Review: Great film-making comes back from the dead with ‘The Revenant’
Innaritu’s latest offering ‘The Revenant’ is an extraordinary cinematic experience
Leo’s Oscar consideration can be ignored, especially in presence of The Danish Girl. PHOTOS: FILE
KARACHI:
The biggest challenge of telling an anti-climactic story is to keep the viewer or the reader engaged without any surprises in the offering. They know what is going to happen but they don’t know how, and a great storyteller makes that journey worth having in spite of the obvious limitations. Even Gregor Samsa turns into a vermin in the first line of The Metamorphosis.
The metamorphosis of Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) in The Revenant is not any different. Owing to the Facebook memes that went viral, Innaritio’s film has become more about the fight between the bear and Hugh Glass, and less about what it actually is — an aboriginal folktale cloaked under the fur of revenge. However, that fight sequence takes place midway through the first act and you are left with too little to anticipate, too soon, but do you stop looking? Certainly not. Each and every one of Innaritu’s frames makes you look at the big screen without any sense of looking forward in the narrative context: this is indeed a tribute to great film-making.
This shouldn’t undermine Hugh Glass’s struggle for survival, which serves the purpose of a soul to the skeleton. He and his son are out on a hunt when their clan of peckers gets ambushed by Pawnees and they escape for the nearest check post. While on their way through the snowcapped, freezing forest, Hugh gets attacked by a bear. He fights his way out and the predator runs away, but out of vengeance, Hugh shoots the bear and that’s when the bear comes back. Hence begins an intriguing journey of one man’s revenge, frequently aided and in some cases, obstructed by frozen rivers and clashing tribes.
The story is also about the Aboriginal survival in presence of a stronger intruder. And the way the ghost of Leo’s wife, who also happens to be a Pawnee herself, gives him hope in the worst of times, indirectly suggests that Leo’s character in many ways is the beacon of hope for the natives as well. He literally represents the struggle of times. “When there is a storm, and you stand in front of a tree, if you look at its branches, you swear it will fall, but if you watch the trunk, you will see its stability,” she keeps on saying.
And her words are not just a sweet, wise, overlay on a deeply haunting story; they pierce through your mind every time you see a character seek shelter or cut for firewood. And Emmanuel Lubezki, also cinematographer of Birdman, makes perfect use of natural light and static frames to show the trees swing on their natural pace, making them look like silent spectators in wilderness.
Both Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, who plays his companion-turned-foe in the film, have excellent portfolio as actors and both went through intense physical transformation for their roles in The Revenant. But both had their limitations, Leo spends most of his time without his voice, which does bring out the true beast in him; both as an actor and a human being but the grunting and panting often becomes repetitive . Hardy does do justice to a character that demanded viciousness but his character doesn’t have much to explore; he is just an evil person. Leo’s Oscar consideration can be ignored, especially in presence of The Danish Girl.
None of this takes away from The Revenant turning out to be a complete package for cine-goers. This would be the Cast Away for an entire generation, just a lot more extreme and a lot less kind and that’s the beauty of it and perhaps, the beauty of our times.
With so much silence and magnanimous visuals, Innaritu reminds us of the good old days of film-making, when watching something on the big screen was actually an extraordinary experience. It still is. Leave your laptops and embrace the reality.
Verdict: Leave your laptops and head out to the theatres, this maybe your only opportunity at witnessing film as it should be made for cinema
Published in The Express Tribune, January 24th, 2016.
The biggest challenge of telling an anti-climactic story is to keep the viewer or the reader engaged without any surprises in the offering. They know what is going to happen but they don’t know how, and a great storyteller makes that journey worth having in spite of the obvious limitations. Even Gregor Samsa turns into a vermin in the first line of The Metamorphosis.
The metamorphosis of Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) in The Revenant is not any different. Owing to the Facebook memes that went viral, Innaritio’s film has become more about the fight between the bear and Hugh Glass, and less about what it actually is — an aboriginal folktale cloaked under the fur of revenge. However, that fight sequence takes place midway through the first act and you are left with too little to anticipate, too soon, but do you stop looking? Certainly not. Each and every one of Innaritu’s frames makes you look at the big screen without any sense of looking forward in the narrative context: this is indeed a tribute to great film-making.
This shouldn’t undermine Hugh Glass’s struggle for survival, which serves the purpose of a soul to the skeleton. He and his son are out on a hunt when their clan of peckers gets ambushed by Pawnees and they escape for the nearest check post. While on their way through the snowcapped, freezing forest, Hugh gets attacked by a bear. He fights his way out and the predator runs away, but out of vengeance, Hugh shoots the bear and that’s when the bear comes back. Hence begins an intriguing journey of one man’s revenge, frequently aided and in some cases, obstructed by frozen rivers and clashing tribes.
The story is also about the Aboriginal survival in presence of a stronger intruder. And the way the ghost of Leo’s wife, who also happens to be a Pawnee herself, gives him hope in the worst of times, indirectly suggests that Leo’s character in many ways is the beacon of hope for the natives as well. He literally represents the struggle of times. “When there is a storm, and you stand in front of a tree, if you look at its branches, you swear it will fall, but if you watch the trunk, you will see its stability,” she keeps on saying.
And her words are not just a sweet, wise, overlay on a deeply haunting story; they pierce through your mind every time you see a character seek shelter or cut for firewood. And Emmanuel Lubezki, also cinematographer of Birdman, makes perfect use of natural light and static frames to show the trees swing on their natural pace, making them look like silent spectators in wilderness.
Both Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, who plays his companion-turned-foe in the film, have excellent portfolio as actors and both went through intense physical transformation for their roles in The Revenant. But both had their limitations, Leo spends most of his time without his voice, which does bring out the true beast in him; both as an actor and a human being but the grunting and panting often becomes repetitive . Hardy does do justice to a character that demanded viciousness but his character doesn’t have much to explore; he is just an evil person. Leo’s Oscar consideration can be ignored, especially in presence of The Danish Girl.
None of this takes away from The Revenant turning out to be a complete package for cine-goers. This would be the Cast Away for an entire generation, just a lot more extreme and a lot less kind and that’s the beauty of it and perhaps, the beauty of our times.
With so much silence and magnanimous visuals, Innaritu reminds us of the good old days of film-making, when watching something on the big screen was actually an extraordinary experience. It still is. Leave your laptops and embrace the reality.
Verdict: Leave your laptops and head out to the theatres, this maybe your only opportunity at witnessing film as it should be made for cinema
Published in The Express Tribune, January 24th, 2016.