The winter has arrived and has created a scenic yet dangerous landscape in the Oscar nominated movie, The Revenant, who stars Leanardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy. The year is 1823 and major advancements in technology and transportation have not yet been created, which also plays a major role in this wilderness.
Hugh Glass (DiCaprio) struggles to survive and find his way back with his son, Hawk, to safety from the Native Americans, who seek to destroy what was taken away from them. The French also inhabit this place, looking to trade and settle along with the Native Americans, which becomes short lived for reasons you'll find out when you watch the movie. Along with his son, Glass must help his fellow group members get back to their camp, which is the primary area of safety. Glass is eventually mauled by a bear and injured with great severity after trying to hunt to get food for the group. John Fitzgerald (Hardy) is the main antagonist in the story, whose actions make Glass set out to take revenge on him, after abandoning and leaving him to die with his injuries and no supplies.
Fitzgerald even takes Glass's gun, which is his primary defense against animals and other humans alike. This is one of the first movies to portray the Native American's side of the story, when their land was taken and ravaged by Europeans. One of the tribes is missing their daughters and the chief will stop at nothing until he finds his daughter. Glass's determination and willingness to survive is expressed greatly, along with the director capturing the beauty of the landscape, which helps create a sense of the scope of Glass's journey and realism, based on the real Hugh Glass.
Though the movie does not accurately portray some aspects of Glass's real life and true story, it does a great job making it believable and heroic throughout the entire movie, and has the audience rooting for him. When DiCaprio won the Golden Globe and accepted the iconic award, he expressed how indigenous people need to be recognized and how they helped protect their environments from money ravaging corporations. After seeing the movie, I understand that the world not only does not benefit from these larger corporations when they think they do, but they actually tear us apart rather than bring us together as a society. DiCaprio was able to publicly say a message that we should all carry out and the movie shows what happens when these European men were in full war with the Native Americans, which resulted in too many lives lost.
