10 Most Ambitious Westerns Movies Ever Made

There are a number of aspects to The Revenant which marks it as an ambitious and unusual approach to the themes and myths of the great frontiers, though a lot of that was lost upon release with inordinate focus on what seemed to be the extreme lengths Leo was going to to finally secure his elusive first Oscar.

Telling the tale of legendary frontiersman Hugh Glass's (Leonardo DiCaprio) miraculous survival against the odds following a savage bear attack and being left for dead, with some added betrayal to boot, The Revenant could very well have been another snow western. What distinguishes it most is that the world Hugh struggles against at times seems as hostile as the people who populate it, before providing him with transcendental moments of calm and beauty.

That is the most ambitious aspect of The Revenant, aside from its technical marvels (especially its stellar cinematography). The film manages to balance its pace and savagery, of which there's plenty, with truly captivating scenes exploring humanity's relationship with nature. And to top it all off, in the rare moments where there are more people than just Glass on screen, you have exquisite performances and production design to ground the work in a unique sense of verisimilitude.