‘The Revenant’ Review Roundup: New Leonardo DiCaprio Flick Earns Glowing Reviews

The Revenant, directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, is opening in theaters to overwhelmingly positive reviews from film’s top critics.

In The Revenant, five-time Oscar nominee Leonardo DiCaprio stars as frontiersman Hugh Glass. Inspired by Michael Punke‘s novel of the same name that’s based on a real life story, The Revenant follows Glass’ journey to exact revenge on the men who left him for dead in a wintry no man’s land. Tom Hardy stars as his chief nemesis, fellow hardened frontiersman John Fitzgerald.

The Revenant Reviews

There has been no shortage of praise for The Revenant from critics, who are equally enthralled with Iñárritu’s directing as they are with DiCaprio and Hardy’s performances. Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, who worked with Iñárritu on last year’s Best Motion Picture Oscar winner Birdman, has also been credited with making The Revenant a movie that’s not to be missed.

“And then there’s the issue of whether the Oscar-less DiCaprio will finally get his Academy Award for this role. He deserves it. Glass’s throat is mauled by the bear so he can’t speak, and he spends most of the film alone: DiCaprio is called on to depict the man’s desperation, grief and searing anger almost entirely through his eyes and he does it with remarkable depth, turning Glass’s endurance into a steadfastness both physical and emotional.” – Kate Taylor, Globe and Mail

“The enormously talented Alejandro G. Iñárritu strikes again with this 19th century American fable, one of the most brutally beautiful movies I’ve ever seen. Set in the wintry Great Plains of 1823 and filmed with natural light on magnificently unsullied land and waters in Canada and Argentina, “The Revenant” is a visceral sensation, filled with unforgettable visuals and memorable set pieces. It’s violent and unforgiving. Rarely has the sight (and sound) of an arrow piercing a man’s flesh and almost instantly ending his life seemed so shockingly authentic. Few films have done such a brilliant job of capturing the harshness of the frontier life of nearly two centuries ago.” – Richard Roeper, RichardRoeper.com.

“There is so much to like and admire and study closely [in The Revenant], including DiCaprio’s mature, committed, ruthless and yet empathetic performance. In addition, the technical achievements are remarkable. This includes Emmanuel Lubezki’s raw cinematography, shooting exclusively with natural light, mostly on locations in western Canada during short winter days. Other scenes were filmed in the U.S. and — for the climax after the snow had melted in British Columbia — in southern Argentina.” – Bruce Kirkland, Toronto Sun

“The Revenant is not just a visually arresting, emotionally jolting film, it is an important one. With significant tragedy and thrilling drama, it offers the kind of bold, risky, unconventional filmmaking that America’s movie industry has all but abandoned. A brooding western on an epic scale, it surely will be ranked as one of the great films of this decade.” – Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

The Revenant is currently in wide release.