The Revenant (2015)

Plot: Legendary explorer Hugh Glass gets brutally attacked by a bear during his journey back to his outpost with his son and fellow trappers. His party finds him and bandaged his wounds, but they eventually decide to have a couple of men stay behind and wait for him to die while the rest make their way back to their fortress. But one of the men, John Fitzgerald attempts to smother Glass, but is found out by his half-native son, Hawk, so Fitzgerald kills Hawk and leaves Glass to die. But Glass quietly crawls his way on a long, hard journey back to the fortress to get his revenge.

Let me start off by answering the first questions that likely comes to your mind about this movie: yes,  Leonardo DiCaprio's deserved to finally win his Oscar. While I honestly didn't quite feel like I was watching a character as opposed to was DiCaprio like I did watching What's Eating Gilbert Grape?, there is no denying that his performance is really investing and takes you on a long, cold, harsh journey. So this would be the second best performance I've seen from him. Also when I say harsh, I mean really, really, really harsh. Just watching the fight between Glass and the grizzly bear was hard to watch. In fact, I think deciding who should've won the Oscar for best makeup and costume between The Revenant and Mad Max: Fury Road was a tough call. Because as creative as the massive makeup and costumes for Mad Max were, the makeup crew for this movie did exceptionally well in making Glass' body so gruesome from after he was mauled.

As this is a Alejandro González Iñárritu film, scenes like Glass' fight with the bear where it's recorded in these long camera shots that you may not even realize are all in one shot until after witnessing the gory, disturbing and suspenseful stuff that is happening. Whether what you're watching has to do with the bear attack, battling Native Americans or what have you, you will see some disturbing graphic imagery.

I must admit though that at times the film does feel like it's going on for too long. And while it isn't a horrible scene, I didn't quite understand or really care for the very end without giving anything away. But these are minor complaints compared to the film as a whole.

And that's my review for The Revenant. It's a thrilling, graphic film that despite it's long running time and confusing ending, is a great film experience with DiCaprio. If you want to see it if for no other reason then to see the performance that finally gives DiCaprio his darn trophy, this film is worth checking out.

Rating: 80%