The Revenant Review

Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu and Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki’s latest team-up is hardly a film and more like a wildly poetic audio-visual experience. From the moment the film begins to when the credits roll The Revenant is an exquisitely engaging affair that transports you into the icy and unforgiving world of a group of fur trappers and hunters trying to navigate the 19th century Louisiana Purchase.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy are exceptional in their roles as Hugh Glass and John Fitzgerald respectively and it is therefore unsurprising that both have received Academy Award nominations for their brutal performances. DiCaprio’s Glass is a man hellbent on exacting his revenge for the unlawful murder of his beloved son and his ferocity and tenacious hold onto his life is somewhat awe-inspiring seeing that he almost dies on several occasions (The superbly shot Bear Mauling, near suffocation, Falling off a cliff, being shot at and stabbed)  and in most cases it would have been easier for him to give in to the cold embrace of death. And it’s through this obsessive determination that sees Glass soldier on through one tortuous ordeal after another that when he finally meets with the cowardly Fitzgerald that one of the most nail-biting scenes take place that I’ve seen in a film for a very long time.

Emmanuel Lubezki’s cinematography is perhaps the greatest thing about this film, sure the performances are superb and the soundtrack by Ryuichi Sakamoto is hauntingly beautiful, and there’s that certain quote “I ain’t afraid to die anymore. I’d done it already” which is surely going to become iconic someday, but its the visuals of this film that really make it as truly sublime as it is. And while watching The Revenant I found myself comparing it to another piece of Lubezki’s work The New World by the illustrious Terrence Malick. And I found that what these two films had in common (apart from Mr Lubezki) was that they were both slow and poetic journeys and what better way to capture these profound films than with long languid lingering shots of action and in doing so I believe that this film is in all its visceral and grisly realism cinematically perfect.

Overall The Revenant is a gloriously bloody tale of one man’s struggle to appease his desire to seek revenge against another man and if you love great (I need a better word!) exceptional, stunning, awe-inspiring, simply sumptuous cinematography and a damn good storyline then go and see The Revenant, yes its 3 hours long but its filmmaking at its finest and those 12 Academy Award nominations just go to prove my point.