THE REVENANT ... jawdropping

THE REVENANT, the Oscar-nominated Western blockbuster, has a similar timeframe to the BBC's resplendent costume drama, WAR AND PEACE. The early 19th century worlds they portray might as well be in different universes. Featuring a bruising performance by Leo DiCaprio, THE REVENANT is set in a wintry North American wilderness where white settlers commit barbaric acts against the Native American 'savages' in their quest to plunder the New World of its raw materials. Director Alejandro González Iñárritu and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki have conjured a visually stunning backdrop to a story of survival against incredible odds: Hugh Glass (DiCaprio) literally crawls back to civilisation while painstakingly recovering from a grizzly bear attack. And this is based on true events.

Perhaps the narrative's core - revenge - is no different to a thousand and one Westerns that have preceded it. But what makes it compelling is the gruelling attention to detail. To call the ursine assault 'jaw dropping' would be an understatement as monumental as the trees that stretch to the permanently grey skies. Unlike those John Wayne movies where the 'injuns' were the yelping 'redskins' in the background, the story reveals the relationship between native and settler was far more complicated. Rival tribes are allied to either American or French traders. Glass himself has an Indian wife and son, as mixed race relationships were, despite the lumpen racism, a common aspect of frontier life. Some Indians are less hostile, especially those Glass can communicate with in their own tongue. Others, like the menacing Arikara or 'Ree' tribe are as pitiless in their war against the fur trappers pillaging their ancient lands as the invaders are to them. When their arrows whistle through the air and impale soldiers, the impact is as frenetic as firefights in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN.

THE REVENANT incurred the wrath of The Guardian's Carole Cadwalladr who dismissed it as 'meaningless pain porn.' Her curiously sniffy review was repulsed by the levels of violence, extrapolating the notion of its gratuitous images being likely to inspire the deranged snuff movies produced by Daesh. This preposterous assertion is an insult to the intelligence of millions of moviegoers, myself included. For a start, her summary of the film as "man seeks revenge, man gets revenge" is petty. You could trivialise any film that way. "Large fish eats some bathers." "Alien wants to go home."

Then this: "(THE REVENANT) is, they say, “immersive” film-making at its finest. Though, arguably, not as immersive as putting a camera in a cage and then setting a man on fire. Have you seen that one? Where the man is burned alive? It’s not by González Iñárritu, but Isis." This is an 'objective' film reviewer straying into cloud cuckooland.

In making a film set on the outer limits of Western civilisation in 1823, the director has a duty to depict his subject as honestly as possible, even if this often makes harrowing viewing. But implying a correlation between intense filmmaking and terrorist propaganda is bizarre. It is also reactionary, akin to the American conservatives bleating after a gun massacre, where the finger is pointed at violent computer games, or in Donald Trump's case, mental illness. There are any number of recent films where you suspect media-savvy jihadis would better draw any supposed inspiration. SICARIO featured dismembered humans hanging from a motorway flyover. But that was a pivotal scene in that film, introducing American law enforcement officers to Mexico's gangland horrors. Where would you draw the line with what makes violent scenes acceptable or unacceptable? I would argue that the wholesale massacring of 'baddies' in more traditional 'blockbuster' or 'super-hero' movies is far, far more poisonous than a fur trapper being scalped by vengeful Native Americans: a gruesome act, but one contextualised in history.

Also, there is something called 'suspending disbelief.' Most of us get it. A game of Grand Theft Auto, that can involve shooting police officers dead, is a game. It is enjoyed by millions of gamers across the world every hour of the day. But if any one of them puts the handset down after 'Game Over' and is wracked with guilt and remorse for all the red pixels they've spilled, I would suggest they have deeper psychological issues.

I found THE REVENANT hugely entertaining; because, not despite of, its brutal realism. But get this. A glimpse of CCTV on Crimewatch, where a gang of pissed-up cavemen are using someone's head as a football outside a nightclub, will churn my stomach inside-out.

Realistic movies. Reality. Night and day.