I do however remember that I once attempted to give it a shot back when I was in college, but just as I had always imagined it would be, that wound up being a near death experience for me. We had to go off-roading to reach our final destination and the drunk idiot who was driving us in his jeep decided that it would be a good idea for us to do so at the cautious speed of 60 mph. Well as you can imagine that made for a rather bumpy ride; so much so in fact, that I took one bump the wrong way and wound up hitting my head rather hard on the metal bar that went across the top of the vehicle. The next thing I know, I wake up next to a fire and I’m performing some horrible freestyle rap about Tupac in front of 10-15 white frat boys who were feeling it just a little too much.
And ever since that moment, the closest I’ll come to camping these days is the yuppie version of it called Glamping. Give me a cushy bed, a portable fan, and a random encounter with a cute hipster chick and I’m all in! Other than that, you can keep the snakes, the hours it takes to put up a tent, and the horrible homages to 90’s gangster rap!
Well after seeing The Revenant, I think that even Glamping may be out for me at this point. I have no desire to run into greedy fur traders, shady Frenchmen, blood thirsty Indians, or any angry momma Grizzly bears as I try and experience nature. And sadly in this film, that’s just a small sample size of the many obstacles Leonardo DiCaprio has to overcome once he undertakes his journey to get revenge on the man who killed his son and left him for dead in the wilderness.
Director Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu is a master at showing how humans reach their absolute lowest point in their lives just before they are able to find a new reason to continue on and somehow make things right. He did so in the wonderful Sci-Fi film Children of Men with Clive Owen and he subtly (at least according to the majority of movie goers out there) did the same with Sandra Bullock in Gravity.
The opening scenes of Revenant immediately grab you and pull you in as you see the hunting expedition that Leo and his son are guiding come under the attack of a local Indian tribe. For nearly 15 minutes you see a brutal battle scene that rivals what Steven Spielberg did on the beaches of Normandy in Saving Private Ryan. Blood, arrows, and gun powder are literally flying everywhere as you barely have an opportunity to keep up with all of the carnage. And Inarritu, with his filming approach, feeds it to you in a manner that makes you feel as though are really a part of the action and that you are also running for your life with the desperate and ambushed fur traders.
And just when you think have a few moments to catch your breath, there’s the infamous scene of Leo getting mauled by a grizzly bear. This was more than just some cheesy CGI gimmick, this was an unrelenting and savage attack that felt as though it was never going to end; yet another reason why you won’t ever see me camping. Now you must keep in mind that these two expertly crafted scenes take place within the first 30 minutes of the film. And that most directors would be more than happy to blow their entire load producing these memorable moments while leaving you with nothing more than awful filler for the next 90 minutes or so; but not Inarritu. There are so many scenes in this film that will stick with me forever that I felt almost overwhelmed at times.
Now most people who see this movie will complain that the second act moves way too slowly for them as he does take his sweet time in showing everything that Leo has to overcome to properly recover and work his way back to Tom Hardy. But I found this method of storytelling to be rather refreshing. Far too often producers and directors alike get into too much of a rush to get to the film’s climatic scene and the end result feels more like you’re watching a WWE wrestling match where the wrestlers make a miraculous recovery and come away with a win than anything else. And I don’t know about you, but professional wrestling sucks to me and I have no desire to see it on screen.
But when it all comes down to it, this film is all about Leo’s career changing performance. I know that he is already an A-lister and that he is well respected in Hollywood but this performance will catapult him to the actor of our generation status. He barely has any speaking lines in this film but his interactions with the film’s other costar, mother nature, is certainly one for the ages.
I rate this film as unbelievably FRESH and I suggest that you pop in.
No comments:
Post a Comment