So here we have The Revenant. Aka The One With The Bear, aka Just Give Leo An Oscar, Already. But the pop culture image of the film does it a real disservice in my mind - there is far more to it than those memes.
The basic plot is simple enough, a quest for revenge and a battle against the elements combined together. It's the style and the panache it's done with that will set this film apart, the style most provided by the director who uses several of the long 'one shot' tracking tricks previously utilised to great effect in Birdman.
The opening fight scene is an excellent example, following a nameless extra before he is killed, then sweeping after the killer before he too is slain. But it's the natural scenery that is the film's real USP and the now-infamous insistence on using natural lighting wherever possible now seems a stroke of genius. The sheer inhospitality of the frontier world is shown in a way that no special effects could convincingly replicate entirely.
The bear attack deserves mention as a particularly convincing example (to a reviewer whose never in fact been attacked by a bear, at least.) The bear is never treated as 'wrong' or evil, merely protective of it's cubs, but just how horrifying an attack by a colossal, enraged grizzly bear would be was better illustrated in one sequence here than a dozen schlocky nature-horrors.
As alluded to, this is the film getting Di Caprio his now annual 'Oscar Buzz.' Will this be his year? Possibly. He certainly throws everything he's got into it, perhaps slightly too much so. A few times a more cynical viewer might be tempted to wonder if there's a checklist he's working through - physical weight loss, working in horrible natural conditions, Big Themes and his character is the only one to understand those poor mistreated Native Americans, and even married one. But even if this is true, it should not take away from an astonishing performance.
But not the only one. Tom Hardy is gifted with a role to really sink his teeth into and tucks in with gusto, bringing depth to a basically bad person and his trademark physicality and customary accent-du-jour to raise Fitzgerald to near deutaragonist status. Will Poulter and Domhnall Gleeson stand out in an excellent supporting cast.
Overall, I would say that whatever the Oscars say, this is a film you should watch at least once.
The Modern Epic? I think it might well be.
So here we have The Revenant. Aka The One With The Bear, aka Just Give Leo An Oscar, Already. But the pop culture image of the film does it a real disservice in my mind - there is far more to it than those memes.
The basic plot is simple enough, a quest for revenge and a battle against the elements combined together. It's the style and the panache it's done with that will set this film apart, the style most provided by the director who uses several of the long 'one shot' tracking tricks previously utilised to great effect in Birdman.
The opening fight scene is an excellent example, following a nameless extra before he is killed, then sweeping after the killer before he too is slain. But it's the natural scenery that is the film's real USP and the now-infamous insistence on using natural lighting wherever possible now seems a stroke of genius. The sheer inhospitality of the frontier world is shown in a way that no special effects could convincingly replicate entirely.
The bear attack deserves mention as a particularly convincing example (to a reviewer whose never in fact been attacked by a bear, at least.) The bear is never treated as 'wrong' or evil, merely protective of it's cubs, but just how horrifying an attack by a colossal, enraged grizzly bear would be was better illustrated in one sequence here than a dozen schlocky nature-horrors.
As alluded to, this is the film getting Di Caprio his now annual 'Oscar Buzz.' Will this be his year? Possibly. He certainly throws everything he's got into it, perhaps slightly too much so. A few times a more cynical viewer might be tempted to wonder if there's a checklist he's working through - physical weight loss, working in horrible natural conditions, Big Themes and his character is the only one to understand those poor mistreated Native Americans, and even married one. But even if this is true, it should not take away from an astonishing performance.
But not the only one. Tom Hardy is gifted with a role to really sink his teeth into and tucks in with gusto, bringing depth to a basically bad person and his trademark physicality and customary accent-du-jour to raise Fitzgerald to near deutaragonist status. Will Poulter and Domhnall Gleeson stand out in an excellent supporting cast.
Overall, I would say that whatever the Oscars say, this is a film you should watch at least once.