The Revenant Review

The Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, is a thrill ride through the uncharted wilderness during 1823. In this film, Leonardo plays famous frontiersman Hugh Glass who is left for dead after surviving an attack from a mother grizzly bear who he encounters while she is protecting her young. The trappers take an injured Hugh Glass with them deeper into the mountains where the movie really begins to rev up.

The movie does an excellent job at portraying the struggle of surviving in the wild, this is shown through DiCaprio gets beaten and battered always doing anything he can to survive. This is not always an easy movie to watch, and even less for the faint of heart as it contains many gruesome scenes as these trappers struggle to survive through constant oncoming obstacles. You are always reminded of their struggles the entire movie, you are constantly reminded that a band of Native Americans searching for their tribe leader's daughter ready to kill any trapper they meet. All the while, the cold from the movie seems to chill you to the bone as characters are always trying to heat their cold blue hands sometimes struggling to keep them in the snow and the freezing cold rivers they face.

What helps to narrate Glass’s fight for survival in these mountains was the cinematography. Which varied from one scene to another showing you the vast landscape of the flatter forest region, where the movie begins. Until the story moves to the massive mountain landscape, snow glazed mountain tops. Throughout the film, we are also introduced to the darkest places the forest has to offer. However, the movies peak in shots is during Glass’s venture across the tundra into the mountains. Here we are shown a real emptiness right after the vast lifefull forest.

The Revenant ties together very well at the end and is a must watch for anyone looking for a long 2 hour and 40 minute movie.