Can we just give Leo his fucking Oscar already? While I don’t buy into the hype that Mr.
DiCaprio is the greatest actor to be continually denied by the Academy (if
anything he is nominated too often),
I do recognize that he works incredibly hard for the sake of that little gold
statue, and after The Revenant I’m
genuinely afraid for the man’s safety, as it seems as if this
role nearly killed him multiple times.
As you can imagine, this leads to some incredibly tense and intense
moments throughout the course of the film, which is why it’s unfortunate that
those moments are weighed down by so much faux-artsy baggage.
In 1823, a hunting party in the Louisiana Purchase is
attacked by the native Ree tribe, forcing them to flee back to their
settlement. On the way back, their
tracker, Hugh Glass (DiCaprio), is mauled by a bear and left seriously
wounded. After attempting to carry Glass
and trying to keep ahead of the pursuing Ree, the party’s captain decides to
leave Glass behind with Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy, an actor more worthy of recognition than DiCaprio, both in general and in this film),
Glass’s son, and a greenhorn to ensure that when Glass inevitably dies he is
given a proper burial. Fitzgerald loses
his patience in anticipation of the approaching Ree, murders Glass’s son, and
leaves Glass behind for dead. Glass
crawls out of his grave and travels across the wilderness to take revenge on
Fitzgerald.
DiCaprio doesn’t so much embody a character in this film as
he does a concentration of masculine machismo wrapped in a beard, his sole
defining character traits being the love of his son and his desire to see his
son’s murder avenged. This works well
for the purposes of the narrative, but it would make the buzz about DiCaprio’s
Oscar qualifications suspect were it not for the intensity of the action
setpieces and tests of survival. Shot in
actual wilderness settings, some of The
Revenant’s most exciting moments are precisely so because it is very
obvious that there isn’t a stunt double getting beaten by artificial elements;
that’s DiCaprio actually suffering in the actual wild for the sake of his performance. I don’t know if that qualifies as “acting”
per se, but it sure as hell adds a level of realism to the film that makes it
fascinatingly engaging.
That is, until the film decides to slow down and take its
quiet, reflective time. Cinematographer
Emanuel Lubezki is one of the best in the business, and while his naturally lit
shots are absolutely gorgeous in this film, there isn’t much substance to back
up the pretty pictures. As previously
stated, there isn’t much depth to DiCaprio’s character, and when the film
continually stops to watch him reflect on paternity or humanity’s battle
against the elements, it makes you realize just how empty an experience the
film actually is. This is particularly
apparent in the more abstract dream sequences, most of which are redundant or
are simply too on-the-nose to be worth the effort. A simple revenge story can be just that; it
doesn’t need to have deeper meaning or empty intellectualism shoehorned in to
give it credibility.
The parts that work in this film really, really work,
showcasing a raw intensity that is rarely seen in big budget films. However, the slower moments somewhat sour the
experience, making what could have been a great film into a good yet tragically flawed
one. But I think the more important
question, the one that is on everyone’s mind, is whether Leonardo DiCaprio
finally deserves to take home the Best Actor Oscar. Quite frankly, I don’t care if he does or
doesn’t. Just give him the damn thing
before the guy's efforts put him in an early grave.
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