Halfway to Brilliant

WATCHING THE much-awarded film The Revenant is an ordeal, but its director Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s films have such energy and compassion that I hoped the payoff would be worth the stretch. Iñárritu’s early films Amores Perros and 21 Grams rehumanize characters who make bad choices, with an attention to scale that might be described as Napoleonic.

The Revenant is the loosely historical tale of Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio), an early 19th century fur trapper left by his companions for dead after a bear attack, agonizing his way to track his betrayer (Tom Hardy) through some of the most frozen wilderness in cinema. The commitment of DiCaprio and Hardy has been rightly applauded—this is a cold and exhausting way to make a film. And the craft is monumental—arrows seem to land on the audience, the bear attack is terrifying, the camera hardly ever stops moving. But the exploration of the futility of revenge at the heart of this story is confused.

The moving midpoint performs like a one-act play during a pause in hostilities on an insane battleground. Near death, Glass is picked up by a Pawnee man named Hikuc (Arthur Redcloud) who has escaped the slaughter of his village by another tribe and is wandering alone. Hikuc helps to restore Glass’ broken body. Their conversation is simple—Hikuc is trying to find more of his people, giving up the chance at vengeance, because “revenge is in the Creator’s hands.” He’d rather rebuild some semblance of home than pursue the blood of those who harmed him. It’s an amazing scene, ghostly and meditative; the kindest act in The Revenant is one wounded person helping another who in different circumstances might be his oppressor.

If the film had ended here, or had the courage of this character’s convictions, it could have been one of the most powerful explorations of how violence repeats itself unless one party opts for total renunciation. What we get, however, is the opposite. Vengeance is made sacred and eventually Indigenous people are used as instruments of blood-curdling torture and murder.

Thoughtful films exploring trauma and violence do exist (examples include The Secret Life of Words, The Night of the Hunter, Paths of Glory, Revanche, and A Short Film About Killing). But while The Revenant is halfway to being brilliant, and the people who made it surely wanted to embody something more humane, ultimately it can’t decide if “an eye for an eye” is preferable or merely inevitable. Both those choices omit the option to give up violence altogether.