3.5 stars. Rated R, for strong gory violence, dramatic intensity, sexual assault and profanity
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 1.8.16
Rarely has the rugged American
West been portrayed with such grim, unforgiving brutality.
Hollywood seems to view the
holiday season as the time for historical sagas of astonishing survival. Unbroken opened on Christmas Day 2014; In the Heart of the Sea occupied
movie theaters during much of this past December. To their company we now add The Revenant, based in part on the gruesome event that defined the life — and
legend — of early 19th century American fur trapper and frontiersman Hugh
Glass.
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| Seasoned frontiersman Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) understands that he can't necessarily trust some of his human companions. He also understands that far more dangerous creatures roam the wilderness ... and none more volatile than an enraged mother bear trying to protect her cubs. |
This incident, and its aftermath,
first hit the big screen in 1971’s Man in the Wilderness, with Richard Harris
starring as “Zachary Bass” (the sort of dumb name-shift that made eyes roll,
back in the day). Author Michael Punke subsequently employed Glass’ experiences
as the backdrop for his fictional 2002 “augmentation” of the trapper’s life, The Revenant; director Alejandro González Iñárritu and co-scripter Mark L.
Smith have based this new film on that novel.
While the bloodthirstier elements
of Glass’ saga have been heightened here (and in Punke’s novel) for greater
melodramatic impact, that isn’t as unreasonable as it might seem. Glass was
guilty of exaggerating his exploits during his own lifetime, so we really
aren’t able to separate fact from fancy ... except with respect to the seminal incident.
As the film begins, Glass
(Leonardo DiCaprio) is guiding a fur-trapping expedition led by Capt. Andrew
Henry (Domhnall Gleeson), commander of the trading outpost Fort Kiowa, located
on the Missouri River in South Dakota. The group is ambushed by an Arikara war
party — once-peaceful Native Americans who, at this point in their history, are
thoroughly fed up with having been repeatedly displaced by white settlers —
that decimates Henry’s company.
The fleeing survivors regroup,
with Henry accepting Glass’ suggestion of the safest — but hardest — route back
to the fort. This decision doesn’t sit well with the outspoken John Fitzgerald
(Tom Hardy), mostly because he neither likes nor trusts Glass. The latter
doesn’t regard Fitzgerald as worthy of concern, which of course enrages our de facto villain even further.
Fitzgerald also is a vicious racist
who despises the presence of Glass’ half-Native teenage son, Hawk (Forrest
Goodluck). Although father and son are devoted to each other, the boy is
withdrawn and fearful: forever traumatized by a childhood event that claimed
his mother’s life (and which we experience, in brief chunks, via flashback).
The remaining trappers also
include young Jim Bridger (Will Poulter), a name that should be familiar to
those who remember their grade-school American history; Bridger would become
one of our foremost mountain men and guides.
