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The Revenant
A guide to a group of fur trappers embarks on a perilous journey to avenge the man who killed his son and left him for dead after mauled by a bear.
There is a well know truth about Hollywood that there is a pecking order where in studio executives don't care about the right fit for the role but they care about the most commercially viable choice for the role.The revenant is a frontier epic made for 130+ million $.Let that sink in.This type of movies are not made anymore.So this is an anomaly.
There are 3 best things going for this movie - production budget,direction and cinematography. What would you do when you have 130 million $ to shoot a survival tale in the wilderness ? go to pristine land and shoot in natural light and realize each and every moment in the movie to the best possible extent. That's exactly what the director does.Direction is the key because the script onto itself is not very strong.Compare this movie to something like hostiles where in the direction doesn't help elevate the thin story where as Innaritu is too good to not let that happen.Cinematography is linked to production budget. Here is the thing about production budget. Any movie with 100 million budget will have some outstanding technical achievements. So dwelling on those is pointless.
Casting for the most part is okay except for the lead. DiCaprio is miscast in the role and I can see why because of his box office appeal for this type of movies.He seemingly takes on dramas and make them epic but those projects are always anchored by a top director. .And as i said the pecking order in Hollywood makes sure that he gets what he wants(scripts with scope for epic film making and Directors who can deliver).His Oscar win has more to do with the situations surrounding his performance and not his performance.
The script of the movie is very thin. One of the biggest flaws for me even so more than Dicpario's casting is that the audience don't buy that the character has suffered enough. Movies about pain,suffering and loss are not just about gory scenes shots for 100 million dollars.They should pull the heart strings. The time between the moment Dicaprio was left to die and the moment he started walking felt very abrupt and that it came out of nowhere. Every shot in the movie screams 100 million $.In a way the weak story which is void both thematically and emotionally is covered and wrapped in a 100 million $ well shot and directed movie. There is no nuance to it. Traditional twist shot for 100 million $ is still traditional twist.
So all in all Dicaprio casting didn't disappoint because the movie turned in profit.The director didn't let the tech department's efforts go in vein because they all got nominations.A generic story line wrapped in a pretty box.
A guide to a group of fur trappers embarks on a perilous journey to avenge the man who killed his son and left him for dead after mauled by a bear.
There is a well know truth about Hollywood that there is a pecking order where in studio executives don't care about the right fit for the role but they care about the most commercially viable choice for the role.The revenant is a frontier epic made for 130+ million $.Let that sink in.This type of movies are not made anymore.So this is an anomaly.
There are 3 best things going for this movie - production budget,direction and cinematography. What would you do when you have 130 million $ to shoot a survival tale in the wilderness ? go to pristine land and shoot in natural light and realize each and every moment in the movie to the best possible extent. That's exactly what the director does.Direction is the key because the script onto itself is not very strong.Compare this movie to something like hostiles where in the direction doesn't help elevate the thin story where as Innaritu is too good to not let that happen.Cinematography is linked to production budget. Here is the thing about production budget. Any movie with 100 million budget will have some outstanding technical achievements. So dwelling on those is pointless.
Casting for the most part is okay except for the lead. DiCaprio is miscast in the role and I can see why because of his box office appeal for this type of movies.He seemingly takes on dramas and make them epic but those projects are always anchored by a top director. .And as i said the pecking order in Hollywood makes sure that he gets what he wants(scripts with scope for epic film making and Directors who can deliver).His Oscar win has more to do with the situations surrounding his performance and not his performance.
The script of the movie is very thin. One of the biggest flaws for me even so more than Dicpario's casting is that the audience don't buy that the character has suffered enough. Movies about pain,suffering and loss are not just about gory scenes shots for 100 million dollars.They should pull the heart strings. The time between the moment Dicaprio was left to die and the moment he started walking felt very abrupt and that it came out of nowhere. Every shot in the movie screams 100 million $.In a way the weak story which is void both thematically and emotionally is covered and wrapped in a 100 million $ well shot and directed movie. There is no nuance to it. Traditional twist shot for 100 million $ is still traditional twist.
So all in all Dicaprio casting didn't disappoint because the movie turned in profit.The director didn't let the tech department's efforts go in vein because they all got nominations.A generic story line wrapped in a pretty box.