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Sunday, January 17, 2016

The Revenant


 
The Revenant is a just released  American epic western adventure film directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. Written by González Iñárritu and Mark L. Smith, based in part on Michael Punke's The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge, the film is inspired by the experiences of frontiersman and fur trapper Hugh Glass.  Set in 1823 Montana and South Dakota, the film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Glass, and co-stars Tom Hardy, Will Poulter, and Domhnall Gleeson.

The plot is essentially a survival story under extreme circumstances which  includes mostly unfriendly Indians (with good reason), harrowing mountain terrain and raging rivers and waterfalls, not to mention fierce storms and blizzards plus a really ticked off grizzly bear protecting her cubs.  Whew!  That all that got my attention enough to make my once a year trip to see a movie.  The fact that the drama was filmed in Montana and Canada also was attractive due to my many fishing trips into those mountain environs. So how does it all add up?

The scenery/cinematography was fantastic  A+

Clothing design.  If a period setting of rags and animals skins counts  B

Acting (DeCaprio)  Lets say his moans, groans and screams under duress were quite realistic  B-

Plot:   Survival and Revenge worked here as they did in my love for the book The Count of Monte Cristo B+

Historical Accuracy    Hey the core of the story was true but a lot of legends grew up around it.  And it’s a movie…   C+

Oscar Winning movie    If this movie wins the Oscar  the competition must be really bad. But if you liked Robert Redford in Jeremiah Johnson,  Revenant is  that movie on steroids.

In conclusion   I expected Mrs. T. to close her eyes a lot and she says she did it only once.  Some thing about a misbehaving bear. Overall I'll give it a B!
 

17 comments:

DJan said...

I will be seeing this one once the theaters thin out a bit. The lines are VERY long for this one right now. :-)

Vicki said...

We're hoping to see this next week. Just caught Joy Friday night - good performance by Jennifer Lawrence. I'd hear Leonardo's peformance is Oscar-worthy so I am interested that you said it was oly a C+.

L. D. said...

I appreciate your time grading the movie. Sometimes I find myself waiting until it comes out on the shelves. If it really is very good we watch them many times. We just finished watching The Martian. We will be watching that musical/comedy a few more times.

Michelle said...

Considering going to see this tomorrow. I appreciate your frank reporting!

Far Side of Fifty said...

We will wait...too many germs in the theater. My brother went and he really liked it, and he said "It is really graphic" :)

Carla from The River said...

I have heard a lot about this movie. If Mrs. T only closed her eyes once, I would say WOW!! I have another friend who went to see it, she had her eyes closed for 1/2 the movie. HA!
Thank you for the review.

susan said...

I have to admit I'm not much of a fan of DiCaprio - well, actually I loved his work in gangs of New York and Django Unchained, but I wouldn't go out of my way to see a movie with him as the main attraction. To this day I've never seen Titanic.

Anyway, you reminded me of my favorite grizzly bear movie,
<a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_bear_1989/The Bear</a>, which I'll watch again soon.

Out on the prairie said...

A recent review on the tube said this may mark Decaprios best. Hmmm , I thought he did a good job in Titanic, but had weak roles after that.It is the kind of movie I would enjoy.

Arkansas Patti said...

Loved your refreshing review and chuckled about Leo's acting. I haven't seen it yet but it seems it sounded a bit like "Jeremiah Johnson" from years ago. Think the Mrs. was brave to keep her eyes open.

Cynthia said...

Interesting to read your review. I will pass. Not my kind of movie.

Lin said...

I dunno...looks like Netflix rental for me.

Anvilcloud said...

Everybody seems to love this movie -- up until now anyway -- but I can't say that it appeals to me.

George said...

I've wondered about this movie. Thanks for the review.

Anonymous said...

I don't know about the movie but I enjoyed your review, the most entertaining review of this film yet I've seen yet. What's the word for too intelligent to be called wisecracking? Wit.

Debbie said...

i like leo but this is a movie i would nap through!!! bravo to the mrs. for watching and bravo to you for the great review....it's just not my thing!!!!

Far Side of Fifty said...

I talked to a reenactor Mountain Man today who said a real mountain Man would never run through the snow with the part of the gun open that has the gunpowder in it...as it would all come out or get wet. He also said no one would ever leave an arrow in an animal as they were too hard to make.

Linda said...

I haven't seen it so I appreciate your opinion. Thank you.