By: Conner Williams Editor in Chief
With the recent box office takeover by “Star Wars,” not much else has had a chance to catch more than a glance from moviegoers.
But whether or not the lightsaber fever dies down, Alejandro Inarritu’s “The Revenant” should be on your list of movies to see, and soon. Inarritu also directed “Birdman,” which won the Oscar for best motion picture last year. “The Revenant” has been nominated for 12 Academy Awards.
It’s no surprise that a film that required an actor to survive sub-zero temperatures, freezing rivers, and eat a raw bison liver would have Leonardo DiCaprio (“Titanic,” “The Wolf of Wall Street”) as the lead. DiCaprio’s co-stars also deliver strong performances, including those from Tom Hardy (“Mad Max: Fury Road,” “The Dark Knight Rises) and Domhnall Gleeson (“Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” “Ex Machina”).
DiCaprio has often gone to great extents to give noteworthy, passionate performances, but his role in “The Revenant” takes it to a whole new level.
“The Revenant” is the true story of Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio), a 19th century fur trapper who is viciously mauled by a bear and left for dead by his comrades. Glass must utilize all of his survival skills to rehabilitate his body and withstand the extreme conditions in order to exact his revenge.
Filmed in the heart of the Canadian wilderness (and in Argentina when the snow melted) with nothing but natural light for the cameras, all those involved in the making of the film had to dig deep in order to make this project happen. The crew often times had less than two hours of daylight to work with before the sun would set once again. There were even some instances in which filming almost ceased due to several severe frostbite scares.
DiCaprio gives the performance of a lifetime by doing anything necessary in order to give the film the most authentic feel possible, including refusing to eat a fake bison liver for fear that it would not look real. DiCaprio also stripped naked in below-freezing temperatures for one scene and jumped into an icy river for another.
While not as daring a request as surviving extreme weather conditions, DiCaprio did have to grow and maintain a scraggly, dirty beard for nearly a year, even during breaks in filming.
After four best actor Oscar nominations, this looks to be DiCaprio’s most complete, complex, and sincere role. Many film writers have predicted that “The Revenant” will be the film that brings it home for him. The official nominations will be announced on Jan. 14.
