The Revenant (2015 film)
| The Revenant | |
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Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Alejandro G. Iñárritu |
| Produced by |
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| Screenplay by |
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| Based on | The Revenant by Michael Punke |
| Starring | |
| Music by | |
| Cinematography | Emmanuel Lubezki |
| Edited by | Stephen Mirrione |
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Production companies |
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| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
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Release dates |
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Running time |
156 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $135 million[2] |
| Box office | $74.1 million[3] |
The Revenant is a 2015 American semi-biographical western film set in 1823 Montana and South Dakota, which was inspired by the experiences of frontiersman and fur trapper Hugh Glass. The screenplay was written by Mark L. Smith and Iñárritu, based in part on Michael Punke's The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge, and the film was directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Will Poulter, and Domhnall Gleeson.[4]
Development of the film began in August 2001, when Akiva Goldsman purchased Punke's manuscript, intending to produce the film. The film was originally set to be directed by Park Chan-wook with Samuel L. Jackson in mind to star, and later by John Hillcoat with Christian Bale in negotiations to star. Both directors left the project, and Iñárritu signed on to direct in August 2011. In April 2014, after several delays in production due to other projects, Iñárritu confirmed that he was beginning work on The Revenant and that DiCaprio would play the lead role. It is the second on-screen collaboration of DiCaprio and Tom Hardy (the first was Inception). Principal photography began in October 2014; delays associated with location and crew challenges resulted in its end date's moving from May to August 2015.
The Revenant premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on December 16, 2015 and had a limited release on December 25, 2015, followed by a wide release on January 8, 2016. The film received positive reviews from critics, who praised DiCaprio and Hardy's performances, Iñárritu's direction, and Lubezki's cinematography.
Contents
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Plot[edit]
In 1823, a quasi-military hunting party of trappers and hunters is hunting for pelts in the unsettled wilderness of the Louisiana Purchase, under the command of Captain Andrew Henry. Hostility from a Native American tribe, the Arikara, leads to an ambush of the hunting party. only about one-third of the hunters manage to escape on one of their rafts, salvaging as much as they can while still under fire from the attacking Arikara.
The escaping hunting party is led by Henry, who knows they are still being pursued by the Arikara. The party is further slowed down when Hugh Glass, the expedition's most experienced guide, stumbles across a mother grizzly bear and her cubs, while he is separated from the rest of the party. He is mauled and seriously wounded by the enraged grizzly wildly protecting her cubs. Although Glass eventually gets off a gunshot and kills the bear with his Bowie knife, he is nearly dead himself, and the hunting party can only provide rudimentary medical care. The party takes the wounded Glass with them, but because he is on a makeshift stretcher, he slows their march. Finally one of the party, John Fitzgerald, suggests they kill him, so they can move faster. Henry initially tries to kill Glass himself but is unable to shoot him even though Glass is so wounded that he cannot even speak or move. Instead, Henry offers payment for two men to stay behind with Glass. When two boys (Jim Bridger and Glass' son Hawk) volunteer, Fitzgerald points out the likelihood that those boys and Glass will be killed—leading the Captain to up the reward for a third man to stay. once both Bridger and Hawk offer their share to whoever helps them, Fitzgerald himself volunteers. Henry makes Fitzgerald promise he will stay with Glass until he dies and give him a proper burial. once separated from the main hunting party and alone with Glass, Fitzgerald tries to kill Glass by smothering him, only to have Hawk stumble upon this murder attempt. A struggle ensues, and Fitzgerald kills Hawk. When Bridger returns, Fitzgerald claims he doesn't know where Hawk is and then concocts a story that he saw Arikara down by the river and that they need to abandon Glass.
