[Film Journal] - The Revenant

Films that I admire - 6

If I desperately want to show a movie to someone, there are some movies on my list, of course, this is very volatile and it changes frequently. During my college days, they were Interstellar, Inception and this list goes on, you might even predict some of those. It is almost like listening to songs like how we listen specific set of songs for the period, after that, we move to the next, and it keeps changing based on the variance of mood. In recent times for almost a year, I have been very much fond of the work of Mr.Alanjendro Innaritu, The Revenant. I wrote about this film and have been trying to get close to it around 5,6 years back, but I got a very different perspective then, and now I am admiring this even more than before. I mean, where to even start, the literature kind of genre or Emmanuel’s painting via film camera, or expressional realism in almost every frame possible, I can even go for an hour talking about the film.

Firstly, the film’s depiction of nature simply shook me, in the film, they were like giant beasts. Look at those pines, mountains, animals, and trees. Nature shown in the film camera is bigger than any of the characters in the film, it is out of any morals, unforgiving, and does not care about these things, they will always exist with or without us. Their existence alone symbolically shows that these characters and their fate are uncontrollable by themselves, deterministic, and small compared to that land. In one scene, where the protagonist and antagonist see the same meteor in the sky, it conveys how insignificant they are on a natural scale. This whole sequence establishes that they are not very far away from each other, they are very close and insignificant on a scale of things. I love how “fate” is described in a film, among characters, and events that are unfolding later. Like the swirl-marked steel can, which is brought by a man like the messenger of death, Fitzgerald gave food to that messenger. The story of a film might look simple in terms of plot and characters, which creates classic appeal, but that is what creates more depth by narrative contrast and focus on events that are happening in the film.

Talking about cinematography, I never saw water flowing through a river look that grandeur and hypnotic, nothing more was shown and nothing was added for exaggeration. For instance, the creator puts so much effort into making a frame that shows the time passes via the sun’s beam passes through leaves. Everything that is shown via the lens is simply astonishing. Ryuichi Sakamoto’s shaking soundtrack is much haunting and similar to those shots shown in the film. (”Main theme” and “Final fight” are my favourite ones). Those visuals portrayed the cultural symbols in a grand manner, such as the huge mountain of buffalo skulls, grizzly bears, and horses, all are something make the story more original and demand serious attention to the story.

The Final confrontation and fight between the two main characters are the most realistic ones I ever saw. This quarrel contains all elements, including initial momentum in the fight, emotional arguments, justification over actions, tiredness, anger, and final revelation same in real life. It contains intimacy between both characters, their bodies are desperate to touch their opposing ones. I already talked about my interpretation of poetic justice shown in the film, some years back, which I grabbed earlier, when I am not ready to experience this film fully. There are more things to talk about, but now I have stopped here abruptly and looking forward to experiencing such a film in the future.