After earning Oscar for Birdman, director Alejandro G Iñárritu comes up with another masterpiece, The Revenant, a movie on the legendary American frontiersman and fur trapper Hugh Glass whose gritty survival story is brought to life by the absolutely brilliant performance by Leonardo DiCaprio, excellent direction by Iñárritu and the overall outstanding effort of his crew members. And when I say brought to life I mean it. The movie is executed so flawlessly that it draws the viewers into the torturous ordeal of Glass as he suffers from tremendous violence of wild nature and savagery and malice of fellow-humans to the point of death but returns overcoming untold hardship with an unyielding zeal to survive and extract revenge.

Partly based on Michael Punke's book The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge, the story begins with flashback glimpses of the protagonist Hugh Glass' tragic past as he along with his half-native son Hawk (half-Pawnee Indian from mother's side) guides a company of American frontiersmen fur trappers through the icy cold wilderness where they come under sudden attack from a tribe of local natives (Arikara Indians whose chief's daughter has been kidnapped) . A gory battle ensues which leaves three-fourths of the party dead and the rest escape on the boat but abandon it on advice of Glass and start trekking on foot. While alone Glass is severely mauled by a bear, clawed and bitten on chest, neck and back leaving him barely alive. Unable to carry him through difficult terrain, three members are left behind to look after him and give Glass a decent burial when the time comes. The unscrupulous John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) betrays Glass, first trying to suffocate him to death but after being prevented from doing so by Hawk he murders Glass' son and leaves him half buried to die from wounds. But in doing so he inadvertently also gives Glass a strong reason to try to survive and seek revenge.

Further Iñárritu and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki's collaboration post Birdman pays off brilliantly again. The decision to shoot in natural light brings out the cruel but natural beauty of the tundra in strong contrast to the harsh and grueling narrative. After winning Oscars last two consecutive years for Gravity and Birdman, Lubezki might win a third one the manner in which he has captured the spittle flying out of Glass in his agitation, the icy breath fogging the lens and the beautiful sunset with equal brilliance. Even the only CGI scene, that of the grizzly bear mauling Glass is shot in a way so as to bring out the ferocity of the attack rather than focusing on just the visual effect.

Finally, the movie seems to convey parallel messages in what is essentially a story one man's grit and determination to survive against all odds and a wronged father's zeal to avenge the death of his son. Interwoven in the plot are elements of violence between man vs wild, man vs man, exploitation of indigenous people by European settlers and also spiritualism as Glass drifts in and out of hallucination of his dead wife, who whispers to him words of encouragement that keeps him going.

Finally, this harsh and brutal and highly realistically made survival story of Hugh Glass may not be for everyone, it is more of an visceral experience than a story on celluloid. But it is definitely worth a try for everyone except those very weak of heart. However, if you find the gory realism in the movie pulling you into it and making you uncomfortable, people slaughtering each other without giving much reason and the ending bit ambiguous, remember it's a survival story in a time when as the placard in French put around the neck of the hanged Pawnee Indian says.
Originally posted by danish Ahmed in http://xpensieve.blogspot.in/