'The Revenant': Film Review - Hollywood Reporter
- 8 years ago
A traditional Old West survival-and-revenge tale assumes the dimensions of a harrowing voyage to the American frontier's heart of darkness in The Revenant.
Set in 1823 in the Rockies, less than two decades after Lewis and Clark led their map-altering, continent-opening expedition through the territory, the story is based on actual people whose real names are used in the film as well as in Michael Punke's 2002 novel, upon which the script is quite accurately described as being "based in part."
Inarritu shares screenplay credit with Mark L. Smith, whose prior creative endeavors lie in the realm of low-budget horror , and the script immediately ups the story's existential ante by deliberately not revealing how long a journey mountain man Hugh Glass might be facing, or whether he has any realistic hope of finding anyplace with a roof over it.
Set in 1823 in the Rockies, less than two decades after Lewis and Clark led their map-altering, continent-opening expedition through the territory, the story is based on actual people whose real names are used in the film as well as in Michael Punke's 2002 novel, upon which the script is quite accurately described as being "based in part."
Inarritu shares screenplay credit with Mark L. Smith, whose prior creative endeavors lie in the realm of low-budget horror , and the script immediately ups the story's existential ante by deliberately not revealing how long a journey mountain man Hugh Glass might be facing, or whether he has any realistic hope of finding anyplace with a roof over it.