Revenant, The BD [Blu-ray] [2016]

The Revenant dvd, German Kauf Version; English,German,French, Italian languages, and subtitles - with Dutch subtitles thrown in. 150 minutes, taking into account the film frames lose around 2 minutes per hour on PAL format, so not missing 6 minutes! Certainly longer than the version I saw on tv, and the grizzly bear attack is highly convincing over the TV version I saw. Based on true events. Riveting, stylish, cinematography, and action. Extremely violent. I believe Mr. diCaprio, that he suffered a lot making this film, in the freezing cold waters, harsh environment, and bad weather. Playback UPSCALING is excellent quality. Frau and I were impressed with this version. Bargain sub-£2.00, from reliable third party seller, plus good postage rate. Highly recommended.

The Revenant.Deserving of 2 of the 3 Oscars it won this year, The Revenant is both beautiful to look at, and a technical marvel.Apparently Innaritu is a bit of a 'hard to please' director, but you can't deny the man can shoot the s*** out of anything. What was almost a John Hillcoat movie (my god how ordinary that would've been!) is elevated by the patience and vision of one of the most talented helmers working today. The vistas are stunning, the weather terrifyingly rendered and captured, made visceral by the unrelenting bleakness and savagery of the landscapes. Beautiful death.Dicaprio's performance does deserve praise but one can't help but feel his Oscar was much more deserved for earlier performances. Was this turn better than his Jordan Belfort or Teddy Daniels? I would argue in the negative. Hugh Glass' story, now passed into legend, may be liberally added to here but those additions add motive, emotion and resonance, I would say that a straight-up filming of 'true' events would not carry the same weight or momentum, nor as much satisfaction at the way things pan out. With that in mind I applaud the writing for the changes made, improvements all.Tom Hardy, basically a frontier Mad Max, plays against type as a complete douche, yet even his Fitzgerald is given just enough character depth to understand, if not sympathise, with the choices he makes. He's been to the edge of hell, made it through circumstances that would finish lesser men, and is quite keen to not return to a position where he may be separated from his scalp thank you please. The murders he commits are despicable yet in keeping with the way Hardy plays it, remaining true to the role he exudes desperation, driving himself ever deeper into a cul-de-sac of criminality and deceit. It's the showier of the two main roles and Hardy disappears into the furs of a man slightly unfortunate to be pitted as the 'bad guy' (given the historical facts).The Bear. Oh Lordy. Played without music, without looking away, without a break from the horrific damage inflicted upon the human body by a creature so large and lethal, it's a bravura piece of film. How they did it (ropes, CGI...) without the joins showing is astounding, the nature of the beast perfectly captured. The almost playfulness in the mid-attack behaviour, the utter fierceness of the protective mauling it inflicts, so real that to show this scene to a time traveler from even the 90's would blow their minds. There's nothing 'nature v man' to match it in the history of cinema.I only had one wee niggle. An hour in, Glass encounters a pretty big obstacle. Crawling on his front, mangled leg dragging behind, he comes upon a sizeable cliff. How's he gonna get down....never mind, in the next shot he is down in the river having a drink. What?! How did he get down, don't we deserve to see at least some of that?I'm falling asleep so I'll sum up.A rollicking, scared of bears, entertained, wish every film could be that good 5* all the way.

Very good 😊

I bought this film to test out our new XBox One S which plays 4K Discs.After all the reviews in the press and the Oscar win, I was looking forward to watching the film. It had been described as a 'Must have' disc which would really show off the extra definition of 4K video.We have a Toshiba 4K TV so I slipped the disc into the XBox One S and sat down ready to be amazed..... The film is set in a forest in winter - it's very dark for most of the movie, so a lot of the detail I was expecting is lost in the murk. It's a long film and the scenery doesn't change much and after half an hour you start to wonder what all the fuss is about with 4K films ! (See my additional note at the end of this review )As a film, I must say I enjoyed the stark realism of the old West but my wife thought there was too much gore. I would watch it again but possibly now for a few months. I'm on the lookout for another 4K film to discover the delights of Ultra Hi Def.Additional:I have discovered that I have a problem with out TV. It is Ultra 4K but for it to play 4K BlueRay via an XBox One - the TV has to be able to handle the HDR 10 Format. I thought the Toshiba TV must have been cheap for reason.....

Really good movie with great performances!