I can sum up The Revenant in one word…Brutal!

Don’t get me wrong, the film is beautifully shot and the haunting vistas of the North American wilderness add to the atmospheric scenes that conjure up images of some distant planet.

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But after two and a half hours you feel as though you have gone through ten rounds with Mike Tyson.

The Revenant is an epic story based on the true life exploits of frontiersman and explorer Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) who was viciously mauled by a Grizzly bear in the early 1800’s and left for dead by his companions. Glass survived the attack and lived to tell the tale.

The film opens with a group of fur trappers packing their hard earned months of animal skins on the banks of the Missouri River under the dramatic backdrop of the Rocky Mountains.

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The day’s routine is broken by an onslaught of Arikara tribesman who attack the trappers in a very realistic choreographed action sequence which puts you in the middle of the action.

The remaining trappers including Hugh Glass make their escape in one of the boats that carries them down the Missouri. Glass suggests that their chances of survival will be better on foot and so abandon the boat.

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The small group including Captain Andrew Henry (Domhnall Gleason), Glass’s Native American son, Hawk (Forrest Goodluck), seasoned trapper Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) and young trapper Bridger (Will Poulter). Straight away you discover much animosity between Glass and Fitzgerald as Fitzgerald resents Glass’s half breed son Hawk as part of the team.

As Glass is the official scout and tracker he is the one who is out looking for food alone in the depths of the forest. It is here that he stumbles across a Mother Grizzly with two young cubs and a vicious attack takes place. This is the jaw dropping moment of the film with an extremely realistic Grizzly attack that is the turning point that drives the movie.

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The group find Glass but thinking that his injuries are too severe, the Captain decides to leave three men (Fitzgerald, Bridger and Glass’s son Hawk) to stay with Glass in his final moments and give him a decent burial. Then they are to meet up with the group making their way to the fort.

What happens from then on is a story of survival, relentless determination and revenge as Glass drags himself from death and to retribution.

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Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Birdman) puts his heart and soul into this film. The landscapes were actually shot in Canada and to keep the snow covered continuity they moved the shoot to Argentina which still had snow-capped mountains. You also feel what DiCaprio’s character feels as the actor physically goes through some really tough scenes.

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DiCaprio hardly speaks through much of the second half of the film due to the bear attack. But his eyes and body language speaks volumes. If it wasn’t enough being torn to shreds by a huge mammal, his attempts to trek the 200 miles back to the fort are fraught with peril.

Throughout this ordeal his character falls in and out of nightmare visions of his dead Pawnee Native American wife who was killed in a massacre by Union soldiers.

The British contingency pull their weight well in this film. Hammersmith boy Tom Hardy is superb as the self-centred Fitzgerald just out for himself. Dublin born Domhnall Gleason shows that he can play tough roles as the man in charge of the expedition and young Will Poulter another Hammersmith born actor shows that he can carry off the American accent and mannerisms with ease.

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Although the film is quite long, the story, the acting and the landscape shots more that make up for fidgeting in your seat.

I know this is a no-brainer but I put my money on DiCaprio finally getting that Oscar and maybe Inarritu earning his second.

How they created the Grizzly Bear attack scene.

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In Cinemas now