‘The Revenant’ is a cold, haunting tale of vengeance

The Revenant follows the story of Hugh Glass (Dicaprio), who is traveling with a band of frontiersmen that are hunted down in the cold and damp wilderness of 1823 Midwestern America.

This group are pushed to their mental and physical limits, before they voluntarily separate after a wild grizzly mauls Glass.
Glass is rendered helpless, and many consider him already dead, with only a few still clinging to hope for Glass as much as he’s clinging to his own life- this is until one of the men tries to kill Glass, and almost succeeds.
Buried alive and half dead, Glass crawls out of the frozen earth, fixated on killing his would-be murderer.
This movie is not for the faint of heart, featuring graphic, but believable, violence, and unsparing suffering, and other graphic themes. All this is appropriately used and shown, with no excessive gore, merely realistic gore.
Dicaprio’s performance yet again raises the bar, as he perfectly illustrates what it means to be hungry, what it means to be frozen, and what it means to desire vengeance.

Dicaprio is not the only one who performs exceptionally: Tom Hardy (Mad Max: Fury Road, Inception) and Domhnall Gleeson (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Ex Machina) give air tight performances that give their character’s unique motivations, morals, and personal tribulations that breath more and more life into the world audiences are pulled into.

This film does have a few criticisms, one of which would be its pacing. The movie is slow, which benefits it in some aspects, but may wear some audiences down if they are expecting a back-to-back thrill ride of action.
With long wilderness shots and some longer scenes of Dicaprio sleeping near a fire, the movie certainly achieves in tone and anticipation, even if it may leave viewers waiting a few too many seconds than they would like to.

Another minor gripe would be when Glass hallucinates or dreams. It won’t completely tear someone away from the movie, but could make them tilt their head in confusion, giving off Gladiator (2000) vibes, but less in a symbolic “death is at our doors” feeling, and more of a “they are gone, but they want me to keep fighting” feeling.
One use of his daydreaming, however, is used very well, where he hugs a lost loved one, where it then cuts to him holding a tree, and he slides to the ground in sorrow.

To call this film’s tone ferocious is putting it lightly. The setting is cold and dirty, and shows how cold and miserable people could become back in those times.
Dicaprio did win an award for “Best Actor in a Drama” at the 2016 Golden Globes. Who made note of the trials and tribulations his crew underwent to bring this movie to life, also making special mentioning of the Native Americans who were involved in the making of the film, and how greatful he was for their help.

The Revenant is an exceptional movie with great performances, and aside from a few pacing issues that may very from person to person, this movie and its lead actor, have earned any awards that come their way.