Henry and the surviving hunting party are the first to return to their dilapidated barracks outpost, where eventually Fitzgerald and Bridger return. Fitzgerald tells Henry that, despite heroic efforts, they could not save Glass or his son from the elements. Fitzgerald receives a cash reward for his fabricated tale from the unsuspecting Henry. Meanwhile, Glass crawls and struggles to walk through the woods for days, building fires and eating roots. He is tracked by hostile Arikara, whose chief is looking for his kidnapped daughter Powaqa. Glass escapes a close encounter with the Arikara by floating down rapids. He then encounters a Pawnee man who allows him a share of meat from a dead bison. The two talk and become friends as they travel together. The man treats Glass' wounds and builds Glass a shelter one night during a blizzard. Glass awakens to find his new friend hanged in a tree by a group of French traders camped nearby. Glass spies on the camp and interrupts the rape of a young native girl, allowing her the opportunity to escape on foot. Glass manages to escape alone by stealing a horse. Afterward, he again escapes hostile Arikaras by running off a cliff, which kills the horse and wounds Glass even further. Glass keeps warm for a night inside the body of the dead horse. Back at the outpost, a desperate lone Frenchman is found carrying Glass' canteen. Most believe the hunter stole it from Hawk not far from camp, so they organize a search party to find Hawk and instead discover Glass alive. Meanwhile, Fitzgerald, knowing that Glass himself must have dropped the canteen, empties the outpost's payroll safe and flees before Glass can arrive and discredit Fitzgerald's false heroic claims.
Glass requests that Henry assign him, and only him, to bring back Fitzgerald dead or alive, and Henry agrees but goes with Glass. When they are briefly separated, Fitzgerald ambushes Henry and kills him. Glass hears gunshots and returns to find Henry dead. Knowing that Fitzgerald is close, Glass sets an ingenious trap for him by placing Henry's dead body upright on a traveling horse, dressed in Glass's coat, while simultaneously hiding himself with a loaded gun under the pack blankets on a companion pack horse trailing directly behind. Fitzgerald takes the bait and shoots "Glass" off the horse from a distance. Fitzgerald approaches and checks the body, only to discover it's that of Henry, not Glass. Glass suddenly drops out of the pack horse blankets to shoot Fitzgerald, hitting him in the shoulder. Fitzgerald flees with Glass in close pursuit, and the two face off on a river bank. Glass fights with and nearly kills Fitzgerald, and pushes the heavily wounded Fitzgerald downstream and into the hands of the approaching Arikara. The Chief, now accompanied by his daughter Powaqa, the girl whom Glass saved in the French camp, scalps and kills Fitzgerald. The Arikara chief and his men ride by Glass, allowing him to live in return for saving Powaqa. As the film ends, Glass continues to have flashbacks about his deceased wife and his deceased son, which have haunted him throughout the film, even after his culminating revenge on Fitzgerald has been completed.
Cast[edit]
- Leonardo DiCaprio as Hugh Glass,[5] the protagonist left for dead by his fellow hunters.
- Tom Hardy as John Fitzgerald,[5] a principal antagonist who self-servingly seeks Glass's death.
- Domhnall Gleeson as Captain Andrew Henry,[6] the hunting party leader.
- Will Poulter as Jim Bridger[5]
- Forrest Goodluck as Hawk, Glass's son
- Paul Anderson as Anderson
- Brendan Fletcher as Fryman
- Kristoffer Joner as Murphy
- Melaw Nakehk'o as Powaqa
- Brad Carter as Johnnie[7]
- Lukas Haas as Jones[8][9]
Production[edit]
Crew[edit]
- Alejandro G. Iñárritu – director, producer, screenwriter
- Arnon Milchan – producer
- David Kanter – producer
- Steve Golin – producer
- Mary Parent – producer
- James W. Skotchdopole – producer
- Keith Redmon – producer
- Mark L. Smith – screenwriter
- Emmanuel Lubezki – cinematographer
- Jack Fisk – production designer[10]
- Jacqueline West – costume designer[11]
- Stephen Mirrione – editor
- Ryuichi Sakamoto, Alva Noto and Bryce Dessner – music composers
Development and financing[edit]
Development of The Revenant began in August 2001, with producer Akiva Goldsman acquiring the rights to Michael Punke's unpublished manuscript for The Revenant.[12] David Rabe had written the film's script.[13] The production was picked up by Park Chan-wook, with Samuel L. Jackson in mind to star. Park later left the project.[14][15] The development stalled until 2010, when Mark L. Smith wrote a new adaptation of the novel for Steve Golin's Anonymous Content. In May 2010, Smith revealed that John Hillcoat was attached to direct the film and that Christian Bale was in negotiations to star.[16] Hillcoat left the project in October 2010.[15] Jean-François Richet was considered to replace him[15] but Alejandro G. Iñárritu signed on to direct in August 2011.[17] Goldsman was also confirmed to be producing with Weed Road Pictures.[17] In November, New Regency Productions joined to produce with Anonymous Content, and 20th Century Fox was confirmed to be distributing the film.[18][19] Days later, Iñárritu stated that he was seeking Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn for the two lead roles.[20]
