"The Revenant" is epic filmmaking at its very best
There's a reason that "The Revenant" received 12 Oscar nominations this year, and that's because it is filmmaking at its highest form. Alejandro Inarritu has topped "Birdman", his film about the struggles of an aging actor that took the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director last year, with his latest opus about a man in crisis. "The Revenant" stars Leonardo Di Caprio a Hugh Glass, a man left for dead after a grizzly bear attack by his fellow fur trapper Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy). Glass crawls out of his grave and begins a harrowing journey to recover and exact his revenge.
"The Revenant" is not a simple tale of vengeance, however. The script slyly indicts machismo, pride and corporate greed as it comments on not only the world of men, but their abuse of native Americans, the land, and each other. The film has a lot in common with other genres, like westerns and horror movies, but its scale, technical marvels, and intellectual underpinnings make this tale into so much more. Inarritu and his production crew, most notably cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, have created one of the most involving adventure pictures ever produced. It proves that not only is the western as alive as Glass, but also, that some Hollywood entertainments simply must be seen on the big screen.
