The Revenant: Review & Analysis
You gotta have expectations. I mean, you walk into a movie and try to be as open-minded and as objective as possible. But there is always that one film that is composed out of all these factors and you just can’t possibly imagine it being bad. For me, that film was “The Revenant”. Let’s look at it in detail… It stars my favorite actor, Leonardo DiCaprio. The main villain is played by Tom Hardy, whom I’ve learned to love and respect. The cast also had Domhnall Gleeson and Captain Eyebrows (real name Will Pouter). The director is Alejandro Inarrito and the cinematography is composed out of the same guy who shot “Birdman”. I mean, a movie like that, you gotta expect it to be good… Was it?
Yes. “The Revenant” is one of the best films I have seen… ever.
I watched it with a couple of friends of mine, only one of which being movies fan like myself. One of my friends did not like the movie at all and my other two friends liked it, but couldn’t watch it properly because of all the gore. Of course, my movie-understanding friend loved “The Revenant”. What am I trying to say? Well, it’s a tough production and it’s certainly not for everyone. The film is extremely naturalistic; every fight scene, every survival scene, and every dramatic scene is shot the way it would have actually happened. The fight scenes are chaotic and bloody. My friends were disgusted by the reality the film depicted. I myself left the movie theater feeling emotionally exhausted.
I can’t stress how good this film is.
Plot
“The Revenant” is symbolism and metaphors with a story. The film presents and number of themes and motifs and does so in a new and original way. It’s impossible to make a movie nowadays that goes in depth of a theme that another movie hasn’t analyzed already. The ideas “The Revenant” makes are not new, but are presented in an original and fascinating manner. Firstly, the movie does not specify the setting; we don’t know when it happens (although by the story we can guess it’s around the 18th century) and we don’t know where it happens (this is on purpose; the idea is that Hugh is at the end of the world and comes back from Hell and goes even beyond that (continuing to search for Fitzgerald after reaching the cabin) to find revenge). The general arch of the film depicts the theme of man vs. nature and survival, which the movie doesn’t really analyze that hard, given that Hugh’s survival is shown by the things he lives through and doesn’t need an analysis. Themes and motifs the film does analyze are:
- I can guarantee the director of “The Revenant” is an atheist, given that the movie completely rejects religion as a source of hope and salvation. First of all, the only character in the entire film mentioning the name of God is the villain, Fitzgerald. Next, there is a whole monologue Tom Hardy says about how God is actually survival (the squirrel metaphor). Also, in one of Hugh’s visions, his son is standing alone in an abandoned and destroyed church, still looking for salvation after death. Finally, Hugh does not kill Fitzgerald; he gives up the only thing that has been driving him to survive because “God must take his life”, subconsciously suggesting that God is the thing that prevents him from taking that he has been reborn to do.
- Family as a driving power. As mentioned above, Hugh is not driven by religion, but by his dead wife and son. There are numerous times in which Hugh dreams or has visions about his wife. He always sees her above or in front of him, metaphorically guiding the way and being a reason for him to move forward.
- Greed/racism/generalization. Fitzgerald’s greed for money driving him to do despicable things + his hate towards all Native Americans for what they did to him.
- Connection between characters. The movie suggests that all characters are the same, each being torn apart by a different demon. The most obvious example is that of Hugh and the Native American who helps him. He too has lost his family and is on the way to revenge. He helps Hugh and pretty much saves his life, only to end up strangled. Also, there is a ten second scene in which Fitzgerald is depicted as Hugh. In the scene, a red comet goes by Fitzgerald. After that we see Hugh in one of his visions about the pyramid, looking at a comet like shape. To me, this scene suggests that they are both bound by different demons and are both stuck in their own timeless and spaceless universe.
- Man alone vs. Man with people. This is an unusual one and a big one. The idea is that Hugh goes through all kinds of trouble when he is with people; his kid dies, he almost gets killed by a bear, etc. So when Hugh is buried alive and left to die by Captain Eyebrows, the kid leaves his flask with a carved spiral on it. To me, this is a symbol for all hope and survival Hugh has which is formed by other people. Even though Hugh is alive, he is very hurt and basically dying during most of his time wondering in the wilderness. He is physically dependant on that flask for water. However, it also represents his need for others to take care of him, his hope based on humans. And although some may see the moment in which he drops the flask as a mere plot-device, it’s not; After Hugh drops it, he spends a final night in need for help from others, in this case represented by him sleeping inside another living thing to keep his life. After the night ends, he is finds salvation (winter has ended) and is ready to finish his quest alone, both literally and metaphorically. Also, when Hugh goes after Fitzgerald with the Captain we see him holding a flask with not spiral on it, representing that he is still capable of finishing his mission alone. Next, at the end of the film Hugh once again sees his wife in front of him, guiding him. Then he looks directly at the camera. To me, this shows that after Hugh didn’t kill Fitzgerald himself, he didn’t achieve the thing he was reborn to do and goes back to being dependant on others and seeks comfort even in the face of those watching.
