Before I begin, I would like to tell you two things. One, there are lots of spoilers ahead! Two, if this is your first Tom Hardy movie, I suggest watching "The Drop" or "Lawless" first to soften the blow when you see how horrible his character in this movie is. That's all.
I wanted to write about "The Revenant" this week because the film is striking, not only visibly, but also emotionally and symbolically. As an English major, I am prone to finding tiny things and their larger meanings in books and film. This is what I saw in "The Revenant" and what I learned about the film after seeing it just once.
More than just survival.
The trailers would have you think "The Revenant" is simply about these two guys fighting to survive not only each other, but also the harsh winter conditions they find themselves in.
However, there is a deeper theme present, and it's woven so neatly throughout the film. It's a theme of having to become what one hates in order to survive. My first example of this is when Glass (Leonard DiCaprio) wears a bear skin to protect him from the cold. This isn't just any bear skin. It's from the bear that nearly killed him.
So we go from that, Glass being mauled by the bear, to this:
You can see some of the bear's snout at the bottom of the image. The skin is kept intact, so Glass is truly wearing the entire bear through the movie.
Next, we have Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy). He briefly talks about a time when he was almost scalped, and we see where his scars are laid between clumps of hair. Later, in an attempt to throw Glass off his trail, he murders and scalps another man. Fitzgerald did this to make it seem like the Arikara tribe might have killed the man. In killing the man and scalping him, Fitzgerald had to become something he hated and do something that hurt him in the past if he wanted to try to escape Glass.
More than just living.
By my count, we see Hugh Glass being "buried" at least three or four times. He is literally half-buried in a grave by Fitzgerald. Then, Glass befriends a Native American who covers him with branches during a storm, and later, Glass guts a dead animal and sleeps inside of it to stay warm. Each time, we see Glass physically break out of these places and crawl back onto the earth.
His drive to keep on fighting definitely points to his motivation to survive, but the numerous scenes showing him being resurrected point to a bigger idea: mortality. We wouldn't need survival if there wasn't mortality, and I think that's what the resurrections scenes were aiming to show.
Overall, I thought "The Revenant" was a great film. There is a good amount of violence, and some of it was difficult to watch, but the film as a whole was powerful. Almost immediately, you feel submerged in the snowy, brutal setting with the characters. I felt humbled after watching it because it was an incredible reminder of just how big the world around us is and how unforgiving it can be. A very sobering film, but definitely one to watch (if you can stand the content).
"As long as you can still grab a breath, you fight. You breathe. Keep breathing. When there is a storm, and you stand in front of a tree...If you look at its branches, you swear it will fall. But if you watch the trunk, you will see its stability." -Glass' Wife
