The Revenant Movie Analysis

Living in 1823 is hard to fathom compared to how the world is today. Going from cars, phones, and other technology back to Indians, horses, and fur trappers. The lead actor, Leanardo DiCaprio, faced many struggles in this movie and pushed himself to the limits. There are hardly any actors out there that can do what he put himself through. This is a very rough and grisly movie from start to finish, but various times throughout the movie the director intensified it to show the real experiences that Hugh Glass went through. “The Revenant” is such a unique movie in so many different ways. Things like the cinematography, authenticity, CGI, costumes, and directing all have some of the biggest effects in the movie.

This movie is based on a true story that took place back in 1823. Hugh Glass, an American fur trapper and a frontiersman that is a part of a hunting team, gets severely attacked by a grizzly bear while hunting for food by himself. His team helps him and carries Glass for miles until a member of his group John Fitzgerald played by Tom Hardy decides to stop carrying and leave him behind since it is slowing them down and does not think Glass will survive. Hugh's half Pawnee son Hawk (Forrest Goodluck) stands up for his dad and tells John that it is not right to leave him. They continue to argue and John finally settles this by stabbing and killing Hawk right in front of Glass. When Glass witnessed this he made it his mission to go after John and take him down while recovering from his injuries and utilizing his survival skills to survive the snowy terrain and rough environment until he makes his way to civilization.

The first and foremost thing that makes this movie unique and not like others is the cinematography. This movie was shot on digital cameras since it worked best in the environment they were shooting in. Alexa 65 was the camera that was used to shoot the film, this was used because it was the first time the cinematographer could capture what he saw and felt. It was mostly fitted with a wide lens to capture the realism. A 24mm lens was used on the camera, which captured everything they were trying to shoot. Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki wanted to capture the natural light and natural weather to get the specific shot he wanted. He did not use any other types of filters or lenses. The movie was filmed in Kananaskis Country where it can get nasty during the wintertime. So using the natural colors and natural lights from when the sun came up to when the sun went down was something incredible. Another pretty impressive thing is the camera angles and shots that Lubezki ended up getting. In the opening scene, Indians were running by the camera stirring up mud onto the camera lens. One other scene was when Lubenski had to get in chest-deep with Leanardo and dip the camera into the water multiple times while DiCaprio floated downstream. He did a fantastic job of making the audience feel as if they were a part of the scenes as well. To show how stunning the scene was and how it made the people feel. 

Secondly, is the authenticity throughout the movie. Leonardo did almost everything in his power to make his character as real as it gets. He shows this multiple times in the movie. There was a scene where he had to get in the freezing cold water to escape from the Indians and floated down the 32-degree river water. This was something that was not common in actors, to put yourself in that role. Something else to add is that instead of eating a fake bison liver DiCaprio ate a real bison liver to get the realism of it. He wasn’t forced to do either of these things he wanted to do them to make it so real to show the experience that Hugh Glass went through. There was another character or extra that ended up being a naked guy getting dragged around in the icy snow to get what the director (Alejandro González Iñárritu) wants. The director asked multiple times if he was okay and to see if he wanted to proceed with the scene. These are some really difficult things to do as an actor is to put yourself in these types of conditions to get the shot and scene needed to fit in with the movie. Something else that’s useful when doing this, is getting the actors' natural reaction when put in these predicaments.

In addition to the scenes, CGI is one of the biggest parts of this movie. There is not too much of this throughout the movie, however, it made the movie. The most well-known and horrid scene in the movie is the bear attack scene. It is also the most complicated scene in the entire movie. The director used a video from a German zoo bear attack to reference the scene that he wanted to do. His idea was to keep everything up close to see what was going on and showing what an actual bear attack would look like. He also wanted to show how to survive it. The cinematographer and director gathered a stunt team to simulate where they would end up dragging Leo around and where to grab and pull him just as a bear would. When this movie is brought up or even talked about the first thing people think of is the bear attack since it is so realistic. The second scene where CGI looks real was when Leanardo was on a horse running away from Indians and simultaneously fell off a cliff. These were some pretty cool scenes that got the audience's attention and showed how real it all was since it all happened for real. Another cool and realistic scene is when Leanardo walks up a hill and sees a huge field full of wild bison running around. One of the bison gets separated from the herd by a pack of wolves. The bison gets jumped and taken down right before the camera goes back to DiCaprio. Again, this isn't something that is seen in a lot of movies or other films. This is more of something you see firsthand out in the wild. Let nature take its course through the survival of the fittest.

Something else to point out is the costumes that these characters are dressed in. Since this took place in 1823 and freezing temperatures, they had to dress accordingly so they would get hypothermia and freeze to death. The fur trappers basically would hunt animals and use their fur or skin as warmth. They would hunt mainly buffalo or anything that they came across to help them survive in the harsh conditions. Every character had their unique clothing. It was something that they could show off what they killed, which showed how these men survived and told a little story about who they were. Leonardo came across an abandoned fur trapper camp that had left a bearskin there. He would wear it to not only keep him warm but symbolize the death that he almost had and that kind of sparks more life into him.

Lastly, the directing is outstanding from the very beginning to the very end. This movie was a huge struggle to film due to the specific lighting since the cinematographer wanted to use natural light and there were only certain times during the day that they could do this. Alejandro got mad at some of the other crew members when they missed good mornings to film. All the actors prepared earlier in the day so they could get the perfect scene at the perfect time. The actors had to line up their schedules to film on specific dates. Like Tom Hardy had to stop the making of suicide squad to shoot this movie and help. It was super cold and dropped below freezing, since this happened all the equipment froze over and made everything more of a hassle than it needed to be. Alejandro wanted this to be something really special and unique compared to other movies on the market, he wanted to use natural lighting and natural scenes. Without it, it would not be a good movie and you could not see all the hard work that was put in to make this movie so extraordinary. 

Overall, the director and cinematographer try to keep the movie's main focus on Leonardo DiCaprio and all the surviving that he is having to go through and how he is dealing with the problems that are being thrown at him. This movie has very little dialogue due to him being by himself and fighting through near-death experiences. It is worth watching for anyone that hasn't seen it, it is very intense and suspenseful. Everything about this movie is so much different from any other movie out there from the CGI and authenticity to the directing and cinematography.