The film was put on hold in March 2012, as New Regency hired Iñárritu to direct an adaptation of Jennifer Vogel's tome Flim-Flam Man, a non-fiction book about her criminal father.[21] Penn was also under consideration for the lead role in that film.[22] In December, Iñárritu announced that his next film would be Birdman or: (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), a comedy about an actor who once played a famous superhero. Iñarritu won the Oscars for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay and the film won Best Picture. Filming took place in March 2013.[23] Iñárritu was scheduled to begin production on The Revenant after Birdman wrapped.[24]
The film was granted a production budget of $60 million, with $30 million funded by New Regency. Brett Ratner's RatPac-Dune Entertainment also funded the film.[18] Worldview Entertainment was originally set to fund the film[24] but backed out in July 2014 due to the departure of CEO, Christopher Woodrow.[18][25] New Regency approached 20th Century Fox for additional funding, but the company declined, citing the pay-or-play contracts made for both DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, which would require that the actors be paid regardless of whether the film is completed.[25] Annapurna Pictures' Megan Ellison entered negotiations to finance the film shortly after.[18][25]
Filming[edit]
Principal photography for The Revenant began in October 2014. Iñárritu was insistent that computer-generated imagery not be used to enhance the film, stating: "If we ended up in greenscreen with coffee and everybody having a good time, everybody will be happy, but most likely the film would be a piece of shit."[26] A planned two-week break from filming in December was extended to six weeks which forced Tom Hardy to drop out of Suicide Squad. In February 2015, Iñarritu, who shot the film using natural lighting,[27] stated that production would last "until the end of April or May", as the crew is "shooting in such remote far-away locations that, by the time we arrive and have to return, we have already spent 40% of the day".[4][28] Brad Weston, president and CEO of New Regency Pictures, stated that principal photography had been challenging due to the ambitious nature of the film. Ultimately, principal photography wrapped in August 2015.[29]
The movie was filmed in 12 different locations and three different countries: Canada, The United States, and Argentina.[30] [31] Specifically, Canadian filming took place in British Columbia and Alberta including Victoria, Fortress mountain, Calgary, Alberta, and at Mammoth Studios in Burnaby, British Columbia.[30] (While the initial plan was to film entirely in Canada, the weather ended up being too warm, leading the filmmakers to locations at the tip of Argentina with snow on the ground, to shoot the film's ending.[26])
Crew members often complained about difficult shoots, with many quitting or getting fired. Mary Parent was then brought in as a producer.[26] Iñárritu stated that some of the crew members had left the film, explaining that "as a director, if I identify a violin that is out of tune, I have to take that from the orchestra." 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."[32][33]
Iñárritu had stated that he originally wanted to shoot the film chronologically, a process that would have added $7 million to the film's production budget.[34] Iñarritu later confirmed that the film was shot in-sequence,[35] despite Tom Hardy's statement that the film could not be shot chronologically, due to weather conditions.[36]
In July 2015, it was reported that the film's budget had ballooned from the original $60 million to $95 million, and by the time production wrapped it had reached $135 million.[2]
Music[edit]
The musical score for The Revenant was composed by Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto in collaboration with The National's Bryce Dessner and German electronic musician Alva Noto.[37] The score was performed by the 25-piece Berlin-based orchestra known as "stargaze" under conductor André de Ridder.[38][39] A soundtrack album was released digitally on December 25, 2015 and on CD on January 8, 2016. Milan Records will release a vinyl pressing of the soundtrack in April 2016.[39]
Writing for New York magazine on December 28, 2015, Justin Davidson compared Sakamoto's score to the contemporaneous score by Ennio Morricone for The Hateful Eight, stating: "Iñárritu made a completely different choice of composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, who came to film from a career in experimental electronics... Sakamoto's is the more successful score. Both films slouch toward inevitable spasms of bloodshed, with long pensive stretches in between... Sakamoto slowly progresses through glacial chords that build toward a fortissimo horizon... The score doesn't so much follow the action here as lead it, urging the fighters on, even as it registers their single-minded lunacy."[40]
