The Revenant

Tom Hardy is a son of a bitch.

The greatest Western since “Unforgiven.”

Bleak and beautiful.

Literally breathtaking scenery.

Incredible tension in sight and sound.

So now I’ve seen Leo DiCaprio mauled by a bear.

 

appaloosa

this is a pretty good western if you’re into westerns.  otherwise you ain’t missing much.

what makes it a true western i think is the way they used the scenery as part of the movie.  very john ford-ish.

ed harris is the bad assed, grizzley old law man that just happens to have writing credit on the screenplay that falls for renee zellweger who apparently came to the frontier to hook up with some old grizzled something.  i really have no idea what she’s doing way out there if it ain’t whoring.

she plays the piano at one of the nicer saloons.  not even a dead husband rancher backstory.  nothing.  she’s pointless except ed harris needs someone to fall in love with.

viggo mortenson plays ed harris’s bad assed sidekick who’s always got ed’s back thanks to a twenty gauge, lever action rifle.  and that is pretty bad assed.

jeremy irons plays the bad assed guy with all the money who’s trying to take over the town first with his thugs, then with his money.  just basically to get under ed harris’s skin is what the part of jememy irons plays.  and he plays it well.  i wanted to come across the screen and smack his snide face a couple of times.

so like i said, if you’re into westerns, check it out.  i give it two ten gallon hats out of five.

no country for old men.

No Country for Old Men.

 

Hmph. 

 

That’s what I said as the credits started to roll up the screen. 

 

Hmph. 

 

Javier Bardem is so icy cold he’ll give ya the chills.  It’s like he’d rather put a hole in your head than speak to you.  And in a lot of cases he does.

 

Josh Brolin is excellent as the unlucky son of a bitch who just can’t ignore the little voice in his head that told him to take that poor dying Mexican some water.

 

Tommy Lee Jones is Tommy Lee Jones.

 

This thing really plays like an old school western.  Beautiful, sweeping panoramas of the southwest that john ford would be proud of.  Gorgeous and essential to the story.

 

I kinda wish I hadn’t just bought it though.  It’s one of those I’ll probably never watch again.  If I catch it on HBO or something I might sit and watch for a bit.  Because it is story telling at it’s absolute best.

 

It is every bit as riveting and captivating as There Will Be Blood.  That’s a movie that I probably won’t watch more than once or twice too.  Hard core, gritty drama isn’t exactly my favorite genre. 

 

It’s definitely an instant classic as far as all that goes.  It gets ten dead Mexican drug runners out of ten dead Mexican drug runners.