The Revenant, A Great Outdoor Film

Seldom does a film come along that I am astounded by; The Revenant (loosely means to come back from the dead) which was just released this past January 8^th goes way past good to great…in fact it has vaulted into my top five all times films and certainly is right up there with Jeremiah Johnson in its brilliance. I recently read another review that called The Revenant, a Jeremiah Johnson on steroids.

The Revenant is up for 12 Oscar nominations in total…only one really matters to me and that will be the best actor award that Leonardo DiCaprio is nominated for. I am not a voter, but if DiCaprio doesn’t win for the ‘hell’ he went through while making this film…then there really is no justice in Hollywood.

I will try and skirt the plot as I don’t want to give away or ruin anything for those who haven’t yet made it to see the film; what I can tell you is that the cinematography, the way the film is shot, is without question unlike any other film I have ever seen. At one point DiCaprio (Hugh Glass in the real world) is attacked viciously by a sow grizzly bear. Be prepared…this is one of those scenes that will change what ‘normal’ is from here on out. As an outdoor person and one who lived in Wyoming for a while, wow, all I can say is that I hope I don’t ever come in contact with an angry GRIZ!

If you haven’t yet done some research on the film then I would encourage you to google Hugh Glass and find out what you don’t know…even if you have already seen the movie; I was able to dig and find journal accounts from 1823. By reading I was able to tell if the movie followed historically, which is very important to me. Secondly, I was quite interested in the Jim Bridger character that is in the movie. My time out west, specifically in Wyoming, raised my awareness of Jim Bridger and his many contributions to the west, its lore and history. I will caution you that like most films or books…the eye witness accounts of what went on or didn’t go on are at times in question. The event took place almost 200 years ago and as with most things, time can tend to pull facts towards embellishment.

The main body of the film spoke to me about the human will to live. I have heard so many times that “I just couldn’t ever do that”! Maybe, but I believe that until faced with an event, like a mauling by a bear, most folks really can’t predict how they are going to react. DiCaprio’s character, Hugh Glass, just kept moving forward and you will soon see that this is the common thread in the film. Until the last breath…keep on doing whatever it is you need to do to survive.

I also found a follow up interview with DiCaprio whereby he described a scene. In this clip, Glass comes upon a buffalo carcass that is being eaten by wolves. At one point he sees that the wolves are gone and a Native American is now eating from the carcass. As DiCaprio puts it, “The Native American was eating directly from the buffalo and yet the directors gave me something that looked like a gelatinous mess to devour. I decided that the film needed to be as real as possible…so, I too ate what was a real buffalo liver”. He later goes on to say that it was the single worst thing he has ever done in his life and no amount of money would get him to do it again!

It is this conviction to make the movie as real and true to its craft that most impressed me…and apparently many others, including a good many critics. One caveat, this might not be the right film for a young child, certainly there are some adult scenes because war (which was going on between fur trappers and Native Americans) isn’t a pretty thing. This was survival of the fittest. Admittedly there aren’t too many stories like this one…and even fewer folks that could survive the many atrocities that Glass had to deal with.

NOTE: The photo above is from a ‘Mother Nature Network’ article entitled “Why ‘The Revenant’ is a love letter to nature”.

The scenery in the movie is spectacular. As an outdoorsman I was caught listening to elk bugling in the background, watching the many streams as I tried to pick out which seam in the water might hold the biggest trout or just sit back and take in the majesty of our American West. Either way, this is a film that will leave you wanting more, much more. At times I was terribly melancholic for my experiences in Wyoming. It left me thinking back to certain streams, mountains and animals…it left me reliving many of my youthful hunts and fishing trips.

In the end…The Revenant will change the way you view our history, our past. Truth is it might just motivate you to get out and get going in our new year of 2016. I’m just betting that if I could somehow go back to the early American West and find Hugh Glass…that he’d be a guy that would Enjoy the Great Outdoors.