Background: I found the following text from a document from my computer as I was going through some old files. I had written this after seeing the movie in 2015, but had zero recollection I've done it. Thought I’d share this here. I cannot claim that I even remember to movie at this point well. Maybe someone could point out if I was on a trip myself or does this make any sense in any part?
The Revenant certainly stands as it is, without any weird metaphor like explanations. Yet I couldn't help stop thinking that maybe Iñárritu had a hidden meaning here as well, considering how Birdman was...
Now I understand that some people will just shout out "NO!" or "What difference does it make?" To me the most interesting pieces of art, no matter the media, are those that can be defined in multiple ways, as long as they're logical and actually make sense.
So here's what I thought. This contains spoilers.
The Revenant is a film about the thought process of a dying man. Everything that the audience sees in the film, not just the "dreamy portions", are product of Glass's subconsciousness trying to show how to let go - how to die in peace. And to reach that peace, Glass had to know what kind of a man he really was. What was depicted on the screen, was Glass's soul searching - the willingness to encounter oneself. His greatest enemy was similar to many others - his selfishness, Fitzgerald.
Opening scene
We see Glass sleeping peacefully with his young son and lady. Glass narrates the scene in the native tongue with whispers.
We don't know anything about Glass's history, except that he was living with the Pawnee indians and had a son with his mother. Later on in the movie the audience finds out something that was never shown on the screen - did Glass really shoot the lieutenant? The reason why I am linking these together is that the premise of the movie is about something that was never shown. Did the soldiers come to burn the Pawnee village, but Glass shot a lieutenant, yet years later is hired to help on an expedition years later? Or did he instead die defending the village? It really doesn't matter if the lieutenant was shot or not in the end.
The last whispers in the narrative are: "As long as you can grab a breath, you fight. You breathe...Keep breathing.
The dreamlike sequence focuses on losing something and holding on as long as you can.
So humor me for a while and agree that Glass was actually killed/mortally wounded before the movie even begins. The trip to Glass's subconsciousness begins. His mind is attempting to make sense of "who am I?"
15-20 years later, the camp attack and escape
Glass looks the same age he did in the opening scene. He's trying to help "his people" with his half-breed son, but chaos ensues as the Native indians attack the camp. There's two different people - whites and the indians. Which is his? His mind is conflicted and trying to make sense of it all. He's been a caucasian since his birth, yet started a life with the Native indians. Maybe his mind is going through the process of life if he wouldn't have died? Could this have happened, would I have been torn eventually by the two cultures?
We see various people around glass with different qualities and emotions. Leadership. Fear. Rage. Panic. They're all part of Glass, manifestations of his mind. Eventually the mind wanders from the chaos to more peaceful place.
Enter the river boat transition. The crew is conflicted if they should stay on the boat or not.
And so is the mind. Should one stay in the momentary sanctuary now that the chaos is behind? No, that wouldn't solve anything in the end. Sooner or later the chaos would be back. So the thought process progresses. It's instead time to face what lies ahead, to finally encounter oneself. Goodbye known comfort zone, the personality the mind thought he was, behind. And so the pelts are buried in the movie, yet the most selfish part of the mind, the greedy Fitzgerald, wants to hold on.
Glass acts aggressively towards his son, saying that the others only see the color of his skin.
His son Hawk symbolizes himself from the Native indian side of his life and Glass from the western one. Hawk is young, yet scarred due to the actions of the Western people. The mind knows what the Western ones have done to the Indians. Yet Hawk is willing to defend Glass, but as a half-breed, Glass knows that a Native could never make any difference.
The characters in the film are surprisingly flat and there aren't that many of them. They all seem to repeat one pattern of behavior, except Glass. We've the Captain Henry, representing leadership and resolve. We've the Fitzgerald, representing selfishness. We've the Bridger, representing altruism and innocence.
Glass heads to the scout the forest alone. Hawk is left behind, left crying. Glass comforts him telling that he is his son.
Tabula Rasa. What am I? Glass is leaving not just the pelts, but all the emotions and the Native Indian experience behind to search for himself in his subconsciousness. He was an expert tracker yet suddenly gets jumped by a bear at very close range? Could the bear be a metaphor for the painful soul searching. Who am I?
Direly wounded
Glass is shred to pieces internally. He hasn’t accepted that he was part of the people whom attacked the Pawnee village and killed him as well. What have I done? Helpless, mortally wounded Glass is being carried forward by various people representing various emotions. He doesn't die, since he cannot. His mind isn't ready yet.
The Revenant
Death, but not dead. Reborn as The Revenant. This symbolizes acceptance.
End scene - Peace
Fitz, beaten, faces Glass and behaves rationally - it is the only way he could survive: "Was the only reason you came after me revenge?"
“The first thing you have to know is yourself. A man who knows himself can step outside himself and watch his own reactions like an observer.”
― Adam Smith, The Money Game
Glass observes the fourth wall, pointing that the observer has been the audience the whole time.
Submitted July 28, 2020 at 04:37AM by artifex28 https://ift.tt/3f3f6z9