Release[edit]
The film was released in a limited release in the United States on December 25, 2015, making it eligible for the 88th Academy Awards, before being released nationwide on January 8, 2016.[41][42] It is scheduled to open in the UK on January 15, 2016.[43]
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
As of January 12, 2016[update], The Revenant has grossed $50.4 million in North America and $20.5 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $70.8 million, against a budget of $135 million.[44]
In the United States and Canada, The Revenant opened in limited release on December 25, 2015 and over the weekend grossed $474,560 from four theaters in New York City and Los Angeles ($118,640 per screen), finishing twenty-third at the box office.[45] It was the second biggest theater average of 2015 behind the $130,000 four screen debut of Steve Jobs.[46] The film earned a total of $1.6 million from its two week limited run[47] before expanding wide on January 8, 2016 across 3,371 theaters.[48] It made $2.3 million from its early Thursday preview showings from 2,510 theaters.[47] on its opening day, the film earned $14.4 million, ranking first at the box office.[49] The film ended up grossing $38 million in its opening weekend from 3,375 theaters, exceeding initial projections by 70% and finishing second at the box office behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($41.6 million) which was on its fourth weekend of play. It is the director’s biggest opening of all-time and the fourth biggest for DiCaprio and supporting actor Tom Hardy.[50] Critics noted that The Force Awakens had the upper hand considering the fact that it was playing at 781 more theaters (4,137 theaters), how Sunday matinees are family-friendly and since it had the benefit of playing in all North American IMAX theaters.[50] Nevertheless, The Revenant played very balanced across the U.S. and overperformed in all states except the Northeast region,[50] and is among the top openings in the month of January.[51]
Outside North America, the film made $20.5 million from 2,407 screens in just 18 markets, placing behind The Force Awakens at the international box office chart and first among newly released films.[52] In Russia, it dethroned The Force Awakens to take the top spot with $7.5 million from 1,063 screens. While, in Germany ($4.6 million) and Australia ($2.9 million), it debuted at No. 2 both behind The Force Awakens.[52]
Critical response[edit]
The Revenant received positive reviews from critics. on Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 81%, based on 201 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "As starkly beautiful as it is harshly uncompromising, The Revenant uses Leonardo DiCaprio's committed performance as fuel for an absorbing drama that offers punishing challenges—and rich rewards."[53] on Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 77 out of 100, based on 48 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[54] on CinemaScore, audiences gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[55]
Reviewers cited in a CBS News survey of critics praised DiCaprio for his performance, referring to it as an "astonishing testament to his commitment to a role" and as an "anchoring performance of ferocious 200 percent commitment."[56] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called DiCaprio's acting "a virtuoso performance, thrilling in its brute force and silent eloquence."[57] Writing for NY Magazine/Vulture, David Edelstein called the film a "tour de force" and "[b]leak as hell but considerably more beautiful," but noted the film had "traditional masculinity instead of a search for what illuminates man's inhumanity to man." Justin Chang of Variety wrote Iñárritu "increasingly succumbs to the air of grim overdetermination that has marred much of [his] past work" and it was "an imposing vision...but also an inflated and emotionally stunted one."[56]
Stephanie Zacharek writing for TIME magazine[58] gave a positive review to the film stating: "Inarritu may have fashioned The Revenant as the ultimate endurance test, but as Glass, DiCaprio simply endures. He gives the movie a beating heart, offering it up, figuratively speaking, alive and bloody on a platter. It -- he -- is the most visceral effect in the movie: revenge served warm. Bon Appetit."
Accolades[edit]
The Revenant has received numerous award nominations and wins, including winning three Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director and Best Actor – Drama, as well as a nomination for Best Original Score.
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