Characters
We got background knowledge on just the characters we needed to do so: a lot Hugh and Fitzgerald (to stress why they hate each other and to develop the theme that they are the same) and a little bit on the Native American guy who helped Hugh, again to stress the similarities between characters (in this case, between him and Hugh). As for character development… The path of survival and for revenge, the whole main arch of this film, was the source of development for Hugh, which was logical and appropriate. At the very end of “The Revenant”, Hugh has Fitzgerald in his hands ready to kill him. He sees the Native Americans on the other side of the river and lets go of Fitzgerald, saying that God should be the one taking his life. Although one could see this as another disclaimer of religion (the scene suggests that religion is the thing that prevents Hugh from taking the thing he was reborn to take), I found it pushed and out of place. It didn’t fit in at all with Hugh’s character development so far and didn’t really feel as a disclaimer for religion, too. Hugh’s character development was about him becoming tough and by not killing Fitzgerald because of God (religion is opposed to survival in the film, so God is exactly what Hugh hasn’t been looking up to) Hugh goes back to being lost and dependant on other men, which is showed when he sees him wife in front of him and seeks hope even in the face of the public when he looks straight into the camera in the very last shot. It’s a real and tragic ending to Hugh’s character, yes, but it felt a bit pushed. Next, none of the other secondary character developed very much. I don’t find it bad, since we were introduced to certain types of people (the Captain, Fitzgerald, Captain Eyebrows) who represented parts of society and didn’t have the necessary plot points for them to develop; it didn’t feel needed that those characters develop. Fitzgerald character didn’t develop at all, but I reckon this was on purpose, since he is the main antagonist and is needed to stay the same for Hugh to reach redemption and to get his revenge.
Directing and cinematography
I’m not even sure how “The Revenant” was made. This is probably the most beautiful film I have ever seen. The cinematography is unbelievable and the fact that the whole film was shot only in natural light makes it even more amazing. The editing was incredible: those still shots of the environment at the beginning of every scene were so beautiful. And I just have to talk about the visual effects, especially the bear. That was a one shot scene in which Leonardo DiCaprio’s character was NOT CGI-ed, but the bear was. How that interaction between the real actor and a CGI bear happened I cannot explain to myself, but it was amazing. The fight scenes in the film were brutally real (which made them great because it was needed for the plot and the meaning of the film) and shot originally and precise. The last fight scene was freaking unbelievable, it looked and felt tense and real. The long shots were very beautiful and the fact that “The Revenant” was so real and bloody made it a revelation and emotionally exhausting. Also, I can’t not mention the sound editing and mixing, which was always on point and original. I’m not even gonna discuss the directing; given that this is a film with so many original ideas and methods for making, one can guess that the directing of it all was hard and obviously successful, since everything in the “The Revenant” worked and fulfilled its purpose. The one thing I didn’t like in this movie were the fifteen minutes after the Captain died in which Hugh was going after Fizgerald; they seemed dragged and unneeded, but it didn’t really bother me since everything else was perfect.
Acting
I mean…
Leonardo DiCaprio got lost in this role. He got lost and you could see it in his acting and in his eyes. He became Hugh Glass and it was amazing. I thought that it was gonna be all dramatic acting, suffering and crying, etc. It wasn’t; there were scenes in which Hugh found joy in the little things and Leo showed us a whole different ray of emotions (eating snowflakes scene) and it was clear that the actor took the role at heart. The fact is that Hugh as a character did not experience that many different things, but the things that he did experience were depicted brilliantly by Leo. Tom Hardy… what a great year for him, huh? “Mad Max”, “Legend”, “The Revenant”… This was one of Tom Hardy’s best performances ever, he was so good at making us hate this character. No matter how much I tried, I couldn’t see Tom Hardy… I saw the little f****r Fitzgerald and hated him. I maybe wanted just a tad more from the secondary characters, but that was probably because Leo and Tom were so great every other actor’s acting seemed not as good.
“The Revenant” is 95% perfection. It’s an extremely serious and deep movie. Most people wouldn’t grasp even half of what the film is trying to say, but I did my best to explain it all in this review. The film is original and meaningful. It’s so real and influential it made me stick to my seat the whole time. I felt emotions while watching “The Revenant” I have never felt during any other film. The plot was original and extremely deep and meaningful, the cinematography, editing, sound editing, and visual effects were incredible, the acting was so real it made me lose myself, and the directing as a whole was a revelation. Wow. What a great film.
- Plot: 4/4
- Characters: 3/3.5
- Directing: 3.5/3.5
- Cinematography: 3/3
- Acting: 3.75/4
- Did it make me think: 1/1
- Did I overall like it: 1/1
Total: 9.6/10
P.S. If you think this is a usual score using the new grading system, you are wrong. This is the highest score I’ve given a film with this new system (or ever?), the second highest being 8.9 for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Let that sink in…