For a story based on true events, life sure put its knee right in the back of Hugh Glass, real life tracker and fur trapper, brilliantly portrayed in body and soul by Leornardo DiCaprio. And I saw what the cast meant when they would say in the promo interviews that the film was very physically and psychologically demanding.
Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, a groundbreaker from Birdman, damn near tortures his cast and the audience in telling the story of Glass’ revenge against the man who took away the one thing he had in life, John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy at his acting supreme). Set in the untamed West of 1823, it is one brutal, badass epic. Bear Grylls ain’t got nothing on this man. But along with this great story, you get to experience the power of cinema unleashed beyond any imagined limitations. Iñárritu and cinematographer Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki shot on locations in Canada and Argentina and the result is so relentlessly raw your eyes struggle to keep up with the level of detail in the realism of the harsh environment that these actors were working in.
