Monday, July 20, 2015

Can “The Revenant” Be a Good Oscar® Contender?

By Jose Alberto Hermosillo
Copyright © 2015 Twenty Century Fox
“The Revenant” is the latest work of the Oscar® winner Mexican helmet Alejandro G. Iñárritu - the question is if this film has the potential to win gold this year - the answer is “yes” and “no.” 

A contender “yes” because it has the quality of so many talented people working on the set. 

“No” because never a survivor movie has won an Oscar® for best picture, unless “The Revenant” can be the exception and make history.

In recent years, survivor movies have been snubbed out of gold, films like: "Life of Pi," "Gravity," "All is Lost" have been compensated on the technical categories, not for acting or best picture. 

To have a positive turnout, "The Revenant" should be listed as a historical time-period drama to fit in the same category of the Oscar® winners: "Dances with Wolves," "Braveheart," and "Gladiator."
Copyright © 2015 Twenty Century Fox

Inspired by real events, “The Revenant” is a visceral and a cinematic experience. 

In this epic adventure of "survival" Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio), after the attack by a bear is abandoned by his hunting team and betrayed by his own people, including John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy). He must fight against the dangers of the wilderness in the hard winter of North America.
 
The free adaptation from the Michael Punke’s novel was made by Mark L. Smith and Alejandro G. Iñárritu. 

Some members of the crew said: “The shooting of this movie was a living hell.” 


How can you aspire to perfection without any sacrifice?
Adriana Barraza in "Babel." Copyright © 2006. Paramount.

In the shooting of “Babel,” Adriana Barraza collapsed in the desert due to the heat exhaustion, the production was stopped for more than six hours. The result was an Oscar® nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her. 


Perhaps, DiCaprio having suffered the extreme cold weather conditions can be an Oscar® hopeful regardless of his silent character.

Emmanuel Lubezki, Photo by Jose A. Hermosillo Copyright © 2015
The trailer exhibits the beautiful and haunting cinematography by the two times Oscar® winner Mexican D.P. Emmanuel ‘El Chivo’ Lubezki (“Gravity,” “Birdman”). 

The way the "Revenant" was shot was similar to the work he did in Terrence Malick’s “The New World.” Emmanuel shoots every frame with natural light, an influence from the “dogma” movement. 

Lubezki may win his third consecutive Oscar® for this movie.


“The Perfect Storm” has been positioned "perfectly" for Iñárritu’s “The Revenant” at the awards season. 

Now, we need to wait and see if the weather conditions, the critics, the Academy members, and the audience can say: “This ‘epic' has what it takes to win the gold this year."
Trailer:
New Regency and 20th Century Fox released the trailer of
THE REVENANT
In theaters limited release December 25th and wide in January 2016!4

DOCUMENTARY:  The Revenant "A World Unseen"

 

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