The Revenant

[Alexandro]

Wow. That paragraph about Mission Impossible and Tom Cruise is like The Revenant of hyperbole or whatever.

Haven't seen The Revenant, it looks pretty great. But I recently saw "Letter never sent", the russian film from the guy who made I Am Cuba, which has to be one of The Revenant's major influences. Catch it and see for yourselves.

[Tictacbk]

Is there any response to have to this article besides "uh... okay?" Somebody should probably tell the author that this is what twitter is for, not 1000 word articles.

TL;DR: dude didn't like DiCaprio's performance. And while he claims to not care about how hard it was to make, he might care more than anyone else in the world.

[diggler]

Devin really really really didn't like The Revenant and he will use all the hyperbole it takes to elaborate on it, okay? He did the same with Birdman. I think Inarritu took his lunch money.

This article could've been summed up in one paragraph with a different title: "Studios will embrace any marketing hook that wins them Oscars."

[Jeremy Blackman]

Devin Faraci has been a guest on The X-Files Files a lot. He always has interesting things to say, but something about him rubs me the wrong way. He likes to pick fights with Gamergate people, so I guess he can't be all bad. There's definitely an immaturity about him, though.

[cronopio2]

i liked that piece.

to me, this is more a problem of so few quality mainstream movies being released this year.
i can't believe there's so few movies to talk about with the year basically over.

[Lottery]

Haven't seen The Revenant, it looks pretty great. But I recently saw "Letter never sent", the russian film from the guy who made I Am Cuba, which has to be one of The Revenant's major influences. Catch it and see for yourselves.

Full upload on youtube. Goddamn, it's a very pretty film.

[Gold Trumpet]

Mikhail Kalatozov is extremely influential for today's filmmakers. I Am Cuba is recognizable because of the specific tracking shots that have been referenced in other famous films, but Letter Never Sent is a perfect embodiment of I think what The Revenant will try to be - a film naturalistic to the movement of characters in wilderness and how a horror situation overwhelms all the characters and how the filmmaking perfectly adapts to the madness of their psyche. How Kalatozov pulled off some shots in Letter Never Sent, I don't know, because technology aids filmmakers so much more today, but still, the modern imagination was there in his films.

[03]

spoilers


the bear nest will go down in history as one of those scenes that you hold onto regardless of the way you feel about the film overall. its horrifying. and the way it is executed baffles me.

the rest of the film was ridiculous.
his injuries were not equal to what happened to him nor the way he was acting.
in real life, hugh glass was basically skinned and ridden with maggots and they had to sew bear skin onto him, which was an amazing ironic thing they left out. leo's back looked like a briar patch accident considering bears basically have machetes for claws. irl hugh glass' guts were hanging out. also, he didn't have a son, the only reason he went to get that guy was because they left him for dead. that was it. he was just pissed. anyway, i appreciate the effort they put into it, they pulled off something truly phenomenal that i just had personal disagreements with.

[RegularKarate]

I have to come back to this message board sometimes just for a sanity check.
I had been avoiding this movie because I knew my opinion would divide my friends and I. I hated Birdman so much and as a result got literally screamed at by friends.
I didn't HATE this movie, but holy fucking shit is it being undeservedly praised. If this had been an hour and a half, I would have said "oh, what a pretty movie, cool bear fight, what else is showing?"
But 2 1/2 hours felt like four.

Also, I really like Devin Faraci. Now that The Dissolve is gone, Devin is my only link to reviews that almost always line up with my taste. I know he sometimes goes for the throat when unnecessary, but when he's not doing that or kind of over-praising Marvel movies, he has insight and passion.

[Lottery]

I quite liked the film. Strangely enough, my liking of the film is primarily based on the craft and each scene moment-to-moment. The actual plot and thematic content (while weaved into the film from the start) almost seemed a little perfunctory rather than anything meaningful. Sometimes it felt like the craft/Lubezki's work was the substance- to some degree I didn't mind, because Lubezki did it so damn well and at other times it did feel a bit hollow.

I'm not gonna remember this film as the harrowing story about a man's survival, the loss of his family and his subsequent vengeance- the way it was intended to be seen. I'll remember it as that incredibly pretty, ambitious, visceral and intense film. Because that's what registered with me. And despite its failings, I guess I really did enjoy the experience. Experience films are very important.

