Want to have tears drawn to your eyes? – then watch The Revanent

This is the real life story of Hugh Glass (born 1780) – a fur trapper who lived in the most appalling weather conditions imaginable and his fight to murder the person who murdered his son. The story unfolds in a way aimed to shock and make the viewer shudder in their seats – this story is not for the faint hearted and bearing in mind what modern cinema goers seem to want, it delivers in violence, shocks and anger as well as portraying a life many of us don’t connect with and never will for that matter. We are treated fairly early on in the film to a violent scuffle when Hugh gets set on by a massive bear trying to protect its young.  Not for the last time in the story, the viewer is almost pressurised into thinking that Hugh cannot possibly recover from this mauling – but he inevitably does, though he nurses the most appalling wounds which his band of trappers try and treat, including carting him about on a huge stretcher made from thin logs up hill and down dale in furiously cold icy snow drifts and relentless freezing nature.  Eventually his troupe leave him for dead……

The story is based on the 2002 novel by Michael Punke and is directed by Alejandro  G Inamitu who is a huge fan of Di Caprio seeing him as an actor who really understands the camera.  Di Caprio has been nominated several times for a “gong” – four in total for The Wolf of Wall Street, The Aviator, Blood Diamond, and Whats Eating Gilbert Grape.  Di Caprio who is apparently three quarters German and a quarter Italian is a man who can deliver his part to the full whichever genre and style he works in – no mean feat when one considers the versatility of his career roles.

The real pang in the story though is the racism and tribalism of the characters who see the native Indians of the USA as far and away different from themselves, and yes, worth less in some way.  There is no escaping the fact that the story delivers this feeling of racialism in no uncertain terms which I think in this modern era was probably a bridge too far in getting audiences to connect and applaud the unfolding of the story.  Having said that, however, this is how it was at the time and now times have changed.

The positives of this rather dour drama is that it takes the audience not only back to a byegone era but also to a setting of totally unusual terrain – endless miles of sparse forest, fast running icy cold rivers and vast expanses of snow filled hills, crevasses and caves. No one can say that this is the usual scope of any landscape presented to  them in an average visit to their local cinema. The actors themselves have pointed out that filming in those conditions was a test and a trial.

So Happy New Year – hopefully Di Caprio’s next role will be more amusing.  He has us enthralled in “Revanance” but we do also like him when he makes us smile or feel inclined to be flirty.

Watch it for yourself and see what you think.  All comments welcome at TSH.

Penny Nair Price