Inspired by true events and winner of three Oscars® (actor, cinematography and directing), “The Revenant” follows the story of legendary explorer Hugh Glass (DiCaprio) on his quest for survival and justice. After a brutal bear attack, Glass is left for dead by a treacherous member of his hunting team (Tom Hardy). Against extraordinary odds, and enduring unimaginable grief, Glass battles a relentless winter in uncharted terrain.
- Glass himself was wounded in the attack, which would be the catalyst for the Arikara War.
- A devastated Glass must display unprecedented levels of courage and impetus as he tries to survive the deadly American frontier and track down the treacherous Fitzgerald to realize his vengeance.
- Innaritu is an undeniably talented filmmaker and a good storyteller, but he’s developing a nasty habit of becoming insufferably artsy.
- In the midst of these discussions, Glass is away
from the crew one day when he’s brutally attacked by a bear—the sequence is,
without hyperbole, one of the most stunning things I’ve seen on film in a long
time, heart-racing and terrifying. - The Revenant is a series of conventions writ large, like a 90s Mel Gibson thriller projected on a mountainside.
While he and his half-Pawnee son, Hawk, are hunting, the company’s camp is attacked by an Arikara war party which is seeking to recover its Chief’s abducted daughter, Powaqa. Many of the trappers are killed during the fight, and the rest of them escape onto a boat. Guided by Glass, the survivors travel to Fort Kiowa on foot because Glass believes that traveling downriver will make them vulnerable. The plot of ‘The Revenant’ is based on true events and takes place almost entirely on the American frontier in Montana and South Dakota in 1823.
He learns too late that the system that turns people and animals into commodities is rigged against men like him. And while the simple facts of that system may be too brutal to feed the ambitions of a movie like “The Revenant,” we know that the system nevertheless helped build a nation. Innaritu is an undeniably talented filmmaker and a good storyteller, but he’s developing a nasty habit of becoming insufferably artsy. The Revenant is a series of conventions writ large, like a 90s Mel Gibson thriller projected on a mountainside. Such a flimsy underpinning for such aesthetic grandeur can only collapse quickly.
When the only volunteers are Hawk and the young Jim Bridger, Fitzgerald agrees to stay for money, in order to recoup his losses from the abandoned pelts. Who exactly the savage is here is never much of an issue; as a sign scrawled in French spells out in one scene, everyone is. One of those multi-stranded stories that he helped repopularize (“Babel,” etc.), “Amores Perros” includes a murder capped by the vision of human blood spilled on a hot griddle. This being a big moment as well as an illustration of Mr. Iñárritu’s sensibility, the blood doesn’t just splatter, it also sizzles. Illustration of Hugh Glass and his legendary bear attack published at the time for a newspaper.
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While he is scouting game, Glass is mauled and left near death by a female grizzly bear which is guarding its cubs. Trapper John Fitzgerald, fearing another Arikara attack, argues that the group must mercy-kill Glass and keep moving. Instead, he offers money in order to pay someone to stay with Glass and bury him after he dies.
We’re smart enough to “see the strings” being pulled, and the actor and
set never fades away into the character and condition. What’s remarkable about
Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu’s “The Revenant” is how effectively it transports
us to another time and place, while always maintaining its worth as a piece of
visual art. You
walk out of it exhausted, impressed with the overall quality of the filmmaking
and a little more grateful for the creature comforts of your life.
- After the two men split up, Fitzgerald ambushes, kills, and scalps Henry.
- Iñárritu doesn’t
quite have a handle on those second-half scenes and the 156-minute running time
begins to feel self-indulgent as the film loses focus. - He is best known for films such as the 2006 psychological drama ‘Babel’ and the Academy Award winning 2014 black comedy ‘Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)’.
- When Fitzgerald and Bridger later meet Henry at the fort, Fitzgerald tells Henry that Glass died and Hawk vanished.
- At first, Bridger protests, but he ultimately follows Fitzgerald after the latter leaves Glass half-buried alive in a makeshift grave.
