Review of The Revenant (2015) by Michael M — 17 Apr 2016

Thrilling, beautiful, gritty, just stellar. Straight up, this movies amazing. A film done with art and care for the sake of the love of film. A lot of times these types of movies end up coming off self-indulgent and pretentious, not so here. It's not a movie for everyone, but you can't deny that this movie was made with love and passion.

The director's previous film, Birdman, was done to look like it was all one take, and he seemingly takes what he learned there and applies it here. This film is stuffed with long takes, basically it only makes a cut when it absolutely has to. It also has a very naturalistic style, and was apparently shot only using the light of the sun. These are small details most people probably wouldn't notice or even think about, but they have an effect, drawing you into the film even more. This is one of the most gorgeous movies I have ever seen, from the opening shot I was blown away.

Its story is simple but effective. At its core it's basically a revenge story, but that's only one part of it. The three main conflicts a movie can have are man vs. man, man vs. nature, and man vs. self; this movie has all three, and they all work. Leo DiCaprio's character really gets the crap kicked out of him in this movie, and much of it is just watching him try to survive. And on the subject of Leo, he's great. I've never really been on the Leo bandwagon as much as a lot of people, because he's an actor who I always can tell is trying to act rather than just being his character. Here, I don't know, maybe it's the director or maybe it's the fact that he's silent for most of the movie and has to act with his eyes, but I just bought him as his character more. He definitely earned his Oscar.

The Revenant can be a tough film to watch. It's long, brutal, and unrelenting in its vision. It's not a film for everyone, but you can't deny its quality. This is an amazing film that completely knocks it out of the park.