Review of The Revenant (2015) by Jc E — 26 May 2016

Films adapted from books are seldom as good. The Revenant is one of those rare films where the opposite is true. The magnificient film under the merticullous and artistic hands of Oscar winning director Inariritu have made a historical story leaps and bounds more beautiful and transcendental than the book.

Inarritu added greater dimensions to the film by giving Glass a Red Indian wife and a son, called Hawk, that has both white mixed with Red Indian blood. It was obvious Inarritu offered the conciliatory, cross cultural political message to the film.

Although in doing so, Inarritu may have turned history into historical fiction. Nevertheless, it was a excruciatingly beautiful and heart wrenching survival and revenge story in the cold rocky mountain wildness two centuries back when red indians were deadly enemies of the white fur trade hunters.

The stunning visuals of the extreme elelments of the wildness and the haunting soundtrack and sound effects sent me goose bumps over and over again. The horrendously savage grissly bear attack of Hugh Glass (played brilliantly by De Caprio) was so real that it was hard to think otherwise.

His nemesis, Fitzjerald, acted by the phenomenally talented Tom Hardy, was more than a worthy foe for Glass. The thirst for revenge in the film was hightened beyond the book because in the film version, Glass had a son and he was murdered by Fitzgerald.

The final exchange of words in the last moments were the most profound and didactic to us all. Fitzjerald mortally wounded in Glass hands would say, "enjoy your revenge, even though it won´t bring your son back".

Glass replied ´revenge is not mine, but in the hands of God´. With that Glass released Fitzgerald. I am absolutely thrilled that Leonardo finally won the oscar for best actor, very hard earned but deserving many times over.

Tom Hardy earned a nomination but was bumped to give a consolatiion prize to the Bridge of Spies. Hugh glass survival story in the cold wildnerness makes childs play of Tom Watney´s survival story in Mars.