The Revenant- Page 3

[Fantod]

Posted: 1/19/16 at 9:03pm

Namo, I would suggest actually watching the movie before trashing it. I have major problems with it, but overall it's worth your time. At the same time, I agree with everything Roscoe said about it. Basically it's a good movie with an ego the size of jupiter. I got the Thin Red Line connections as well, but the movie does not have Malick's earnestness to justify the "poetic" sequences and lacks the formal magnificence of The Thin Red Line.

But Tom Hardy is terrible in it.

[javero]

Posted: 1/19/16 at 9:31pm

It seems that many of you had the same reaction to The Revenant that I had to The English Patient some years ago.  TEP has been a lighting rod for criticism since its controversial huge haul of nominations and wins.  If memory serves, it only nabbed one acting award that went to Juliette Binoche.  Perhaps that bodes well for Tom Hardy whom I had no trouble understanding on screen btw, despite his surveying various accents throughout.

 

 Wouldn't it be amusing if The Revenant were somehow added to the list of most polarizing Best Film Winners in Oscar history?   Despite the critical & commercials success, The English Patient has its share of detractors to this day, including this one.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 1/19/16 at 9:39pm

THE REVENANT's story is just preposterous. The line between plausibility and oh-come-the-f*ck-on was crossed very decisively at one point, where DiCaprio survives just one bit of extreme awfulness too many, and entirely unscathed to boot. I remember thinking that even Buster Keaton had the sense to play this kind of thing for a laugh, but of course, Keaton was a genius.

The story's just ridiculously simple, before it takes the turn to simply ridiculous. DiCaprio's Glass is a tracker helping a group of fur trappers in early 19th wilderness America. His trapping party is attacked by native Americans firing CGI arrows, and a lot of the party suffers special effect death, and what's left of the cast has to make its way back to what passes for civilization severely depleted and empty handed. Glass is mauled by a group of stunt coordinators hiding behind a singularly unconvincing CGI bear and as a result Glass suffers severe prosthetic makeup -- he has to lie there and cough under gallons of fake blood and latex and distressed costume material. A plot contrivance named Fitzgerald, played by Tom Hardy using Heath Ledger's vocal mannerisms from BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, rather sensibly realizes that someone suffering such hellish prosthetic makeup hasn't got long to live (Fitzgerald hasn't gotten a look at the film's running time, evidently) and abandons Glass to two hours of crawling through snow, crawling through bloody snow, encountering native Americans, rescuing damsels in distress (I kid you not) and so on. The film takes a final turn into revenge fantasy in it's final quarter, even managing a final detour in shameless self-righteous message-mongering that just has to be seen to be laughed at.

There's some cool music on the soundtrack (a piece by John Luther Adams called BECOME OCEAN gets some play) and there's no denying the skill of the production, it's certainly all very professional. Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, of TREE OF LIFE, THE NEW WORLD, GRAVITY and other Oscar-winning fame does his requisite splendid work, but well, I just kept feeling like I'd seen it all before -- the gorgeousness doesn't impress or move or overwhelm precisely because it is so clearly designed to impress AND move AND overwhelm, if you know what I mean. And I haven't even mentioned Glass' Native American wife who appears to him in Malickian/Tarkovskyan/RidleyScottian visions and whispers to him in Malickian whispers and adds some sociological import to the proceedings because that's what Native Americans do in films like this.    
 

[Roscoe]

Posted: 1/19/16 at 9:47pm

"If memory serves, it only nabbed one acting award that went to Juliette Binoche."

 

Just the one acting award to the magnificent Juliette Binoche, the one character in that misbegotten horror that inspired anything like interest. THE ENGLISH PATIENT was the Big Winner on Oscar night -- nine awards including Picture and the least deserved Best Director award in Oscar history to Anthony Minghella.

Updated On: 1/19/16 at 09:47 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/19/16 at 9:48pm

^^^ It's like reading the old SPY Magazine.

 

"The story's just ridiculously simple, before it takes the turn to simply ridiculous."  You're dropping hilarious lines like bunny pellets.  

[javero]

Posted: 1/19/16 at 10:44pm

As a rule, I never condemn the tastes of others when it comes to art or politics.  There's a reason that The Revenant appeals to a huge chunk of viewers.  Similarly, I get Donald Trump's appeal despite my utter contempt for him.  A piece of art speaks differently to each observer.  Some observers focus on direction, writing, camera work & mechanical production; others supplement those with an additional set of metrics; and some simply ride their own emotional wave.

 

 The Revenant is not a perfect film arguably.  In fact, Sicario hit more of the marks that make up my set of metrics.  That aside, the USA is a very young nation compared to many others on the planet.  A survival story taking place along our historical frontiers is likely to garner a great deal of interest.  I personally find those stories more accessible than the endless accounts of the maniacal machinations of some monarchy or an on-screen treatise on the impact of 2nd Crusade on the costs of corsets.  The Academy & cinematic soothsayers can continue hand-picking as they see fit.  We consumers vote with our minds, hearts, and wallets.  Those of us who enjoy viewing The Revenant are not some kind of lower life form.  

 

Lastly, filmmakers worldwide ask us to suspend disbelief all the time,e.g. The Martian.   Some claim it's part of movie magic. 

Updated On: 1/19/16 at 10:44 PM

[Roscoe]

Posted: 1/20/16 at 10:05am

"Those of us who enjoy viewing The Revenant are not some kind of lower life form."

No one at any time said or implied or suggested that they were.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/20/16 at 10:33am

I might have implied hork is, but only after he used the long outdated "Something McSomethingson" construction in a reply to me.  And it wasn't lower life form, just an intelligence scale thing.

[javero]

Posted: 1/20/16 at 11:40am

I take it all in stride.  I'm a somewhat nerdy IT guy and failed playwright.  I really appreciate the insights into the technical aspects of movie making and theatre that several of you so readily share.  

[Roscoe]

Posted: 2/5/16 at 8:45am

A link to a handy video with some revealing similarities between the work of one of the giants of world cinema and that Inarritu hack.  Plagiarism, influence, homage -- whatever.  Originality isn't everything, and all, but damn...

https://vimeo.com/153979733