Australian Odeon

with him as the remaining members elect to continue without him, but instead of continuing to care for him, he kills Glass' son and attempts to bury him alive. Glass emerges from his shallow grave with only the promise of revenge to propel him forward.

 

Never has the uncommon beauty of the North American landscape appeared more threatening and hostile, an effect achieved largely through Iñárritu's decision film only in natural light, a technically brilliant choice that will no doubt see cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki earn a second consecutive Oscar after his equally innovative work on Birdman. The central conceit of that film being one continuous shot (or at least edited to appear so) gave Birdman a sense of fluidity and momentum in service of the story. Similarly, the choice to eschew artificial lighting makes the landscape as threatening as the men inhabiting it. Death is everywhere, but there is sustenance to be found, Glass regularly picking the bones of dead animals he finds in order to feed himself and in one particularly gruelling sequence, hollows out his dead horse and climbs inside to sleep the night. Only through embracing the necessity of death can Glass survive. The shoot itself has already joined the ranks of Apocalypse Now and Titanic as film shoots almost as arduous as the events they are depicting, and

 

What would typically be framed as a story of human resilience and redemption, the film is instead imbued with a much more nihilistic tone. Glass' frequent flashbacks to the time when his son's mother was murdered by an American soldier, mirror his new struggle to exact revenge on the man who killed his son. Vengeance for his wife did not bring her back, nor will it bring back his son, but there is little else Glass has to hold on to in order to fight for survival. Though the cinematography and direction are huge factors, the film is entirely DiCaprio's. In a career filled with characters as varied as they are perfectly inhabited, The Revenant seems a natural point of progression for the actor. Glass doesn't have the manic intensity of Jordan Belfort, nor the amoral opportunism of Danny Archer, and indeed this is one of DiCaprio's most understated performances, creating the impression that Glass is a largely peaceful man who, through circumstance and environment, is forced to adopt a kill or be killed approach to survival, an idea most explicit in the astonishing bear attack sequence. Visceral and terrifying, the attack is provoked by Glass accidentally standing between the bear and her two cubs, echoing his own instinct when it came to Fitzgerald threatening his son after the initial skirmish. The altercation claims the life of the bear, which is skinned to provide Glass with a coat which helps him survive the harsh cold, bringing new meaning to the phrase “What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.”

 

Through revolutionary filming techniques and a simple but driving narrative, Iñárritu and DiCaprio have created in The Revenant a brutal and oftentimes difficult to watch cinematic experience, with a final shot that lingers long after the credits have rolled.