The Revenant (2015)

The Revenant

Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Written by Mark L. Smith and Alejandro G. Iñárritu,

based in part on the novel by Michael Punke

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson and Will Poulter

What gives us the will to survive?

Most of us—Most people in the modern world have not needed to resort to very much in order to survive. We have been born into a world where a society has already been built for us and we need just minimal instincts to stay alive.

But what happens when you take that all away? How many of us would last?

In Alejandro Iñárritu’s follow up to his ground breaking and Oscar Winning “Birdman”, a film rich in thematic elements, both emotional and psychological, he breaks that all down and opts to showcase only one. The will to survive. “The Revenant” tells the story of Hugh Glass, an American Folklore hero who was less of a legend that one might think.

The internet has an annoying around of trailer reviews for this

and this was the only one I could find....

The scale of this film is so incredibly large, that I am literally struggling to find the words to describe it. While viewing the film in it’s entirety, it’s impossible to tell that the production was delayed so often. It flows seamlessly from one scene to the other thanks to the actors and the beautiful cinematography of Emmanuel Lebezki.

It’s easy to see that this film was shot with no artificial lighting. Each and every shot feels real and unaltered and showcases the beauty that can be created just in nature. I have never felt so strongly that a film should win an award for the cinematography category as much as I do for this one. I will be truly upset if anything, including “The Hateful 8” wins.

Unfortunately for DiCaprio, Tom Hardy outshines the internet favorite in their performances. While Leo’s role was obviously more physically taxing, the transformation of Tom Hardy to play Fitzgerald was complete down to every single nuance and pronunciation of dialogue.

It really is impossible for me to find anymore words without sounding more uneducated than I already do. In the end, it is a film that everyone has to see for themselves. Will everyone like it? I’m not sure. It’s 2 hours and 40 minutes running time doesn’t help it’s case for the casual moviegoer. But for me, it felt as though it went by in an instant. I was in awe from beginning to end with it’s intensity and un apologetic brutality.

Go and see it for yourself.

My Rating: 9/10

As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me (2001)

Directed by Hardy Martins
Written by Bastian Clevé, Hard Martins & Bernd Schwamm, based on the novel by Josef Martin Bauer
Starring Bernhard Bettermann, Anatolly Kotenyov, Michael Mendl and Iris Böhm

At the end of World War II, a German POW doing hard labor in the Soviet Gulag escapes from his Siberian camp to return home. He travels over 8,000 miles, mostly on foot as he is pursued by a Soviet NKVD officer.

Undoubtedly, an impressive story, this film is plagued with budget problems. Made with only 15 Million German Marks (about $8 Million US), the sacrifices made might have seemed small, but they really distracted from the story.

Filmed using the digital cameras that Christopher Nolan still thinks are being used, the image quality looks more like a PBS made for TV movie, rather than an epic German war films. That alone was a enough to lower the overall quality of the film.

The majority of the performances were strong enough to carry the film. However, at a running time of 120 minutes, the plot begins to seem almost as repetitive as the Nazi soldiers days had become. I understand that it is, in fact, the story of a man walking 8,000 miles, but there are ways of telling a survival story without them becoming tedious.

Had the film been shorter, or even told in the past tense like other, similar films, this could have been a great film. The story is definitely there. That is not being contested. The way the filmmakers decided to tell the story just did not do it justice. I had such high hopes for it.

My Rating: 5/10

Against the Sun (2014)

Directed by Brian Falk
Written by Brian Falk and Mark David Keegan
Starring Garret Dillahunt, Tom Felton and Jake Abel

A WWII pilot, bombardier and radioman find themselves adrift in the middle of the pacific ocean after an emergency ocean landing. Losing their food and water rations in the crash as well as essential survival supplies, they struggle to keep their spirits up and hope for a rescue.

To me, survival stories are usually interesting. Especially while being stranded in the middle of the ocean. Based on actual events, this story is truly remarkable. With many similarities to last years much anticipated movie "Unbroken", I suspect the hype surrounding that film pushed this one to the way side.

The writing in this was at times weak and a little cheesy. Specifically in the beginning, they described all of their plans in dialogue, step for step rather than just doing them. As the plot progressed, the writing became less of a distraction and helped the story move along.

While Angelina Jolie's war movie had much better writing and undeniably a much bigger budget, this had a lot of the heart that I feel "Unbroken" was missing. The relationships were formed on screen rather than leaving them to the audience to figure out for themselves.

"Well, now what?"

This movie had it's flaws for sure. But they are easy to overlook once you get invested in the story. You forget the little details and mistakes and just take it in as a big picture. It is a standard survival movie. But the fact that it is based on a true story (and they have pictures during the credits of the real men), that gives it a slight edge over some.

My Rating: 6.5/10