The Revenant (2015)

[Plain Old Tele]

Discuss.

[Jim Shorts]

Nice tribute to the tauntaun scene from Empire Strikes Back.

 

 

[Lordmandeep]

On 12/26/2015 at 11:53 AM, Jim Shorts said:

Nice tribute to the tauntaun scene from Empire Strikes Back.

 

 

 

The power of Star Wars

 

 

Even Award films are copying it.

[somebody85]

Excellent from a film perspective but just serviceable when it comes to entertainment. It's pure Oscar bait (and there's nothing wrong with that) with phenomonal acting by both DiCaprio and Hardy. The cinematography makes the absolute most out of the gorgeous scenery but the movie itself feels every bit as long as it's nearly 3 hour run time. Be ready for long portions without much dialogue. The weakest spot (just like The Force Awakens) was Dohmnall Gleeson who I thought felt miscast and sort of wooden compared to everyone else. I loved his performance in Ex Machina but I didn't buy him as the general in this. He didn't even feel like a character of that time period.

Overall, it's worth seeing but I doubt I'll revisit it. And I really hope when Cinemasins takes it on, that they do a bonus round that counts how many shots there are of just trees and nature. Because there are so damn many here that it starts to become funny. Like really I got the metaphor but this movie pounds you over the head with it. If Leo finally wins his Oscar it will be deserved but honestly he's been better in the past. So yeah, with all that said, I think it's one of 2015s best but won't end up as one of my favorites.
 

Oh and the eating snowflakes scene reminded me a lot of Sandra Bullock howling like a coyote in Gravity.

A-

Edited January 3, 2016 by somebody85

[Gopher]

I'll probably be in the minority but I thought Leo was given nothing of substance to do in this film. He grunts and groans and cries a lot, looks into the camera and asks for his Oscar. 

Edited December 27, 2017 by Gopher

[Plain Old Tele]

On 1/5/2016 at 9:41 AM, Gopher said:

Well composed and executed crap. 

 

I'll probably be in the minority but I thought Leo was given nothing of substance to do in this film. He grunts and groans and cries a lot, looks into the camera and asks for his Oscar. Gonna be a joke when he wins. 

 

Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. I completely agree.

[AniNate]

Can we please have a moratorium on the use of that quote? At this point it's a meta example

[Hermia]

On 5/1/2016 at 7:41 PM, Gopher said:

Well composed and executed crap. 

 

I'll probably be in the minority but I thought Leo was given nothing of substance to do in this film. He grunts and groans and cries a lot, looks into the camera and asks for his Oscar. Gonna be a joke when he wins. 

 

I really like him but agree, none of the acting in this movie impressed me, and most of all i really hated the how they dealt with his revenge on Hardy's role. I really didn't feel anything. By that point i should have really hated Hardy's role and have a tone of sympathy for Leo's..... but nothing.

The story was nice though...and the cinematography.

[Plain Old Tele]

10 minutes ago, tribefan695 said:

Can we please have a moratorium on the use of that quote? At this point it's a meta example

 

But it's completely true here!

[IndustriousAngel]

Black Swan for Men.

 

no, seriously. the way it revels in the torture of the human mind and body reminds me very much of the way Aronofsky treats his characters. Ad to that Lubezkis gorgeous photography and Innaritus long, immersive takes and you have a ride at least as intense as Mad Max 4. As to the people who find it too long - I don't know, maybe upon multiple viewing, but I experienced not a single bored second, those 2+ hours really flew by.

[Plain Old Tele]

Out of curiosity, what mental torture? I mean, yes, I get that conceptually he was striving for something along those terms, but that's one area that was a complete failure (IMO).

[IndustriousAngel]

well, the scene where he's asked just to blink ... watching the murder of his sun ... the decisions he's forced to make (I suppose you never had to wade into an ice cold stream?) ... the whole Bridger storyline ...

 

I'm with you that this is not awards material from the actor's side (though the lengths they went have to be admired) but some were calling this movie pretentious and I just don't see this, I mean, what would they try to pretend? This is, 1st, a survival drama, and 2nd, a rather realistic and unflattering portrayal of border/pioneer culture, and 3rd, a revenge drama (the actual revenge plot is more or less a short addendum), and it succeeds on all three levels I'd say.

[Plain Old Tele]

I call aspects of it pretentious because to me, it felt like Inarritu kept striving -- and failing -- to make some grand statement about the human condition, mostly through the Malick-lite stuff. I also don't think the revenge plot works well at all, because Inarritu fucks up the ending: it works neither as redemptive grace nor as satisfying revenge. As a survival drama, though, it's fun -- I enjoyed that aspect to it, no question. 

[IndustriousAngel]

Well, as to the revenge plot, I think that was the point they were trying to make ... revenge doesn't mend anything. It wasn't meant to be satisfying (or I'm completely mistaken). This movie is as far from a crowdpleaser as possible (compared to other survival dramas, say "The Martian"). As my ladyfriend stated, the bear scene, brutal as it looked, was "the most harmless one" in the whole movie.

 

I think the Malicky stuff you mean comes mostly from Lubezkis backlight photography, it's just his style of shooting (and I tend to agree that it might have been a little much here, in some scenes I would have liked a better-lit and less stylish frame, but mostly it was gorgeous); the dream sequences in Glass' feverish mind were fitting though. But I saw no statement concerning any human condition other than that under the right circumstances we're left as little more than animals (the "little more" here being the dream sequences), and that's not a very big nor deep message.

[lab276]

I didn't get the sense that it was trying to be deep at all. 

[IndustriousAngel]

5 minutes ago, lab276 said:

I didn't get the sense that it was trying to be deep at all. 

exactly, that's the impression I got too. They aimed for the most intense, realistic look and feel and let the bodies speak for themselves. I really was reminded of "Fury Road".

[filmlover]

Well, I really dug this. The Revenant is certainly not going to be for everyone: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's film moves at a very gradual place and makes no attempt to soften the horrors inflicted upon Hugh Glass, our "protagonist" (the bear attack scene, oh dang). While I wouldn't call this Leonardo DiCaprio's best performance (there are times where it feels like he finds himself in scenarios yelling "award me!"), his physical commitment to the part is impressive and adds dimensions to a part that really doesn't have much too them. Tom Hardy is suitably oily, while there are also good turns from Domhnall Gleeson (doing a 180 from his over the top turn in Star Wars) and Will Poulter. The real star of the show is the cinematography though: every snow-swept shot is sure to leave audiences feeling literally cold. This is somewhere in the upper half of the top 10 of 2015 for me. A-

[Kvikk Lunsj]

Overall I enjoy it but the movie does have its issues. I thought Hardy was better than Leo

3.5/5

[Kalo]

Loved it, sure it may not be the deepest story ever. but the way it captured the rawness and savagery of the pioneer days was brilliant and something rarely seen, especially with this kind of budget. The Cinematology was just gorgeous, literally every scene was a work of art in that aspect, and the natural lighting only added layers to it making it more vibrant. Leo and Tom were both fantastic imo. I kind of feel like the real moral or theme here was loss. you can fight it or seek revenge for what you have lost, but there is nothing you can do to change it or get it back. I actually really liked the way it ended too. funny how people are saying they were bored, I wasn't bored for an instant I would give it an A+

[lilmac]

An alternate title should be Foregone Conclusion as in it is a foregone conclusion Leo will get an Oscar for this performance.  Never seen a better performance by an actor before.  Incredible. 

 

Beautiful film also. 

 

One of the best movies of 2015. 

 

Hardy should get a nom too.