THE REVENANT by Alejandro González Iñárritu
Revenge is a dish served freezing cold. DI CAPRIO goes through hell in THE REVENANT, the latest film by ALEJANDRO GONZALEZ INARRITU.
THE REVENANT is a title which would suit a horror film as much as it does a revenge movie, which Innarritu's latest feature essentially is. Indeed, some of the film's graphic scenes of flesh, blood and gore would support the description. But the film is also underlined by a fascinating atmosphere of other-worldliness that creates a parallel contrast to its the sheer physicality. Dialogues are mumbled and often uninteresting. They are unimportant. What is more important is the primordial relationship between men, nature and other mysterious forces. Men and animals behave alike, driven by instinct and the need for survival, and this in the end is more of a defining driving point of examination in the film than the theme of masculinity.
The film is set in 1823, and follows a group of trappers fur-hunting in the Louisiana forests, who flee a Native American attack. Among them is Hugh Glass, and his half-Native son, who is brutally attacked by a bear in what is one of the most remarkable and gripping action sequences in recent history. He is left for dead by two men in his team who volunteer to stay behind and care for him, but not before one of them, Fitzgerald, kills Glass' son. Fuelled by anger and rage, Glass stays alive and dreams of revenge, thus embarking on a seemingly imporssible journey back to Fort Kiowa, haunted by visions of his deceased Native wife. The only thing that seems to differentiate the unsettled wilderness of the Louisiana Purchase from hell is that hell, traditionally, is a lot warmer.