The Revenant

The Gist: A skilled guide and trapper is leading an expedition in the unsettled western territories. When the local Indian tribes attack, the survivors flee, but he's subsequently left for dead after being mauled by a grizzly bear. He'll relentlessly seek revenge.

Best Picture Oscar nominee The Revenant brought Leonardo DiCaprio his long awaited Best (Lead) Actor Oscar, after four previous nominations. Absolutely deserved for this performance.

Costar Tom Hardy was also nominated for a Best Supporting Actor, and is absolutely great, so those who suggested he simply rode DiCaprio's coattails to an Oscar nomination have no idea what they're talking about.

The movie also won Alejandro G. Iñárritu a second consecutive Best Director Oscar (after last year's Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)), making him the third director in history to win back to back directing Academy Awards, the first one since 1950, and the first from a foreign country.*


Out of a total of 12 Oscar nominations, the movie won a third, Best Cinematography, for Emmanuel Lubezki, making him the first cinematographer in history to win three consecutive Academy Awards (after those for Gravity and Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)).

The Bottom Line: The Revenant is a brilliant film, wholeheartedly recommended. Wonderful vistas, spectacular photography and camera work, lots of action and suspense, an unforgettable performance by Leonardo Di Caprio, and a grizzly bear attack scene that has got to be one of the most gruesome and toughest scenes ever directed. A must see indeed.

Grade: 9

* The other two directors to have won back to back directing Oscars are John Ford (in 1940 for The Grapes of Wrath and in 1941 for How Green Was My Valley) and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (in 1949 for A Letter to Three Wives and in 1950 for All About Eve).