Also, while this hit some very sweet spots with the whole violent Western thing, Inarritu doesn't deserve Blood Meridian.

[BB]

Y'all are the best.

Spoilers.

i appreciate the effort they put into it, they pulled off something truly phenomenal that i just had personal disagreements with.

Yup. And here are my disagreements: less dialogue, better dialogue, less music, better music, no Domhnall (a talented comic actor though), no eyebrows kid (Leo already has a kid, why do we need this other kid? why is this character in the film? do we need this canteen with the swirly on it? why can't Leo just stumble all the way back to the fort? wouldn't this be better? frenchman said it was only 13 miles, I digress), less runtime. Also, the frightening scale, the vastness of nature, kinda undermined by his constantly running into people. Imagine Leo's just alone for most of the post-bear times and we cut all the Tom Hardy and eyebrows heading back to camp stuff. I know I shouldn't judge the movie for what it's not, but you dig?

Magic Mike XXL still my #1 of the year. Got a few to catch up on.

[Jeremy Blackman]

I liked this way more than I expected to. Kinda loved it, actually.

SPOILERS

There's a simplicity about it that I appreciated. I think revenge stories are best done that way.

The interpersonal interaction was limited enough, and the general human conflict was pervasive enough, that the gestures of compassion were quite powerful. The conditions and circumstances are so harsh that you're just aching for people to get along, and when it actually happens in those brief moments, it's so moving. This (and less the revenge itself) was my takeaway.

The bear attack was absolutely mindblowing. Yes, I was surprised that his skin wasn't completely shredded off, but I think they did focus more on the pummeling and the bone-breaking. I would certainly say he seemed to be suffering enough after the attack.

I have trouble understanding complaints about the film's length. Perhaps it's because I was in for a punishing experience, but I could have easily taken another 30 minutes. While The Hateful Eight felt even longer than its actual running time, I wasn't particularly aware of the passage of time watching this. There's so much beauty constantly; how could you not want more?

Trying to think of things that actually bothered me, and I have to be honest, I'm mostly coming up empty.

Some of Tom Hardy's lines were a bit on-the-nose. But that makes sense for his character.

It did puzzle me how crowded the vast wilderness seemed to be. I suppose that can be explained, though; this is a high-traffic trade route, and there are a lot of people looking for other people at the moment.

Side note: I think either Leo's complaints have been blown out of proportion, or he's done some clarification, because this is what he's said recently:

"I think certainly the conditions that we had to shoot in were the main thing, the freezing cold temperatures. But everyone that was a part of this movie – including myself – knew from the very onset that we were getting involved in something that was going to be incredibly challenging." (source)

[Jeremy Blackman]

SPOILERS

One more thing. Was just exchanging emails with my dad about this. He was mixed on the movie and wasn't able to get excited about the revenge. My response:

The Revenant undercuts the idea of revenge pretty strongly, doesn't it? His Indian friend tells him that revenge is best left to the creator, which he recalls and repeats before he pushes the still-alive Fitzgerald down the river. The movie even allows Fitzgerald to make the point that revenge won't bring his boy back. I think the title of the movie is a clue — the fact that he "returned" is more important than who died and when.

[RegularKarate]

Honestly, if this had been a straightforward revenge movie, I would have been super into it, but it felt like it was trying to be so goddamn more when it was so goddamn nuthin.
Obviously, this is just a matter of what you like because you were entertained the whole time and I wasn't.

There's so much beauty constantly; how could you not want more?

It's like a beautiful person approaching you at a party and at first you're like "fuck, they're so beautiful, I can't believe they're talking to me!" and then all they do is talk about how beautiful they are and won't fucking shut up about it and then you just want to find a way out.

[Jeremy Blackman]

I think you're twisting my words a bit there (maybe to be funny, which is fair). I meant how could you not want more quantity of beauty (was talking about the running length).

I think there's a lot more than beauty in this film. And I don't feel it was "trying to be so goddamn more." I don't think it overshot or was underambitious. It seems to me that it aimed for something fairly straightforward and accomplished it thoroughly. It's about compassion, vengeance, and perseverance, and that's about it. I don't recall any particular ambitions or pretensions beyond that.

Your reaction is so foreign to my experience. It didn't trigger an ounce of hostility.