The Revenant
You don’t go to a film by Alejandro G. Inarritu, as he now goes by in film credits, looking for a good time. His movies are dark, dramatic character studies that look at the most painful parts of the human soul, and dare you to look away without seeing something of yourself in them. The only real exception to this rule was his Best Picture winner from last year, “Birdman,” but even that has a jet black streak that is impossible to back away from. With “The Revenant,” he delves into some of his darkest material yet for a film inspired by the life of Hugh Glass, a 19th Century fur trapper who was attacked by a bear and left for dead by his partners. He is still very much alive, however, and somehow, he made his way across 200 miles for revenge. That’s the basic gist of the story, but that barely scratches the surface of the film itself, which is not up there with “Babel” and “Birdman” in Inarritu’s filmmography, but not far removed from it, either.
As Glass, Leonardo DiCaprio gives the most physically demanding performance of his career, and he’s gives it everything he’s got. I don’t know that it’d rate with his performances in “The Departed,” “Shutter Island” or “The Wolf of Wall Street,” but it’s another example of the maturity and intensity that DiCaprio has grown into the older he gets, and Glass is a character that requires those qualities. We believe that DiCaprio’s Glass has a teenaged son in Hawk (a very good Forrest Goodluck), an Pawnee child he had with his wife, who was killed in a massacre of a Pawnee village. Hawk is on the fur pelt expedition that Glass is leading for Captain Andrew Henry (Domhnall Gleeson) when they are attacked by Indians and must escape with less of a load than they hoped for. While on the run in the forest, Glass is hunting for food for the group when he sees bear cubs, and is caught off-guard by their mother. The attack is one of the most visceral pieces of filmmaking in many years. It’s a credit to the effects wizards behind the film that the bear looks so believable while it is attacking Glass to the point of death; it’s only through the intervention of members of the group that he survives at all. He’s on the brink, though Captain Henry is obligated to try and get him back to the outpost with the rest of the men. The trip gets too cumbersome to continue with Glass, however, and the Captain orders a couple of men- John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) and the young Bridger (Will Poulter) to stay with Hawk and Glass until Glass dies so that he can get a proper burial. Fitzgerald, who is more concerned with getting his share, despite the group being short on pelts, cannot wait that long, though, and brutally murders Hawk in front of the mortally wounded Glass (whose throat is cut, making him unable to speak) before putting Glass in a make-shift grave to leave for dead, convincing Bridger, who didn’t witness Hawk’s death, it’s for the best, and that Hawk simply went missing. Glass is not dead, however, and he is able to use his rage to start the trek in finding Fitzgerald and killing him.
A friend of mine came up to watch a movie last night, and when we discussed “The Revenant,” he mentioned that it reminded him of something Werner Herzog would make, and I could not agree more. Watching the film unfold, with it’s otherworldly feel and intense emotions, I was reminded of Herzog’s “Aguirre, the Wrath of God,” also about a dangerous, mad journey in the wilderness. I think the fact that he has films like “Aguirre,” “Fitzcarraldo” and “Rescue Dawn” in his career is one reason Herzog has not told the story of Hugh Glass himself, and yet, it’s because of those films that it would feel very natural for him to direct this story, as well. But Inarritu is just as potent a filmmaker in his ability to probe the obsessions of the human heart, although he has moved away from the hyperlink films that defined his early career (“Amores Perros,” “21 Grams,” “Babel”). The more personal he’s gotten, though, the more engrossing his films, and in a way, “The Revenant” is a perfect follow-up to “Biutiful” and especially “Birdman.” I found myself thinking of “The Revenant” as a very natural successor to “Birdman.” Both are about individuals pushed to the limits by the environments they inhabit, and while the New York stage is not nearly as threatening as the American wilderness in the 19th century, it can have as powerful effect on the psyche when you have an actor like Michael Keaton’s Riggan Thomson, whose entire career has been defined by one role with a greater commercial impact than a creative one, and is now trying to make a lasting artistic impression. That same psychological battle inhabits Inarritu’s Hugh Glass when he finds himself betrayed and alone. The easy way out would be to simply wait for death, but something more powerful and visceral drives him to a place further than he probably he even realized he could go. And like Keaton, DiCaprio follows the character Inarritu and co-writer Mark L. Smith, adapting a novel by Michael Punke, create on the page to as dark a place as he’s ever gone to on screen before. It’s a tour de force that is largely achieved through physical intensity, as for a part of the movie, Glass is unable to speak. When he does, he doesn’t say much, but he says it in a way that gets the point across entirely. We are a long way from the youthful romantic lead of “Romeo + Juliet” and “Titanic”- Hell, it even goes beyond what he’s delivered in his best performances for Scorsese (“Shutter Island,” “The Departed”). It’s unforgettable acting, made all the more striking by how little it feels like acting.
At 2 1/2 hours, “The Revenant” doesn’t feel quite as focused as Inarritu’s previous films, but that doesn’t mean it fails to pack a punch. The actors, led by DiCaprio, etch perfect performances out of very little in terms of characterization. The cinematography by Emmanuel Luzbeki, who’s won back-to-back Oscars for “Gravity” and “Birdman,” could make it three in a row for the stunning images and camera moves he uses to realize Inarritu’s vision, and illuminate Jack Fisk’s stark production design. Matching Inarritu and Luzbeki beat-for-beat is the stunning musical score by Ryuichi Sakamoto (an Oscar winner for “The Last Emperor”) & Alva Noto, a work of ambient art that moves through drones and slow changes rather than intense rhythms. At the heart of the film, though, is Inarritu, who saw an opportunity to tell another story of personal self-destruction, and self-actualization, and tell it in a way that will be hard to shake for audiences. It goes for the jugular, and dares you to claw your way through it.
