The reality that “inspired” The Revenant is that Hugh Glass, an 1820s fur trader, survived a bear attack and was left for dead by his fellow fur traders but survived and ultimately caught up with his team and forgave them. Alejandro González Iñárritu turned this into a snow-swept and freezing Bear Grylls survival-style epic of revenge against the fur traders who killed his son (in the film) and tried to kill him.
The Hugh Glass of The Revenant variety (Leonardo DiCaprio) is more of a Tarrantino and TV version Daniel Boone super hero than anything resembling reality. He survives the bear attack (a great piece of cinematic special-effects and stunt making), arrow attacks, self-cauterising a neck wound with gunpowder, a broken ankle, extended submersion in freezing water, a night inside a dead horse and starvation amongst other life-threatening adventures.
Look past the pretentious ponderings on life, God and everything else and admire The Revenant for its style, brutality and beauty, and DiCaprio and Tom Hardy (the target of Glass’s revenge) for being as convincingly rugged and as brutal as their environment.
Alas though, at the end of the day, The Revenant, and for that matter the other Oscars nominee Mad Max: Fury Road, is an empty, violent and fairly pointless film.
And don’t get me started on how white DiCaprio is!
