You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy™
The Revenant.
A frontiersman on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team.
Yes it is all this.
But it’s much more.
It’s man versus nature.
It’s man versus man.
It’s man versus self.
It’s the will to live, to survive.
It’s right versus wrong.
The film is too long at 2 and a half hours and at times it is hard to tell who the good guys are from the bad guys since there are so many characters all wearing animal pelts and face shields.
While the film is character driven, it is also landscape dominant as every scene is a rich tapestry of mother nature’s beauty infused with her wrath.
Mountains are menacing and beautiful and unclimbable. Trees are tall and forever as they stretch into the clear Canadian sky.
The river is powerful, churning, never ending.
The cold is relentless. The wind is brutal. The predators ferocious.
The film is too long because there are too many unnecessary scenes.
A meteor crashes into a lake. Maybe it makes sense in the novel, but in the film it is a disconnect like a line drive over the third base dug out that hits an unsuspecting grandmother in the face.
While the film has flaws, it is also powerful and rewarding.
In the end, the film is gripping and makes you think about it long after the credits fade to black.
I saw the previews for the film months before it came out. The action was fast paced and the edits quick and the vistas spectacular.
Every time the trailer ended, I muttered aloud; “Revenant. What the hell’s a revenant?”
Well it turns out a Revenant is a person who has returned, especially from the dead.
And now that I’ve seen the film, I get it.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s character is left for dead. He survives more near death experiences than James Bond.
In the end, he rides through the gates of the outpost like a ghost.
The man who was dead lives and the lies that were told are revealed.
Alejandro G. Iñárritu and his cinematographer do a masterful job of gliding through scenes. The director seems to forgo edits in favor of long sequences using a steady cam.
It adds a sense of calm to a film that is one high octane surprise after another.
The movie is violent and grotesque and egregious.
Arrows fly silently through the woods piercing skulls, piercing hearts, dissecting eye balls.
The sound of a tomahawk on man’s skull is now known to me.
The film is short on dialogue and heavy on cinematic action that tells the story.
The scene that sets the movie in motion is the scene that everyone talks about.
Leo vs Momma Bear.
Momma bear bats the revenant around like a ping pong ball. She gets on his back and with razor sharp talons tears open his flesh.
His bones break, his skin is torn, he is crushed by a massive furry muscle with fangs.
How does he live? How can he possibly survive?
Somehow Leo endures and he will continue to survive, dragging himself across snow and river bank and muddy outcropping.
He is a broken, human snake, slowly pulling himself across a foreboding wilderness.
His vocal chords are injured and he is unable to speak. DiCaprio wins the academy award for a facial twist, a grunt, a powerful moment that he exudes through the camera lens.
DiCaprio is fueled by revenge and a need to survive.
He is swept down a river over a water fall. He rides a horse off a cliff, landing in a tree to break his fall.
He then guts the dead horse beside him, pulling out the equine’s stomach and intestines so he can crawl inside the animal carcass like it is a bloody sleeping bag.
It is gross and his motivation somewhat unclear.
In the end, the Revenant gets his revenge, killing the man who stabbed his son to death.
Throughout the film, DiCaprio’s character, Hugh Glass says; As long as you can still grab a breath, you fight.
In the end, the movie fades to black and we hear him gasp.
He has fought the good fight. The fight is over.
The revenant is a memorable, powerful film.
And now I understand how a ghost can return from the dead and make his mark on those who live life.
Life’s Crazy™