The Revenant

Just spent the afternoon watching a movie called The Revenant, featuring a very scruffy looking Leonardo DiCaprio as an early 19th century fur trapper. It is a story of the supernatural power of revenge. A revenant is a visible ghost or an animated corpse devoted to terrorizing the living, and there are multiple death and rebirth images in the movie as DiCaprio is reanimated again and again, not only to simply persevere in the world, but to seek his ultimate goal of revenge for the murder of his son - a goal which can never be satisfied. In this sense, it is also a quest for peace. This is an extremely intense movie of raw violence filmed in violently beautiful, unforgiving locales, many of these in the barren wilds of Canada, Montana and Arizona. The stark and dangerous landscapes, as well as the fearsome beasts and men, mirror the brutal austerity of the spirit of vengeance - the thing that will maul and kill the man who embraces it in his heart. Only mercy can set the captive free.

Revenant is a long movie, but one that sweeps up the viewer in its artful marriage of story and imagery - superbly acted by DiCaprio, who won a Golden Globe for his efforts.