'The Revenant' review: Inarritu's revenge saga is driven by breathtaking cinematography and Leonardo DiCaprio

Film: The Revenant
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu 
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson, Will Poulter
Rating: ****

Risin' up, back on the street
Did my time, took my chances
Went the distance
Now I'm back on my feet
Just a man and his will to survive

Well, it could be plain coincidence that Survivor's 'Eye Of The Tiger' was playing somewhere in the background (damn movie watchers can't switch off their mobiles!) while I was watching this film. Or else, they felt what Hugh Glass was going through. The latter is highly unlikely, though.

Hell, I'd like to describe The Revenant in a less interesting way. Because nothing compares to what poor Leonardo DiCaprio went through to play Glass, a historical figure who probably endured far worse and probably didn't have a slain wife and son. For him, it might not even have been about revenge.

But die Hugh did. Well, in the conventional sense of the term. And then he returned. If you see how brutally Leo's character was attacked by a grizzly and mauled and torn apart, you'd believe he shouldn't have lasted as long as he did.

When we meet Hugh, he's hunting deer with his half-Indian (American not Bhartiya ones) son as the rest of his hunting party gets attacked by a group of Indian warriors. They barely manage to escape with their lives, let alone the pelts they came there to get. Further on, while Glass is walking about, he disturbs a grizzly bear and her cubs and gets mauled in what may be the most horrific way possible. The bear bites him in the ass (I'm trying not to laugh here) and then continues to maul him, clawing at him with abandon. Hugh does get a few blows in, one gunshot and several stabs of knife and eventually brings down the bear. When his men find him, he is near to death.

The guy leading the party, Captain Andrew Henry (Gleeson) is a righteous man and wants to do right by Glass and asks John Fitzgerald (Hardy) and Bridger (Poulter) to be with Hugh and his son and bury him properly, if he dies. Fitzgerald has little patience and tries to finish Glass off himself, only to be interrupted by the man's son who he then kills. He convinces Bridger to return with him and leaves Glass in a shallow grave. Somehow, the left-for-dead man survives the ordeal and crawls his way out and crosses miles to get vengeance...

Partly based on the novel by Michael Punke, this film by Iñárritu doesn't hold back. It shows how wild the West really was. You either made it out alive or you didn't. Carrying around an injured man or keeping a child alive became a liability in the wilderness. While you can't hate John Fitzgerald too much for that (if you didn't know that he had a personal grouse), you had to accept that killing a child for trying to protect his father was out of line. Revenge toh banta hai, boss!

And so, let's come to Leo. It'll be criminal if he doesn't win the Best Actor Oscar this year. People have a high threshold for pain in circumstances like Glass', but one would need a special threshold to get past the Oscar pass, if the slight does happen. You can see the blood, sweat and tears come alive on screen when Leo's there. That bear may be CGI, but you won't question the pain and torture he endures, the depths he has to crawl to (and into) to make you believe in Glass. That in part has to do with Iñárritu's vision. There's some breathtaking photography (the transitions in the first attack scene), some great effects (the bear, the horse) and some fine landscape shots. Kudos to Emmanuel Lubezki!

Not unlike Bane (in The Dark Knight rises), Hardy is verbally tough to follow here. As Fitzgerald, he's evidently unlikeable and as the villain, you want him dead. Bridger (Poulter) not so much. He's the kind of grey character that perfectly fits in such a tale. The Son of Rambow star sure has come a long way!

Let's admit it, it's not an easy film to watch. In most parts, it's way too depressing. The music score sucks. But at the same time, it's an engrossing (despite being an oft-told tale) story. You're rooting for Glass all along. Gore and bloody violence aside, it's an effort driven by performance and effects and should win in at least nine of the twelve categories it has been nominated in. Yes, it's that good.