The Revenant is about one man’s (Glass) resolve to seek revenge.He is the Revenant,the man who has returned from the Dead. The Dead have no words to speak and the living speak falsehood.The Revenant are the bridge between these two worlds. They have to straddle both these worlds. They must ensure justice for the Dead and retribution for the living. Leonardo DiCaprio who plays the Revenant in the film has very few words to speak in the film.He is a being, shaped and led by the forces of Nature. When he is critically injured in a bear attack,he is left to the care of his
co-expeditioners,Fitzgerald and Jim along with his son of his native Indian wife of the Pawnee tribe.Fitzgerald , to cut the labor short and earn the reward for this guard, murders Glass’s son and abandons Glass in a grave convincing Jim that he is dead.
Fitz’s brutal murder of his son singes Glass’s heart and on the corpse of his son he says ” I’am with You Son “
The visual beauty of the film counteracts the struggle of this lone warrior, for whom it has no aesthetic importance. It is rather an obstacle to overcome to achieve the objective of his life, the retribution that the murderer has to be meted out. But revenge as he remarks at the end is God’s will. DiCaprio’s performance annihilates any presence of the self and echoes the Revenant. The minimal action sequences and the majestic beauty of the scenery seem to point out the stolidity of Nature.The hostility of the expeditioners is in sharp contrast to the imposing presence of Nature which is similar to one and all.The surreal, symbolic imagery and the imaginary conversations of Glass with his wife seem to represent the empathy that is lacking in others. When all across is murder, loot and plunder especially by the invaders, who is the real villain or savage? At one place addressing the French merchant the Pawnee chief says “You took everything”
Glass’s Pawnee wife says “When you look at the branches of a tree in a storm,you feel it is going to fall,but when you look at the trunk you know how strong it is” Her wisdom and love fill Glass with the strength he needs to recover.
Of all the films that I have watched , for the pictorial beauty, and magical direction this films belongs to the class of Dersu
uzala. Watch it for being transported to another realm temporarily.