The Revenant:
survival, betrayal and vengeance, all meshed into one
The Revenant has scooped up the most number of nominations for this year’s Oscar awards and for those who have watched the movie already, the news shouldn’t 
come as a surprise. Powered by Leonardo’s stellar acting skills and director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s acute sense of direction, this movie is a dose of survival, betrayal and vengeance, all meshed into one.
Set in 1823, Hugh Glass (DiCaprio) is part of a team of hunters and trappers, who are on a fur trading expedition in the wilderness of Louisiana, when things take a turn for the worst. All hell breaks loose when a group of Native Americans (or Red Indians, as we like to refer to them) raid the hunters’ camp and a furious battle ensues. Glass, his son of Native American descent and his posse fight back, but are no match for the beastly hordes. Only a handful manage to board a raft and escape the onslaught, seeking refuge deeper into the forest.
Hugh Glass and his men have a couple of conundrums to deal with; food and water are scarce, the temperature is relentlessly cold and they’re being tailed by blood-thirsty Red Indians. There is no love lost between Glass and John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), a gruff hunter from their party, who hates the fact that Glass has a pawnee (Native American) son. That rivalry does intensify later on and forms the focal point of the whole story. However, when you venture into unchartered territory, bad things are bound to happen to you. And that is exactly what happens, when Glass is mauled by a bear repeatedly and mostly crippled. Though he does manage to vanquish the bear, Glass is almost torn to shreds and it seems apparent he’ll draw breath only for a couple of days at best. His men consider him a liability and leave him to the care of his son, John Fitzgerald (who volunteered for the job, which came with 300 bucks) and another member.
With no one to look around, Fitzgerald tries to murder Glass and fails in the process. However, he does fatally stab his son and leaves them both for dead. Fitzgerald escapes and is quite sure that Glass’ wounds got the better of him, and boy he couldn’t be more wrong. What follows is an intense saga of revenge and survival, as Glass crawls on ice and lives off of the meat of dead animals, only to make Fitzgerald pay for his sins. With the harsh cold, frequent raids from the Red Indians and his own wounds to deal with, Hugh Glass has plenty on his plate.
Leonardo DiCaprio rises to the occasion and delivers yet another promising performance. Director Alejandro takes the viewer into a cruel world, where everything from the climate to the raiding apaches and your own comrades, are ruthless. Survival is the name of the game and the movie’s gritty action and bloody scenes are bound to make you wince at times. However, in the case of The Revenant, there is no better storyteller than Alejandro Iñárritu and no actor more versatile than Leo to tell it through!
4.5/5 stars
