THE REVENANT

US, 2015, 156 Minutes, Colour.
Leonardo Di Caprio, Thomas Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson, Will Poulter, Forrest Goodluck.
Directed by Alejandro G. Inarritu.

With the success and awards for this film, we now have a word for more common use than we had before (even if we had known of its existence before): Revenant. As its derivation indicates, there is some kind of coming again, a return, especially from the dead, something of a ghost, something of a living corpse…

And that is what the character, Hugo Glass, turns out to be.

This is a very harrowing film experience, very physical, very visceral, reminding audiences of those endurance films from Deliverance to Man in the Wilderness to 127 Hours and Everest.

The film is the work of Mexican director, Alejandro G. Inarritu, best known for his Oscar-winning Birdman, as well as such films as Amores Perrou, 21 Grams, Babel, Biutiful. He is a master film-maker and this is very evident in The Revenant.

He took his cast out into the wilderness, made them do a Boot Camp for survival techniques, filmed for months in very difficult weather, terrains, great physical discomfort. It pays off in terms of beautiful and savage scenery and locations, hard endurance sequences, tough action and performances. They include the hero being savagely mauled by a bear – which looks so realistic one wonders how it was actually filmed – carrying an injured man across snow-clad forests, climbing mountains, being swirled down rivers and over rapids.

The time is the 1820s with furt trappers roaming the forests, hunting the deer and other animals, skinning them, travelling with the pelts for trade. The Native American Indians are sometimes in pursuit, deadly with their bows and arrows.

It is in this context that we are introduced to Hugo Glass, an intrepid hunter, skilful, with a background of a Native American wife and son, now grown up who is accompanying the expedition, Hawk. There is also Captain Henry, Domnhall Gleeson, a decent man who has to make decisions of leadership under fire, including whether to leave the injured man with a small protective group and to return to camp. We are also introduced to the tough Texan, Fitzgerald, Tom Hardy, with a big mouth, challenging everyone, harsh and insinuating.

But, it is Leonardo Di Caprio as Hugo Glass who commands audience attention, in the details of the hunt, in his advice about escaping from the Indians, in flashbacks with his wife and the threat by soldiers to his son (and her continually appearing in his dreams as a guiding spirit). After he is mauled by the bear, he is carried part of the way but it is too much for the remnant and so he is left with his son, with Fitzgerald, and with an earnest young man, Bridger, Will Poulter.

From the title, it is clear that Hugo Glass will actually survive, otherwise no revenant. After he is abandoned – and that is a grim drama in itself – he begins to crawl, despite his severe wounds, gradually is able to get to his feet, with a branch as a walking stick, and slowly makes his way back to the Fort. This is certainly a journey of endurance for survival. He has various struggles on his way, hunger and thirst, including being tracked by the Indians and having to go down river, finding the camp of French trappers and rescuing an abused Indian woman, beingn found by a lone Pawnee Indian who helps him to eat raw bison meat and gives him a ride on his horse part of the way.

While the endurance gives Glass increasing physical and moral strength, his journey is also one of vengeance, to confront Fitzgerald and what he did to him and his son. And this is what forms the climax of the film, its moments of heroism, shrewdness in Glass’s manoeuvres against Fitzgerald, elements of tragedy, and, finally, the Revenant, sitting alone on blood-soaked snow, Indians passing by, including the woman he rescued, leaving him with his thoughts and his reflections on what he had been through and what he had done.

Not an easy film to sit through, but impressive and impactful of its kind.


1. The impact of the film? Awards?

2. The location photography, the wilds, the American outback, winter, the mountains, forests? The rivers? Lakes? Rapids? The hunting of the animals? The bear and the mauling? A film about endurance? Atmosphere? The atmospheric score? 19th-century North America?

3. The work of the director? Of Leonardo Di Caprio?

4. The title, the ghost returning, the live corpse…, The tone? Hugo Glass, as a character, his wife and son, the hunting expeditions, his knowledge of the wilderness? His experience, left for dead, the steps of survival? The various attacks? His being abandoned? The nature of his journey, suffering, endurance, survival? Physical, psychological, mental, emotional? And the journey of vengeance?

5. Situation, the wilderness, its beauty, ruggedness and savagery? The men on the expedition? The purpose, the hunting, the pelts? The group, their work and skinning the animals? Packing the pelts? The Indians pursuing them, the massacre? The survivors, getting to the boat, those killed on the boat? The others on land, hiding the pelts? Glass and the encounter with the bear, the cubs, the attack, the shot, knifing the bear, the details and close-ups of the mauling, the trampling, the wounds?

6. The introduction, Glass, his wife, his son, the soldiers attacking the Indians, burning the huts, Glass and his shooting at the soldier threatening his son? The memories of the past throughout the film? The dreams, the nightmares, the presence of his wife, guiding spirit? His son being with him, sharing the
expedition, tending to his father, the brutality of his death?

7. The captain, as a person, leader, taking Glass’s advice, tending him and stitching his wounds? The return, leaving orders with Fitzgerald to save Glass? At the Fort, Fitzgerald and Bridger and their return, giving them the fee, Bridger refusing it? With the men and women and the drinking, saying he could not remember his wife’s face? Glass’s return, his reaction? Punishment for Bridger? His care for Glass, the pursuit of Fitzgerald in the snow, their separating, the captain being shot, Glass with the branch, sitting upright on the horse, Fitzgerald shooting him again and then discovering the truth?

8. Glass, his injuries, the visual focus on them? His being transported, too heavy, the mountains? Putting him down, the decision to leave him, Hawk and the bond with his father? Bridger and his care? Fitzgerald, his provocations, from Texas, arguing against the behaviour, the reaction of the group, the promise of money if he stayed, his decision to stay? His wanting Glass dead, the clash with Hawk, stabbing him, dragging him away? Persuading Bridger that there were Indians, that they should leave? The harsh travel through the terrain, the trek, their arrival at the Fort, the interview with the captain, Fitzgerald and his plans?

9. The French, the pelts, the deals with the Indians, guns and horses, their having the Indian girl, treatment of her? The brutality? The arrival of the Indians,
local languages, speaking French?

10. The Indians, their pursuit, the search for the woman, killing the hunting group, tracking them, the confrontation with the French? Glass and his hiding in the cave at the river, his going into the river, firing arrows at him?

11. Glass, his injuries, being left, the wounds, his lack of voice, the ability to crawl, getting the water? Gradually walking, the stick? Hunger, capturing the fish? Eating the bison meat? Later the horse, gouging out the innards of the horse, crawling inside to find warmth and shelter? The Pawnee, surviving the Sioux, sharing the food, talking, the ride with him? Coming to the French, seeing the leader abusing the Indian woman, taking the horse, rescuing the woman? His losing Bridger’s canteen and the French finding it, the French trapper hungry, coming to the Fort, talking about the mysterious man, with the canteen and Bridger’s scratchings on it?

12. Progress through the mountains, through the fields of snow, gradually improving health? But his dreams, with his wife, his son, the soldiers’ attack on the Fort?

13. Finally arriving at the camp, the captain and his enquiry, Fitzgerald escaping, Glass and his desire for vengeance?

14. Going out, tracking Fitzgerald, his running away, the tracks of the horses, separating from the captain, the captain’s death, Glass’s trick with the captain sitting upright? The fight with Fitzgerald, guns, knives, tomahawk? The fall in the snow, desperate, Fitzgerald’s collapse, being dragged into the river, his drowning?

15. Glass, sitting in the snow with the blood, the Indians riding past, with the rescued woman, their letting him be?

16. An exploration of human nature, suffering and endurance, vengeance – and something of its futility, the need for integrity?