Movie: The Revanant

The Revenant:  a 21^st century telling of a 19^th century tale.  This film is based on the true story of Hugh Glass, a Mountain Man who was left for dead after being attacked by a Grizzly bear.  This is the second telling by Hollywood, the first being Man in the Wilderness, a 1971 movie in which Richard Harris played the Glass character.  The Revenant begins in 1823 in the Upper Missouri River region where fur trappers are hunting in Arikara Indian territory.  The movie was actually filmed in Canada and Argentina.  Glass had been married to a Pawnee woman and has an adolescent son.  The bear mugging scene is truly incredible, but there is so much more to this movie.  The talents of director Alejandro Inarriu and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki are confirmed by the fact that at the end of this movie, I was freezing from watching scene after scene of a bitterly harsh winter.  Leonardo DiCapario’s performance is remarkable and he truly deserves to win his first Oscar.  The storyline itself is simple.  After Glass is mugged by the Grizzly, the leader of the trapping party leaves Glass in the care of two of his men, John Fitzgerald (Tom Handy in an excellent performance) and 19 year old James Bridger (Will Poulter), until “the inevitable” occurs, with instructions to give Glass a proper burial.  When Glass fails to succumb, Fitzgerald and Bridger abandon him.  The rest of the movie deals with Glass surviving the 200+ mile dead-of-winter journey to Fort Kiowa and his Hollywood interaction with Fitzgerald.  I won’t comment further on the film’s conclusion or its link to the factual story; the scenes as presented in the film work.  If you want to know more, email me and I’ll follow up with you.  At 156 minutes, the film runs a little long.  It is violent, but it is depicting violent times about men whose very existence depended on dealing with the harshness of nature and an uncivilized world.  The film’s technical work is amazing.  I describe this film as a 21^st century telling primarily because the Native American characters are accurately portrayed and the dialogue is real.  Inarrritu co-wrote the script with Mark Smith.  The film is based upon the 2002 novel by Michael Punke, who based his story on Glass’ tales.  This film deserves whatever Oscars it is awarded.  I would, however, still give the Best Picture Oscar to The Big Short.