| My rating | IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Critics | Audience | Critics | Audience | |
| 6/10 | 75/100 | 8.3/10 | 82% | 87% |
I’ve been reading for months that 2016 will be the year when Leonardo DiCaprio will finally get the Academy’s recognition for his work and win an Oscar for The Revenant. Have the nominations been announced yet? No. Has he already won the other major awards (Golden Globes, SAG Awards, Critics Choice) for this role? Not yet. However, everyone seems to be unanimous about his performance and little did I read about the movie itself (other than it’s directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, who won the Oscar for directing Birdman). And then I finally watched it…
Based on real events, The Revenant is the story of explorer Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) who is attacked by a bear and is left behind to die by his hunting team. As it can be seen already in the trailer, Glass’ survival is moved by his desire to revenge, so we witness his quest to come back and find them, especially John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy).
My summary of the movie suggests that it’s short and fast paced. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth. For 2h36min we see his looooong journey and I felt like it was endless. Of course there are scenes with more action, like the one where he’s attacked by the bear I mentioned earlier and a few confrontations later on. But, overall, I felt the story wasn’t really going anywhere and they were creating all kinds of situation where we can be amazed by DiCaprio’s performance (there’s even a scene involving a dead animal that was too much for me). So yes, he really is the best thing in the movie and I join everyone else in saying that he does deserve recognition this time!
The cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki is extremely beautiful and we do get the feeling of the brutal weather conditions in the 1820s South Dakota. The direction by Alejandro G. Iñárritu is also good, but I still prefer Birdman. Maybe this just isn’t my type of movie. But I am rooting for Leonardo DiCaprio this award season!
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Review: Max (2015)
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