The Revenant (2015)

USA/HongKkong/Taiwan
directed by: Alejandro González Iñárritu
written by: Mark L. Smith, Alejandro González Iñárritu + Michael Punke (book)
starring: Domhnall Gleeson, Will Poulter, Forrest Goodluck
seen on 27th November, 2018

-"I found God" he used to say. "And while sitting there and basking in the glory and sublimity of mercy... I shot and ate that son of a bitch." 

Before watching the film I read that: Revenant in French also means (reverting to) "spirit" or "ghost". That got me every excited of course, but despite all those fever dreams I did not end up feeling the film touched a spiritual plane. In fact it feels like a crossbreed between Malick's "The New World" and "Dead Man" by Jarmusch with it not being as good as either of them. Another comparison would be with Iñárritu's own "Birdman" - I was not too keen to watch it but when I finally started I could not take my eyes off the screen because I found it so hypnotizing. With "The Revenant" it was the opposite, I started quite eager but had to force myself to even finish watching. And I am one of those people who run to the woods and forests any chance they get, mind you.

I don't really like it when Terrence Malick embraces his inner Terrence Malick to much, and I don't mean to start tolerating it with other directors. But Iñárritu made another mistake which I find to be too fundamental to excuse and that is giving the film a human villain and giving the hero other motivation than to simply "survive"- I think that it essentially negates the reason for this film to exist. "Survive to kill the killer of my son" is an extremely cliché motivation for such a hostile, ferocious and cruel environment. I admire the setting, I just don't like the story (or rather the author's manipulation of the story). A nihilistic tale of a lone trapper fighting for his life because that's the only thing he knows to do would be much more suitable.

And it gets worse with the fact that Tom Hardy simply seems to be too ingelligent to portray a character like that and therefore seems to be bordering between overacting and a caricature which is not a worthy counterpart to Leo's rare minimalism. (And here I must say that since they were wanting to give him the bald guy statue for some time that I am very glad they chose this film and not for example "The Aviator" or "The Wolf of Wall Street" even though personally I lost interest in his acting about fifteen years ago.) Domhnall Gleeson is finally taking his first steps from "a handsome man" to "a fine actor". I'm giving Forrest Goodluck a follow on Instagram. And Will Poulter gets a spot on my list of actors who cry beautifully. 

And finally I have to say something about the soundtrack. I was utterly annoyed by that "epic western film music" which seemed to try to bloat every shot with a fake sense of importance, especially because that Japanese musical minimalism that accompanied for example the final fight was a superb embodiment of those primordial instincts and emotions the film was or was supposed to be about. If the film lost that music combo and went only with Ryûichi Sakamoto, my opinion of the whole film would probably change for the better a lot. And I'd say that a few people of this film's opponents would stop saying that "The Revenant" is all artsy-fartsy and shallow if that were the case. Let's see if I watch it again in ten years and change my mind.