The Revenant (2015) Review

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

When you try to gain something for yourself, it’s hard to know if the trip was all worth it.


PLOT


Based on Michael Punke’s titular 2002 novel, 2015’s The Revenant takes place in the 1820s and follows fur trapper Hugh Glass. Having lost his village in the Great Plains from American soldiers, all he has left is his 17 year old son. During the Arikara War, Glass guides Captain Andrew Henry’s trappers through uncharted territory of the Dakotas. When camp gets attacked by a ‘Ree’ war party, they ditch their boats and most of their pelts for the sake of their lives. This upsets John Fitzgerald the most because a lot of money will be lost after all the time they’ve spent. When passing through Fort Kiowa, Glass gets mauled by a grizzly bear and defends himself with his rifle and knife long enough to slay it. With severe wounds all over his body, Hawk and young Jim Bridger volunteer to stay behind intending to bury him once he dies from his wounds and Fitzgerald also volunteers intending to recoup his pelt losses. He then tries to mercy-kill him via suffocation but when Hawk catches him in the act, he stabs the boy in front of his father who is too injured to intervene. With Bridger absent from this, it is easier for Fitzgerald to make him leave Glass for dead, leaving him half buried. Out of shame, Bridger leaves him his canteen with a spiral he engraved. Bridger is convinced to leave with Fitzgerald due to being lied to of being followed by the Ree, but does pick up on the lie by the time they get closer to Fort Kiowa. When reporting to Henry, he lies of what happened to both Hawk & Glass. As for the protagonist, he gets moving before he can fully recover when the Ree party is near, led by chief Elk Dog (Duane Howard), who is searching for his abducted daughter Powaqa (Melaw Nakehk’o). He barely evades them when swimming through a waterfall after cauterizing with neck wound with gunpowder. Along the way, he encounters a Pawnee refugee named Hikuc who not only feeds him bison meat, but also sets up a sweat lodge for him to recover from a fever. Sadly, he’d be lynched by French Canadians that are holding Powaqa captive. He infiltrates their camp to free her and take Hikuc’s horse, leaving his canteen behind. He would be chased by the Ree again to the point where he’d fall off a cliff, but he’d survive and use the horse’s carcass to sleep in for the night. When a French survivor staggers into Fort Kiowa, Bridger recognizes the canteen and starts a search party with Henry. They do find Glass alive and when returning, Fitzgerald has already with the safe full of cash, heading to Texas. Glass backs Bridger that Fitzgerald deceived him and despite barely returning, Henry goes with him to pursue the murderer. When splitting up, Fitzgerald kills & scalps Henry but Glass would use his corpse as a decoy to ambush him, shooting him in the shoulder. When confronting him at a riverbank, Fitzgerald reminds him he agreed to die by blinking as he was incapable of speaking at the time, but the protagonist denies giving him the choice after what he did. They then fight brutally long enough until Glass gives him to Elk Dog to finish him off, having found Powaqa. When retreating into the mountains, the film ends with Glass seeing his wife’s spirit who walks away as he sees her this time.


THOUGHTS


The second Alejandro Iñárritu got on my radar with directing Birdman, I knew his next film would be an event himself and it goes without saying this one lived up to the hype. From start to finish, it’s a gripping adventure film that is constantly intense. Every tracking shot and landscape view done by the director of photography Emmanuel Lubezki is so stunning it feels like you’re part of the whole exchange. Each chase and shootout is well paced and the visual effects work at the best times possible. Whether it was seeing a horse fall off a cliff or a vicious bear attack, you’re blown away in how realistic it all appears. Although I understand why Spotlight won Best Picture, I was rooting for The Revenant mostly at the time because it is able to strongly say how unfulfilling revenge can be for some people no matter how indomitable one’s spirit is in the journey to achieve it. This is the case when you follow Hugh Glass who goes through hell & back before the main quest gets going. Leonardo DiCaprio earns his overdue Best Actor Oscar here because he’s the most stoic guy who knows his surroundings better than the people he works with and surprisingly had the capacity to withstand pain most people would’ve died from. No matter how traumatizing it was for him, it is badass for him survive a bear attack and later cauterize the wound with gunpowder. He is the way he is when it comes to resilience because he still has something worth living for that is his only son Hawk. Even though Forrest Goodluck showed him to be a boy who had a chip on his shoulder wanting to be strong like him, he sure was guiding him as best as he could given they were always on the move. Losing him was easily heartbreaking to watch off of the fact he was too weak to prevent it, which then makes him a man with nothing left to lose and when you have that mindset, the determination to reach a goal makes you all the more intimidating. Tom Hardy arguably portrayed Fitzgerald as his polar opposite because instead of finding solace through his work, having nothing to lose makes him greedier than he has to and takes it too personal when he loses profit. With all the time he spent getting pelts together, it makes sense for him to not waste any of them and couldn’t stand he had no choice due to Glass paving the way. He goes out of his way wanting to kill Glass to the point where he inadvertently kills his son instead because he wanted to tell him he should’ve listened to him at least once if they wanted to get back home intact. Of course, his failure to tie up loose ends would be ultimate Kharma since it is the Ree that execute him. Glass doesn’t take the pleasure in finishing him off because he takes his enemy’s advice serious that it won’t change what happened. That in turn makes the ending all the more sadder when his quest is over because he remains alone and can’t undo it no matter how he tried. Despite this situation, it was nice to know there were people besides his son that had his back when it mattered most. I enjoyed Will Poulter for showing Bridger as one who was struggling to build courageousness yet still did when it came to speaking his mind with Fitzgerald and Domhall Gleeson made Henry likable for his level headed loyalty towards everyone who deserves it, I had a big soft spot for Hikuc. Arthur Redcloud was so interesting in his given time because he had enough compassion to heal a wounded warrior Glass was. Relating to how they’ve both been through loss, it was easy for him to be as helpful as he could and his death was unsettling to discover since he was obviously keeping to himself, nor did he deserve it. That alone was enough for Glass to avenge him as well before moving forward. Even though the man never found content at the end of his journey, I hope he found the time to rest peacefully when he had the chance. The film is good overall, but there are still some things I scratch my head about during a rewatch. For starters, I do feel like it’s on Glass for bringing Hawk with him because despite his son being his responsibility after the loss of his wife, he should know he’d be safer anywhere that didn’t have racist coworkers. Moving on, Henry should’ve known it was a bad idea for Fitzgerald to stay behind with Glass when he knew he didn’t like him for losing money. And while I can say Hawk should’ve shot Fitzgerald when he saw him commit attempted murder, it’s mostly on Fitzgerald for not finishing the job when Bridger was out of sight or hide the body better. Also, I was surprised that the French had Powaqa the whole but if that was the case, I don’t know how the Ree didn’t see her. If she was hidden in a tent, that could’ve been implied. On top of that, I’m surprised Glass never worried of having possible hypothermia when swimming for so long. I mean he should’ve had a day of rest when Henry found him because there wasn’t a guarantee he would succeed in extracting revenge. Lastly, how was there only one wolf pack Glass encountered the whole time? There wasn’t only one pack that went after a bison, but they were scared off by Hikuc, so they should’ve targeted someone weaker like him not that I want it to happen. Other than that, you’ll still appreciate what is done overall. In short, The Revenant is a worthy Best Picture nominee for knowing how to put us in the moment as the story goes along. If those are the kind of movies you seek, check this out when you can.