The Revenant Movie Review

Tyler Simonsen

The Revenant; directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy and Will Poulter in the film adaptation of the novel, The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge by Michael Punke. The movie is set in the 1820’s in South Dakota and focuses on a crew of several trappers working for the American Fur Company.  The main character Hugh Glass (DiCaprio) is viciously mauled by a grizzly bear and is found by his men barely alive. The captain of the group hires three of the men to stay behind with Glass until they can come back with help; one of these men is John Fitzgerald (Hardy). Throughout the movie Fitzgerald and Glass have had obvious tension built up. Fitzgerald then kills Glass’s son and leaves him for dead. The rest of the movie is Leonardo DiCaprio crawling through miles of untouched wilderness, trying to avoid death’s many faces. This movie does an exceptional job at creating realism in every scene. The violence isn’t over the top, the fight scenes are slow, brutal and full of tension. Like Alejandro’s last movie "Birdman", the Revenant contains several long shots filmed in a naturalistic style to create a sense of realism. There are also many metaphorical shots in this scene I personally enjoyed, but they can easily go over most people’s heads.  The lead cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki definitely deserves an Oscar nod at least. Every actor is this movie gives an exceptional, believable effort
                    I'd recommend The Revenant to anyone who likes intense, inspiring movies about the strength of the human spirit and the will to live. I'll give this an 8.5/10.