Although the filmmakers took some liberties in bringing the story to life, the events shown in the movie are, remarkably, based on true events. While the initial plan was to film the entire movie in Canada itself, delays in the production what is movement inventory definition and meaning meant that the weather had become too warm by the time the climax of ‘The Revenant’ was being filmed. Therefore, director Iñárritu decided to move the shoot to the town of Ushuaia in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago in Argentina.
At other times, Lubezki’s choices recall his work on “The
Tree of Life,” especially in scenes in the second half when Glass’s journey
gets more mystical. Iñárritu doesn’t
quite have a handle on those second-half scenes and the 156-minute running time
begins to feel self-indulgent as the film loses focus. When it centers on
the conditions and the tale of a man unwilling to die, it’s mesmerizing. I just
think there’s a tighter version, especially in the mid-section, that would be
even more effective. He returned to life as a guide and fur trapper, and eventually met his end at the hands of the Arikara in 1833. Although his life was cut short, Hugh Glass is remembered throughout the United States for his incredible feat of survival.
The Revenant – Breathtakingly Beautiful
As the days passed, Glass grew stronger and was finally able to stand. One day he interrupted a group of wolves that had just killed a buffalo calf, and he knew that this would determine his survival. He chased away the pack and feasted on the carcass for several days. According to The Telegraph, Glass was just able to hold her off with his hunting knife until his companions caught up with him and managed to kill the bear.
The film is also known for being the straw that finally broke the camel’s back and got actor Leonardo DiCaprio his first ever Academy Award for Best Actor after decades of cruel snubs. All in all, ‘The Revenant’ was showered with numerous accolades including three Golden Globe Awards, five BAFTA Awards, and three Academy Awards. After the two men split up, Fitzgerald ambushes, kills, and scalps Henry. Glass finds Henry’s corpse, places it on his horse in an attempt to act as a decoy, and shoots Fitzgerald in the arm.
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After the others leave, Fitzgerald attempts to smother Glass but, afraid that Hawk’s loud reaction to his attempt to kill Glass could alert Bridger who is away gathering water, stabs Hawk to death as Glass watches helplessly. The next morning, Fitzgerald convinces Bridger, who is unaware of Hawk’s murder, that the Arikara are approaching and they must abandon Glass. At first, Bridger protests, but he ultimately follows Fitzgerald after the latter leaves Glass half-buried alive in a makeshift grave. Bridger leaves his canteen, in which he engraved a spiral symbol, with Glass. After they depart, Fitzgerald admits that he lied about the approaching Arikara. When Fitzgerald and Bridger later meet Henry at the fort, Fitzgerald tells Henry that Glass died and Hawk vanished.
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Bridger is complicit in the lie about Glass’s death, but he knows nothing about Hawk’s murder. Iñárritu signed on to direct The Revenant in August 2011; in April 2014, after several delays due to other projects, Iñárritu confirmed that he was beginning work on it and that DiCaprio had the lead role. Location and crew concerns delayed production from May to August 2015.
At the same time, we learn that one of the trappers, Hugh
Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) has a half-Native American son named Hawk (Forrest
Goodluck). We sit
in the comfort of a darkened theater or our living room and watch protagonists
suffer through physical and emotional pain that most of us can’t really
comprehend. Too often, these endurance tests feel manipulative or, even worse,
false.
Another prominently featured location in Alberta is the Badlands of Drumheller, also known as “Dinosaur Valley”. This is the location where John Fitzgerald first spots a meteor. Fitzgerald’s journey through the mountains was filmed near the Fortress Mountain Resort near the Kananaskis Trail in Kananaskis Country. The battle scene with the Native Americans was filmed at Morley, a First Nations settlement of the indigenous people within the Stoney Indian reserve in southern Alberta. Canada served as the primary filming location for ‘The Revenant’ and the majority of the film was shot here. The secluded Bow Valley in Alberta Canada is a prominent filming location for ‘Revenant’, perfectly encapsulating the harsh realities of the wild American frontier.
