Just the Facts:
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman, Biutiful, Babel, 21 Grams)
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Will Poulter, Domhnall Gleeson
Release Date: Dec. 25 in New York and L.A., early January everywhere else.
The Hook: Leonardo DiCaprio vs. Tom Hardy, Leonardo DiCaprio vs. Bears, man’s humanity toward man vs. man’s instinct for self-preservation.
Talking Points: Ballooning budget, sequential shooting, natural light, “seamless” editing.
This isn’t the first trailer for Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant, but this one has much more plot. In fact you may not even want to watch it. I’ve been sold ever since I heard the Birdman director had gone $30 million over budget, apparently in an attempt to shoot the entire thing sequentially using only natural light using the same seamless, one-shot editing trick as in Birdman. (He also had to move sets to find snow. Thanks, global warming.)
In the film, “inspired by true events,” DiCaprio plays real-life 19th-century frontiersman Hugh Glass (not to be confused with Hugh Jass, Harry Seaward’s cousin), who’s attacked by a bear and betrayed by his buddy, played by Tom Hardy, who had such honest lips. From the looks of it, Glass has to fight every animal in the Old West to get back to his son. “I’m back son. I made you this scimitar out of dead snapping turtles.”
Before Birdman, I wasn’t a huge fan of Iñárritu’s, who seemed like he had a thing for artsy sadness porn. Then he made Birdman, which was goofy, playful, and hilarious. So far, The Revenant looks a lot more bleak than it does playful, but it also looks more badass than it does sadass, which is important. Sad guy grieving over his dead wife? No thanks. Sad guy fighting a bear with his hands? Shut up and take my money! Call me crazy.