Revenant (2015)
This brutally graphic movie reminds me a lot of 1971’s ‘Deliverance’ where the American wilds were the backdrop. Only, this time, it is the freezing sub-zero outdoors, and survival is not only from the harsh, brutal forces of Nature, but danger lurks from barbaric acts of Man.
Set in the turbulent times of America when nature is raped, wildlife is pushed to the brink to extinction and the serene lifestyle of the Native-Americans is disturbed as the Western frontier is conquered, a group of poachers who trade in pelts is attacked by a band of Natives.
Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio), an excellent trekker, is part of the hunting group. He has a half-breed son with a Pawnee woman, who we later discover had died before the beginning of the story.
While fleeing from his attackers, Glass is severely mauled by a bear and is seriously wounded. As he was slowing down the party, in the harsh weather and it seem sure that Glass would die, the Captain appointed (and paid) three of his men to stay back and give him a proper burial when he died. The elder of the men, Fitzgerald, kills Glass’ son and influences the third man to bury Glass alive and return to camp.
What follows next is the story is sheer survival in the wild and the friendship between a white man and a native who comes to his rescue. With his new found vigour, Glass seeks revenge for the murder of his son. Along the way, the viewers would be faced with unbelievable death-defying science-defying scenes. One should not be too bothered to ask how a man, mauled to the brink of death with soil contaminated open wounds and compound fractures survive his ordeal! He springs into health just with pure emotion as his panacea. A convalescing man falls off a cliff with the impact cushioned by the branches of a pine tree but still survives the bone-chilling hypothermia. Did I mention the protagonist floating around in the icy cold river and thrown off a waterfall? It yearns a total rethink of our approach to a polytrauma patient and the need to prevent tetanus and zoonotic diseases.
A recurring theme pops up quite so often as a Native-American prophesies is ‘Revenge is in God’s hand’! That seem to the talking point that interest me the most. In fact, my friend and I were recently involved in a discussion about justice on Earth, whether a man should be subjected to the man-made flawed legal system or leave it to the higher justice when he is confronted with his Maker! Are our policing and penal systems only based on wanting to punish the perpetrator with the concept of ‘eye-for-eye’, ’tit-for-tat’ not to correct? In wanting for a better system, we are stuck this system where a life lost with spur another life to be lost and another to avenge in honour of bloodlines.
This brutally graphic movie reminds me a lot of 1971’s ‘Deliverance’ where the American wilds were the backdrop. Only, this time, it is the freezing sub-zero outdoors, and survival is not only from the harsh, brutal forces of Nature, but danger lurks from barbaric acts of Man.
Set in the turbulent times of America when nature is raped, wildlife is pushed to the brink to extinction and the serene lifestyle of the Native-Americans is disturbed as the Western frontier is conquered, a group of poachers who trade in pelts is attacked by a band of Natives.
Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio), an excellent trekker, is part of the hunting group. He has a half-breed son with a Pawnee woman, who we later discover had died before the beginning of the story.
While fleeing from his attackers, Glass is severely mauled by a bear and is seriously wounded. As he was slowing down the party, in the harsh weather and it seem sure that Glass would die, the Captain appointed (and paid) three of his men to stay back and give him a proper burial when he died. The elder of the men, Fitzgerald, kills Glass’ son and influences the third man to bury Glass alive and return to camp.
What follows next is the story is sheer survival in the wild and the friendship between a white man and a native who comes to his rescue. With his new found vigour, Glass seeks revenge for the murder of his son. Along the way, the viewers would be faced with unbelievable death-defying science-defying scenes. One should not be too bothered to ask how a man, mauled to the brink of death with soil contaminated open wounds and compound fractures survive his ordeal! He springs into health just with pure emotion as his panacea. A convalescing man falls off a cliff with the impact cushioned by the branches of a pine tree but still survives the bone-chilling hypothermia. Did I mention the protagonist floating around in the icy cold river and thrown off a waterfall? It yearns a total rethink of our approach to a polytrauma patient and the need to prevent tetanus and zoonotic diseases.
A recurring theme pops up quite so often as a Native-American prophesies is ‘Revenge is in God’s hand’! That seem to the talking point that interest me the most. In fact, my friend and I were recently involved in a discussion about justice on Earth, whether a man should be subjected to the man-made flawed legal system or leave it to the higher justice when he is confronted with his Maker! Are our policing and penal systems only based on wanting to punish the perpetrator with the concept of ‘eye-for-eye’, ’tit-for-tat’ not to correct? In wanting for a better system, we are stuck this system where a life lost with spur another life to be lost and another to avenge in honour of bloodlines.
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