‘The Revenant’ captures old America reality in all its horror and beauty

For a movie that went through production hell for over a decade, the final product is breathtaking. In fact, it’s not so much a movie as it is a film, as in the art of filmmaking. You could call it an event, or even an experience.

But this isn’t the type of movie experience or event along the lines of “Star Wars” in 1977 or “Titanic” in 1997. It’s more like “2001: A Space Odyssey,” where, after watching it, you have to just sit down and take a breather in order to collect your thoughts. It’s a perfect example of how visual storytelling celebrates movies as an art form.

“The Revenant,” a period drama directed by Oscar-winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu, is a partially true story that’s just as much about the unexplored wilderness of America and all the beauty it holds as the man the story follows.

While exploring the uncharted Missouri Territory wilderness—the Missouri River in modern day Montana and the Dakotas—in 1823, legendary frontiersman and fur trapper Hugh Glass (played Leonardo DiCaprio) sustains injuries from a brutal bear attack shortly after his team is ambushed by Native Americans.

When his hunting team leaves him for dead, Glass must utilize his survival skills to find a way back to civilization to avenge his family. Grief-stricken and fueled by vengeance, Glass treks through the wintry terrain to track down John Fitzgerald (played Tom Hardy), the former confidant who betrayed and abandoned him.

The phenomenal, hard-working and so-committed-it’s-scary cast and the unfiltered, unmatched and unbelievably huge environment are the components that rocket what could have been just another historical drama film into historical filmmaking itself.

First and foremost: Leonardo DiCaprio. This guy is one of the hardest working artists in Hollywood. Not only is he an actor who dives headfirst into every film, going above and beyond to deliver the best performance possible, but a dedicated activist for environmentalism, education, animal rights and child welfare organizations.

But the glamour of the mega star and influential philanthropist is nowhere here. For 90-percent of the 2 hour, 36 minute runtime, he’s dirty, grungy and gritty from head to toe. He dines on raw fish and bison, crawls on all fours and barely manages to utter a complete sentence.

DiCaprio’s performance is one of his best and one of the best of the year, not only because of the dedication and commitment for the role, but because everything the role entails.

If someone spent months in the wilderness, half dead with a sprained ankle, tore-up throat and infection coming at him from every angle, he’d deserve a lot more than an acting trophy. But to spend several months in the middle of nowhere and convincingly act as if you’re dying while riding down river rapids with brute force and chilling silence is certainly worth mentioning as one of the great performances of the decade so far.

The whole cast is amazing, though. Tom Hardy has had an incredible year with just the success of “Mad Max: Fury Road,” but his performance here is so diabolical and so unredeemable that it’s easily the actor’s best in years. In the context of the story, Hardy is obviously the villain because he’s the one who kept trying to kill DiCaprio and eventually left him for dead.

But in the wild with no law but nature’s, his character can be thought of as just looking out for his own survival. In an “it’s you or me” environment, Hardy’s character becomes even more complex. Of course, today we know he did the wrong thing, but as the character develops throughout the film, the audience understands why he became someone who is willing to leave someone behind in the middle of nowhere. He’s the villain, but he’s human. They’re always the best kind.

I don’t think I can get across in words how beautiful and well shot this film is, but I’m going to try my best using some random facts I learned about the production.

• The film was primarily shot in British Columbia with some scenes shot in the U.S. near the Canadian border and others shot in Argentina because the snow didn’t stick around long enough in Canada.
• The film went over budget by millions and overschedule by weeks because it was filmed with natural light. Yes, they could only see and shoot with the sun, moon or fire.
• Anytime the director wanted to shoot at a certain time of day they had about two hours to work with. If it didn’t work, they were done for the day and had to come back 22 hours later to try it again. For the nighttime scenes, they had torches, fire pits or the moon and stars. That’s it.
• Nearly every scene has a shot or two that lasts about a minute without cutting. The longest single shot takes place within the first 15 minutes and lasts about five minutes.
• About half of the transitional shots are landscape shots from a helicopter showing the American/Canadian wilderness for dozens of miles without panning or zooming. Just nature as seen by the naked eye.

It’s brutal, it’s unforgiving and it’s honest. It’s beautiful, it’s mesmerizing and it’s awesome. It’s a difficult watch that will leave you exhausted, but it’s worth every minute.