The Revenant

The Revenant" is set in what is now North Dakota/Montana in the 1820s. (The film fudges a little on its location as it was shot in British Columbia, which has the Rockies versus North Dakota's mountain-less terrain). It's a time period and location seldom explored in movies-a Western in some senses, and definitely not in others.

A band of fur trappers, led by Domnhall Gleeson, find themselves in conflict with the Indigenous people of that land (called by their nickname the "Ree" in the film, they are actually the Sahnish, or Arikara) because of a misunderstanding. As they struggle to make it to a safe place, their scout, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is mauled by a bear and nearly killed. Left in the care of his son (Forrest Goodluck) and two other trappers (Tom Hardy and Will Poulter), DiCaprio is betrayed and left for dead.

The rest of the movie is the story of his unlikely survival and quest for revenge. This is not a film for the faint of heart: it is incredibly violent and brutal, probably too much so. You've been warned.

A lot of the reviews I'm reading think that, if The Revenant (which comes from the French, "one who comes alive as if from the dead") has as its thematic element that nature is brutal and merciless and there are a million ways to die in the West. It's certainly a harsh and unrelenting film. But I think that reading of it misses a major point, and the film bears closer watching.

DiCaprio is attacked by a mother bear because she sees him as a threat to her cubs (legitimately, as he has one in his rifle sights when she attacks.) This bear is not being ruthless, it's being maternal. Caring for one's offspring is a theme running through the film and connects the bear to the humans. After all, DiCaprio keeps himself alive in order to avenge his son who he could not protect, and the Ree war party is trying to find their leader's kidnapped daughter.

And then what follows, really, can be seen as a brutal kind of mercy. Over and over again, DiCaprio faces almost certain death, and is rescued by some kind of natural event.

When the Ree hunting party comes upon him, it is the river that saves him-without it, surely they would have killed him. When he is nearly starving on the riverbank, it is the herd of buffalo that attracts the wolves, and the wolves that attract the Pawnee wanderer, who saves him. And the second time the Ree war party finds him, he unwittingly rides his horse over a cliff-but if he hadn't, if he'd ridden in any other direction, they would certainly have killed him.

Nature, or Creator, saves DiCaprio from things that would kill him by leading him to things that only nearly kill him. It's a severe and bloody kind of mercy, but that's what it is all the same.

Director Alejandro González Iñárritu's constantly moving camera and regular bag of tricks drew my attention for the first half hour or so of the film, then the tension ratcheted up-the half-hour mark is about where the bear attacks-and I mostly stopped noticing.

There are definitely some whip pans that should have been replaced with cuts, but nothing terribly irritating. Not like in "Birdman."

While most of the Native Americans in "The Revenant" are constantly trying to kill the hero, I felt like the film's handling of Native people was largely fair and respectful.

A minor theme in the film is that 99 times out of 100, people will judge you based on what you look like without bothering to get to know you. White people will judge Native people, and vice versa. Sad as that is, I find it to be mostly true.

The quest of the Arikara-to recover a kidnapped daughter-justifies their anger and violence, at least to an extent. They are not just bloodthirsty savages as Native people are often portrayed in Westerns. If anyone is a bloodthirsty savage in this film, it's the nihilistic trapper played by Tom Hardy, who has no respect for God or anyone else. He is clearly the real villain.

In addition, DiCaprio is rescued and helped by an Arikara man, whose family was killed by the Cheyenne. While DiCaprio stays alive only to get revenge, this Indigenous man seems to be at peace, saying that vengeance belongs to Creator. It's a peace you wish DiCaprio could find, but probably never does-even when he has his revenge. Maybe the Cheyenne man was right-maybe DiCaprio is on a fool's quest, trespassing on the Creator's terrain.

The ending of the movie is purposefully ambivalent, but definitely leaves that interpretation available.