THE REVENANT **1/2
Alejandro González Iñárritu
2015
IDEA: 19th century fur-trapper Hugh Glass seeks revenge against the aggrieved expedition mate who left him for dead.
BLURB: The Revenant is quite something as you’re watching it. Visually imposing, immersive, brimming with tactile details and visceral drama, it plunges you headfirst into a vivid 19th century American frontier. Emmanuel Lubezki’s camera keeps us unnervingly tied to every step and breath of the protagonists as they weather the merciless elements and contend with their own brutal human natures. Employing long, continuous mobile takes and low angles to place us at a ground level, practically first person perspective, Lubezki continues his run of virtuoso choreography and establishes himself as a legitimate auteur with his own completely identifiable visual language. The filmmaking craft on display is so formidable across the table, from the enveloping sound design to meticulously recreated and lived-in sets, and so engaging as a full-bodied transportation system to another time and place, one may shrug off the most suspect features of the film’s narrative and politics while soaking up the atmosphere. It becomes increasingly difficult, however, to swallow Iñárritu’s ham-fisted metaphors and frequently overblown gestures, his insistence on his film’s Importance as a reckoning with America’s violent legacy. One is apt to question why a film that acknowledges and condemns such a legacy still concerns itself with the heroic journey of a white man, who is literally guided and emboldened by the ghost of his beatific Native American girlfriend. By emphasizing his superhuman resilience, strength, and courage, Iñárritu exalts him above all else. Come the frankly groan-worthy ending, The Revenant has been a thrilling, often awe-inspiring sensory experience and a dubiously inflated tribute to its protagonist’s – and its makers’ – prowess.
