreover, I also loved Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s 2015 Oscar winner ‘Birdman’, a complex, dark and truly innovative perspective on the unusual ‘superhero’. Therefore, ‘The Revenant’ had to be watched but after viewing the trailer last month, I was procrastinating. (yes, even the trailer was that intense). Finally, 8.3 on IMDB and availability of Saturday night tickets — destiny beckoned…
On to the movie…
‘The Revenant’ is not for the faint-hearted. Lets just put it out there.
For me this was a hard film to watch, but it was an unreal sensory experience, taking me out of my comfort zone and engaging me in a tenacious rendition of a true story.
Set in the 1800s, the film tells the tale of a frontiersman in a fur trading expedition, in the rustic regions of Montana & South Dakota. After a fierce, wild encounter, our hero is left for the dead by this fellow mates and compelled into a primal quest for survival. On his tremendous journey he encounters, along with physical pain, a confrontation with his grief, a thirst for revenge, embraces and face- offs with the forces of nature and an extraordinary friendship.
The scenes unfold with Emmanuel Lubezki’s breathtaking cinematography, which is one of the true highlights of the film. Every frame is brilliant, eloquently emphasising on the mesmerising natural beauty of the landscape that is the setting for a brutal story.
The story and narration is simple and stark, but woven with elaborate tensions between the frontiersmen and the native tribes in the region. The violence, which of a gruesome flavour, strangely did not seem unnecessary. This and the fact that the characters were drawn as good and bad — black and white, were the two aspects that surprised me, especially considering the complicated protagonists in ‘Birdman’. Leonardo DiCaprio is brilliant as usual, and Tom Hardy is truly spectacular.
All in all, although I was shifting in my seat and peeping through my jacket to watch some scenes (especially the lengthy climax), I think ‘The Revenant’ was an interesting film. It is immersive and demands a commitment from you, much like the dedication the director and his cast and crew put into making the movie. It is truly amazing how and where this movie was created. It is shot in some of the most challenging terrains, I believe using natural light only.
So if you like to see some great film making, are unperturbed by violence (Game of Thrones fan?), or just love watching and discussing films, — this is a movie not to miss!
