The Revenant (2015) review

Following a vicious attack by a bear, fur-trapper Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio), close to death, is abandoned by his fellow trappers, including John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) - who kills Hugh's son - and 'doctor' Andrew Henry (Domhnall Gleeson); elsewhere on the frontier, Native Americans are not too pleased with their operation and chase after the hunters (it doesn't help that they're using the leader of the Native Americans' daughter as a sex-slave). The cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki is utterly resplendent - it's a movie that almost needs to be experienced in a theater - except the script is significantly less nuanced and bordering on flimsy: it's two hours of showcasing a filthy, mutilated Leo huff and puff, bloodied and sometimes covered with maggots, crawling around from scenic spot to scenic spot, camera pressed into his face (the technique, too often, reminded me of Hard to Be a God). The principal figures are underdeveloped - Hardy the Villain mumbles while Leo the Hero has Malickian Visions of his long-gone wife and dead son (it's hollow spiritualism) - and it ends up being a visceral but bloated (and sometimes tedious) revenge tale: the Leo-in-a-horse-carcass scene is more of an ironic metaphor for the project itself than Iñárritu and co-screenwriter Mark L. Smith probably intended.