DiCaprio fights off mother bear.
DiCaprio is saved by Hikuc and his horse.
THE REVENANT
By Marlene Ardoin
The Revenant does satisfy the diversity question. The American Indian issues could easily be replaced by the African American issues. The most important question raised is whether self-survival is a good enough reason to take away the rights of others. The American Indians did nothing wrong. The white man just wanted their land and their animals. The settlers lost their own humanity in the process.
In today’s era of the selfie, it is not hard to imagine oneself as the center of the universe, rather than a shared universe.
At some point, Americans need to admit that what settlers did to the American Indians and the African Americans was not worthy of our American ideals. All we need to do is to see things from the perspective of the American Indians/African Americans. What would we have done in their situation? I guess we will keep seeing films like this until we see change in our current society. I am really tired of hearing about unarmed Black men being shot by police and of minorities being the larger part of the prison population.
I am glad that Leonardo DiCaprio is getting the accolades. Apparently, the filming of this movie was really punishing. On his experience filming, DiCaprio stated: “I can name 30 or 40 sequences that were some of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do. Whether it’s going in and out of frozen rivers, or sleeping in animal carcasses, or what I ate on set. [I was] enduring freezing cold and possible hypothermia constantly.” DiCaprio deserves the Oscar just for his endurance.
What stands out in this film is the kindness and humanity of the Indians, and the inhumanity of the settlers. Mexican film director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu could be a bit biased. There are good and bad in all groups of people. However, no one can deny his genius and command of the genre. His 2006 “Babel” and 2010 “Birdman” show that “Revenant” is not just a one trick pony act, as a director. He deserves our respect for the great work that he has produced.
Tom Hardy, who plays John Fitzgerald, a trapper who kills Glass’s (DiCaprio) son Hawk, also suffered a close call to death. He apparently nearly lost his life to scalping, by the Indians. If my memory is correct, it was the settlers who were scalping Indians for cash. (Connecticut and Massachusetts colonial officials had offered bounties initially for the heads of murdered indigenous people and later for only their scalps.) Anyway, if he nearly lost half his scalp, he must have had someone nurse him back to life. Hello!!
This film is inspired by the experiences of frontiersman and fur trapper Hugh Glass in 1823 Montana and South Dakota.
A revenant is a visible ghost or animated corpse that was believed to return from the grave to terrorize the living. That about sums up this film.
3/11/2016 # The Revenant