“The Revenant”, D: Alejandro González Iñárritu, S: Mark L. Smith, Alejandro González Iñárritu, C: Emmanuel Lubezki, C: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson, Will Poulter, etc. 

“The Revenant” is a gruellingly exciting but essentially hollow feast for the eyes. The thrilling epic with western influences follows the torturous adventures of Hugh Glass in the relentlessly icy American frontier in the 1820s. Spurred by the writings by his real-life namesake, Hugh Glass played by Leonardo DiCaprio presents us with an against-all-odds survival story with a hint of revenge. “The Revenant” excels in conveying the primeval theme of survival and never straying from it. Whether there’s true beauty in its single-minded insistence on brutal simplicity is a matter of taste.

The cinematography by the enormously talented Lubezki gives the primeval down-to earth story a sweeping gravity-defying look. Endless long shots emphasise the erratic chaos inherent in violence and make the breathtakingly vast wilderness a character in its own right. This silent character who is constantly looming over everyone’s shoulder is the most unassumingly powerful of the whole bunch. Differently from the traditional self-righteous pioneers known from westerns and the sprightly Walden-bunch for whom nature is a free-for-all health store, “The Revenant” rewrites the myth of the courageous or ideologically-spurred frontiermen and tree-hugging adventurers. The battle as “The Revenant” sees it, was not against Indians or about conquest but about immediate survival in the wilderness. One that, more often than not, men lost. There are no bigger ideals, no victories. There is no other layer, no hidden meaning. No glimpse into Hugh’s thoughts, only grunting. The driving force of the narrative which keeps your eyes peeled and heart pounding for Hugh is a yearning for thrilling bone-breaking action, the simple trusty “what happens next”. There’s only food for the thrilling sensation known from action films and marvel of the visuals but not much for thought.

It has been widely documented that the cast had to endure their share of hardships during the filming process. Leonardo DiCaprio’s immersive experience reportedly included eating raw liver and swimming in icy cold rivers. In many ways these hardships have become more important than Hugh Glass’ story which makes “The Revenant” more of a performing arts document than a fiction film. Similarly, the growling and grunting in harsh conditions which replaces regular dialogue in the film might be considered to be conceptually inferior to portraying charm and reading hefty monologues. Whether crawling in mud in frosty weather is a marvellous performance or just a documentary recording of a training camp session might not be easily distinguishable. Regardless of what side you gravitate towards, the endless talks about the challenges encountered while filming makes “The Revenant” more about the actors as people outside the story than the characters within. It is not Leo’s most interesting role but it is exactly the kind of suffering for the sake art that the Oscar bunch like to laud.

“The Revenant” is a simple action story about the survival of a more hard-core version of Pocahontas’ John Smith. All other great themes of the western frontier canon like race, friendship, creed and justice become mere sidekicks which offers a refreshingly simplistic and personal retelling of the grand myth. They were all just pawns in the hands of nature and on an individual level not much else mattered. The story is built up on the thrilling encounters between man and nature, dressed up in unforgettable cinematography and talked up by the real-life experiences of the actors on the set. However, underneath it is still just a story about a grunting man in the snow.