Feb. 19, 2016 the Racquette Editor-in-Chief
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Opinion & Editorial
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Film Review: “The Revenant”
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Rebecca Augustine Staff Writer
Before you go see “The Revenant,” make sure you know, roughly, what it’s about. While this movie was nominated for numerous Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Lead Actor, I found the entire movie to be hard to follow. Praised for its beautiful camera shots, which are quite astonishing, the entire movie was quite up-close to the action and the actors. All the hard work put into perfecting every shot and making it the way it was is absolutely undeniable and commendable. However, these shots are spoiled by more explicit camera work in other movies; “The Revenant” has a conspicuous amount of close-up shots of things that could, or could not, be important or even symbolic to the story. This style is confusing to general audience members because we are conditioned to correlate close-ups as significant to the plot, when it’s really the dialogue that you should pay attention to in this movie. Additionally, this movie probably requires a second watching because a lot of times, the dialogue was sometimes hard to make out. My experience was getting it from all sides. It was problematic from the start because I don’t even like action movies. However, I intellectualized the experience for your entertainment. If you are like me and have a similar opinion that all the fighting can seem pointless in action movies, then you could understand the point of this movie. I might be stretching for some sort of explanation for all the blood and guts, but the movie is very much about Hugh Glass — played by Leonardo DiCaprio — and his fight for
survival. Additional to Leo’s character, he runs into a common goal character: Hikuc, a Pawnee Indian played by Arthur RedCloud, who is more or less extremely against white-man oppression. Their friendship, or should I say partnership, throws the audience a curveball. Glass isn’t against the Native Americans necessarily, considering the fact that he had a Native American wife as well as a son with his wife. But the friendship is unexpected since neither of them know each other. They have a great, and humorous, scene in which both of them try to catch the falling snow with their tongues. Hikuc takes care of Leo’s character and builds him a fort to protect him from a snowstorm, even though Glass seems relatively resistant to the freezing temperatures throughout the movie. After the snowstorm, Glass wakes up to discover the murder of his friend and a camp of white men not too far away. I describe this scene because all the fighting that happens in the movie is visually masterful and might seem prolonged and extreme to the extent that a person might consider the point lost. That’s because the point is lost. Both Glass and Hikuc both lost the purpose of their struggle to survive because both of their families were murdered. Hikuc says “My heart bleeds,” talking about all the hate and killing. Glass says, “I’m not afraid to die anymore, because I already have,” in reference to his dead son. Leonardo DiCaprio does a good job acting in this movie, but he also does some pretty gross things. It would be unfortunate, however, for him to win an Oscar for this particular movie, considering it’s not the most complex acting job.
Overheard at SUNY Potsdam
All quotes are taken from the Overheard at SUNY Potsdam Facebook page.
Person walking by lounge *sees that it’s snowing* *sighs* “Ah, no.” “I love Potsdam, because it’s the one place where you can wake up, look outside and start your day by witnessing hell on earth” Professor: “Pick a country for your group project.” Girl: “Guys, let’s do Barcelona!” Girl in Union looking outside window: “So...Hell has officially frozen over and its official temperature is negative 35.” Girl in Lehman: “Did you just call me an Inuit? Isn’t that like a polar bear?” Guy near Satterlee yelling “I’M DONE! I’M GOING HOME” with his hands in the air. I wish I was you. In Lit: “So can anyone tell me what the closed door means in Charity’s love life?” “That love is not an open door?” The other day in front of Minerva... Guy 1: There are like no pelicans out today, where are they? Guy 2: Yo, true. Carson Lobby: Two students arguing vociferously about whether “hard-working” is a characteristic better attributed to Gryffindor or Hufflepuff. Girl At Tim Horton’s: It tasted like either Trix or Fruity Cocoa Pebbles...wait, what? I mean Fruity Pebbles.
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Corrections from Last Week’s Issue Pg. 1: Joy MacDonald Dorf is Class of 1958 graduate from SUNY Potsdam, while her husband, Richard, is a Clarkson graduate. Together, they have established the Dorf Endowed Director for Applied learning which supports both the director position, as well as programs within it. Pg. 5: Birchbark Bookshop owner Tim Strong still writes, but is no longer working on his novel. Pg. 11: Photo was taken by Katie Daloia