Discussing
Revenge as misdirection in The Revenant

Detractors of The Revenant have dismissed the survival drama as a simplistic tale of revenge, but that ignores the film's attention to mercy.

That's what it is! That's why the snowflake scene made me feel so warm! I've been puzzling over it for weeks now. "Communal" is the perfect word. It's like they're extending their tongues to receive communion wafers.

There's a similar moment in The Hateful Eight. I wonder if Tarantino was going for the same allusion.

In Reply to Elijah Davidson (comment #27756)
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I'll have to watch that moment more closely during my second viewing of Hateful Eight, which I hope will be in 70mm next week. Though I do recall mercy being in even shorter supply overall there (and in much of Tarantino).

Though I haven't seen either recently, I was reminded of "Black Robe" and "The Mission," probably by the wild settings, rough and often brutal behavior and attitude, and yet as you point out in "The Revenant," poignant and necessary moments of grace that are hopefully greater than all the sins.
Is there room for an Oscar for the Bear?
:?)

In Reply to JCarpenter (comment #27758)
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No Oscar for the bear, but only because she'd be beat out by the two dogs who played Hagen in White God.

Hi Josh!

Thank you for the great review. I just saw it, and you articulated my thoughts perfectly. Last week, I heard Filmspotting's top-ten roundtable, and I though you were unfairly ridiculed, by other's projections about Innaritu, even though I hadn't seen it yet. I thought it was just a beautiful film. The brief moments of mercy. Primal, human, and pure. Gorgeous photography, and a balls-out vision to shoot in a way that is so real, so visceral. Blissfully agonizing in its demand of taking a crew wherever it needs to go. I didn't think there was anything showy about the camerawork of the film. Like breath between the trees, just present, observing what happens to these characters, and how they respond. Same goes for the score.

And I think this is one of DiCaprio's best performances.

Keep up the great work, and fighting the good fight!

In Reply to Young-Sun Kim (comment #27761)
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"Breath between the trees." Wish I'd thought of that phrase! Lovely.

Just caught up with this, and one moment that I found striking was DiCaprio's vision in the crumbling church. I saw his fever dreams (mainly) as his theological reckoning with his (assumed) Christian upbringing and the Native American mythology he has been exposed to.

Building on your points, I think this film is also a classic Man vs. Nature narrative. For me, what the church came to represent was a construct and structure of man standing against and succumbing to the elements of nature (or God) until only what is necessary is left. If you think about the core elements of faith, there is a lot you can do away with. What that building was left with is a working bell (a call to all people to the church), a picture of Christ (obvious) and on all the remaining few walls and pillars you have pictures of saints and believers(cloud of witnesses). Most striking, you have his Native American son standing in the middle of it all and DiCaprio falling to his knees in humility and reconciliation. I saw that as the turning point to allow the glimpse of grace we do get at the end (when he resists being the arbiter of revenge).

I saw the film as a man being whittled down to the essentials by God through Nature. In theological terms, this is Glass' recognition that vengeance is not his to deliver and a humbling acknowledgement of his place in relationship to God, who is the righteous Judge.

I literally just saw this a few hours ago, so I have not thought all this through, I could be rowing against the current on this one, but did that scene strike you at all? What did you make of it?

In Reply to Tristram S. (comment #27785)
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Great comment, Tristram. I like your reading, though I'll confess the "vision" sequences didn't grab me as much, just because I felt they leaned a bit too heavily on the work of Terrence Malick. We probably also have a bit of a different reading of Glass' final act. (If we're thinking of the same one, involving what he does with Fitzgerald.) You read it as a "glimpse of grace," and that's probably what the movie intends. But to me it seems more of an instance of Glass playing Pilate, not wanting the blood to be literally on his hands. He knew what was very likely going to happen.