I never was fully engaged with Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s The Revenant but it is hard to deny both the technical and performance greatness behind the movie, most notably Leonardo DiCaprio’s impressive physicality that he brought to the role and almost equally impressive was the on-location filming.
The Revenant
(2015)
REVIEW NAVIGATION
The Movie | Special Features | Video Quality | Audio Quality | Overall
Genre(s): Drama, Adventure
Fox | R – 156 min. – $39.99 | April 19, 2016
Date Published: 04/30/2016 | Author: The Movieman
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THE MOVIE – 4.0/5 |
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No doubt, Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the greatest actors working today and for years, at least since his 1997 breakout Titanic, has been seeking that elusive Academy Award. And The Revenant was that movie where he finally took it home and although I didn’t feel the movie quite lived up to the hype as the story has been seen a time or two in the Western genre, yet DiCaprio turns in such a physically impressive performance and in conjunction with Iñárritu’s direction, it makes for a very good movie, on the verge of greatness.
The story follows fur trader Hugh Glass (LEONARDO DICAPRIO) who, following a vicious bear attack, is heavily wounded but must be left behind by the group of fellow hunters with only three staying behind: his son Hawk (FORREST GOODLUCK), the inexperienced and naïve Bridger (WILL POULTER) and all around dickhead John Fitzgerald (TOM HARDY) who doesn’t exactly hold any fondness for Glass. After a few hours, and following the death of Hawk right in front of Glass’s eyes, though he’s unable to speak let alone move, he is left for dead in a shallow grave. Eventually, Glass is able to gain some energy, crawling around to get the needed nutrition while also outpacing an Indian chief looking for his daughter who had been kidnapped. In a separate story or character arc, Fitzgerald and Bridger make the stretch to a military outpost to catch up with their party. The plot is rather simple which is a good thing making it more of a character drama than anything and on that front, for both DiCaprio and Hardy, The Revenant works so well. Both actors were well deserving of their nominations and although I don’t think this was DiCaprio’s best performance to date, the physicality alone made him worthy of his Academy Award. That said, and this is partially based on what I’ve read about it, the real true story was interesting as it was yet for whatever reason the writers put in additional characters that didn’t exist and frankly weren’t all that necessary. The additional material also pushes a movie, again with a simple plot, to stretch the two and a half hours and a solid 30-minutes could’ve been trimmed off for a more efficient while still effect adventure-drama.
The direction by Alejandro G. Iñárritu coming off many awards for Birdman and once again, a fantastic job done taking advantage of the beautiful on-location landscapes and employing many, perhaps too many, one-take shots (or shots that looked like a single take). It’s something I’ve come to notice in many movies and here it’s impressive but Iñárritu did tend to use it a few more times with less effect. Even so, it’s hard not to commend him bringing raw emotion to a tough survival plot. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 2.0/5 |
| This release comes with a matted slip cover, the front opens up to reveal more critics’ quotes. Features-wise it includes A World Unseen (44:04; HD) documentary is fairly extensive featuring interviews with Iñárritu and DiCaprio, set against some behind-the-scenes footage as well as a Still Image Gallery. |
VIDEO – 5.0/5 |
| Fox releases The Revenant on Blu-ray presented with a stunningly beautiful 1080p high-definition transfer and shown in its original 2.40 widescreen aspect ratio. It’s no surprise that this movie looks fantastic in HD showcasing the beautiful, and harsh, wilderness. Colors of course aren’t brilliantly bright keeping more natural tones but detail looks sharp and the transfer on the whole appears to be clean, free of aliasing and artifacting. |
AUDIO – 4.75/5 |
| The DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track takes full advantage of every element though it’s more dialogue-heavy in spots but does come to life during the fight sequences where gunfire, along with yelling and moaning, coming via the rear channels. It’s not an especially robust track with the LFE channel being limited, but between the heartfelt score and the sounds of nature, it’s a well rounded lossless track. |
OVERALL – 4.0/5 |
| Overall, I never was fully engaged with Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s The Revenant but it is hard to deny both the technical and performance greatness behind the movie, most notably Leonardo DiCaprio’s impressive physicality that he brought to the role and almost equally impressive was the on-location filming. The Blu-ray is slightly disappointing in terms of features but the 40-minute featurette was well done and the video/audio transfers were absolutely fantastic. |
Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.