The Revenant English Movie

Fur trapper Hugh Glass battles man, beast and nature and survives. Oh yes, also the demons inside his head. Alexandro Gonzalez Innaritu is back to making you feel awed and yet claustrophobic simultaneously. It is a difficult watch, but only because the images are so powerful that you come away haunted. Feb 25, 2016 By Manisha Lakhe

Much publicised as a movie that was shot entirely in natural light, you have no idea how breathtaking the film is going to be when you settle down to watch. It is the frontier in the 1800s and the men whose stories we are about to watch are as brutish as the Indians and other trappers they fought.

Hugh Glass is the best tracker the group has, and he knows the frozen mountains at the back of his hand. And that's when you realise, you are not watching big tough men skinning bears they have killed, you are watching the cold snow and the grey skies lit by a Sun that seems further away that you'd ever imagine. It feels cold.

The relentless cold is at once terrifying and beautiful. And that's when a bear shows up. As you have seen in the trailer, the bear attacks Glass. It is so brutal, you want to throw up. You are horrified at the violence with which the bear returns to attack again and again. It is so rough you stifle a scream even though you know it's special effects. What you are mostly shocked at is how Hugh Glass fights back. He's not going to let the bear maul him. He does not give up and play dead. You know he's going to take time to recover from this attack.

The inclement weather and the constant attack by the savage Indians means that the group has to leave him behind with a couple of people to take care of him.

It's John Fitzgerald - Tom Hardy at his incomprehensible best. He is so guttural you say, 'What?' Doe he always have to sound like Bane? But he's magnificent as usual. And no matter what the motivations for his character to behave the way he does, Tom Hardy becomes the character. You hate him for being Fitzgerald, but you are in awe of the decisions he takes. These are difficult times, and sometimes a man has to weigh everything to survive.

Leonardo Di Caprio is set to win his first Oscar, but only because of the intensity of the role. He's mostly grunts and some strange Indian language that is too fantastical to be real. He's in and out of that dream so often you just wish the film would either end with him dead or something happen because of those dreams.

Despite the fabulous snow vistas in long shots and the scenes with people magically lighted by small fires, Innaritu manages many long tracking shots that follow chases and fights. Technically so flawless you watch stunned. But the story drags on, even though you know this is a revenge story, but the cold and the suffering is so tedious, that by the end of two and a half hours you are numb.