Amruniel's Ramblings

Watched the last of my three thesis films last night - "The Revenant".

What a movie!

A story-line that could have bored me to death (and quite frankly can be easily told in two sentences without losing anything important) has kept me in its thrall for two-and-a-half hours.

It's mostly down to Leonardo DiCaprio's acting that the movie worked as well as it did for me. I know that there are quite a few people out there who think that while Leo did deserve his Oscar, it shouldn't have been awarded for this movie. I completely disagree. Carrying a film while being alone on screen AND without dialogue for most of the time is an achievement that can't be valued too much. Leo played many iconic roles in his career, but I honestly think that this role is the one that demanded the most of him in terms of pure acting.

Another thing that impressed me deeply are the visuals of the movie. There visual language throughout the whole film is unbelievably impressive. There are so many gems to be found in seemingly "simple" nature takes, there are great shots and stunning camera sequences. It's a joy to watch - and I'm quite convinced that one could enjoy the film without any sound or dialogue as well, the visuals are that good.

I'm impressed and I'm really looking forward to watching it again (well, apart from various really graphic scenes that made me feel a bit nauseous :) ).