Movie Review: The Revenant

I suffered my worst cinema experience till date going to see this movie. I shared the movie theatre with the most annoying group of movie goers who had scant knowledge of or respect for cinema etiquette.

From the talkative couples who sat either side of me in my favoured top back row perch who gave an unsolicited commentary of the movie throughout its run to an Indian lady who loudly answered a telephone call whilst the movie was playing not to forget a trio of Lebanese-looking types whose boisterousness provided another layer of distraction.

The Revenant was a layered account of a hunting expedition gone awry, a betrayal by friends and a mission for vengeance set against the backdrop of a biting cold winter in which the trinity challenges of Beast v. Man, Man v. Man and Mother Nature v. Man were unleashed.

The bear attack scene provided what has got be arguably the most visceral animal attack scene in movie history. It was so real and brutal that the only thing that shocked me more was the laughter it drew from the audience I was watching it with. Laughing at such a scene betrays a serious affliction of emotional illiteracy.

By the nature if its storyline, The Revenant did not require an engaging dialogue to do it justice. It required a range of emotions and a tasking supply of brutality by man, beast and Mother Nature and these were not short in supply.

The masterful weave of cinematography on a snow white canvass stained crimson with blood and gore created an engaging tapestry of cinematic experience.

Leonardo DiCaprio displayed a searing range of emotions in the scenes where he was attacked by the bear and where he had to watch Tom Hardy murder his son.

Another visceral scene saw him gut his horse after falling off a cliff and hibernate himself inside the horse to keep warm.

The Revenant is not a movie that is big on dialogue but it is one that should be seen in utter silence to appreciate its viscerality. 7/10